31, December 2018
President Assad ‘has decisively won’ war in Syria 0
Leading British daily the Guardian says 2018 has ended on a note of triumph for the Syrian government amid the US decision to withdraw troops and a race among Arab states to restore ties with Damascus.
US President Donald Trump has announced a rapid troop withdrawal from Syria. The Guardian said the decision has “ended any potential threat originating from an indefinite American presence inside Syria’s borders.”
Last week, the UAE reopened its embassy in Damascus, which it had closed in 2011. Bahrain followed suit and other countries, including Kuwait, are expected to re-establish ties in the coming year. And the Arab League is reportedly poised to re-admit Syria, seven years after expelling it.
According to the Guardian, these developments come five months after the Syrian army made arguably its most consequential gain against terrorists since the foreign-backed war erupted, when it took control of Dara’a in the southwest.
Dara’a, the birthplace of foreign-backed sedition, had been the last stronghold of militants. Its return to the government fold removed any viable threat against the state, either politically or militarily, near the capital.
“Taken together, the military and diplomatic developments over the past six months leave no room for doubt: Assad has decisively won the conflict,” the Guardian wrote.
After the surrender of militants in the south, two regions had remained outside the government’s control and both were under the protection of foreign powers, namely Turkey in the north and the US in the east.
The two NATO countries had arrangements with Russia about operating in those zones to avoid confrontation, which meant that any further military advances had to be approved by Moscow.
Damascus and its allies saw these areas as sanctuaries for hostile forces that could become entrenched, and whose mandate could change to fighting the state.
“Trump’s sudden decision has ended that problem,” the Guardian said. The Syrian government “no longer faces the threat of an indefinite American presence in eastern Syria,” the paper said.
Last week, residents of Manbij appealed to the Assad government to retake the city near the Turkish border after the US withdrawal and by Friday Syria’s military had arrived at the frontline in the predominantly Arab town west of the Euphrates river.
Under the US protection, YPG militants used to control the city but Turkey is concerned about continued dominance of the Kurdish group near its borders.
Turkish officials have frequently stated that they would welcome a government takeover of YPG-controlled areas if that involved removing the militants from those areas. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey would have “no business in Manbij if the YPG terrorists leave”.
On the diplomatic front, the UAE proposed normalizing ties with Damascus in 2016, but that plan was snubbed by the Trump administration. According to the Guardian, senior Emirati officials began to refloat the idea of restoring ties with Assad earlier this year, encouraging its Saudi and Bahraini allies to do the same.
“The nature of this conflict, then, has changed drastically, with influential Arab countries now using their diplomatic capital to enable the regime to restore control over Syria,” the paper said.
“Countries that once funded the opposition fighting against Assad are working hard to strengthen him in the hope that he becomes less reliant on their rivals,” it added.
Jordan has already reopened its borders with Syria, meaning that Damascus now has trade ties with all its neighbors except Turkey.
“Trump’s withdrawal has ended any potential threat originating from an indefinite American presence inside Syria’s borders. It has also effectively killed off any political challenge to Assad through the political process in Geneva – once an objective of the US presence in the country,” the Guardian wrote.
“Restoration of ties with Arab neighbors will consolidate the military gains made over the past six months,” it added.
According to the Guardian, since the government took over Aleppo in late 2016, few have questioned Assad’s recovery, but until recently many still doubted his ability to re-emerge as a regional player with normalized relations with other countries.
“The past year now suggests that he has a real chance of doing just that. There will be many people in the region – and beyond – willing to help,” the paper said.
Source: Presstv
31, December 2018
Malta rescues 180 refugees as weather deteriorates 0
Malta has pulled 180 refugees to safety from two boats in distress, while 49 more were stuck in limbo at sea as the weather worsened in the Mediterranean.
An army patrol boat picked up 28 refugees from a dinghy some 71 nautical miles southwest of Malta before plucking another 152 people from a wooden boat to the south.
The rescues followed the recovery by Malta Sunday of 69 refugees on a wooden boat which had run into trouble.
Meanwhile, the UN’s refugee agency said time was “running out” for 49 people rescued by NGO boats but denied a safe port in Europe, some of whom have been stranded at sea for over a week.
The NGOs — the German Sea-Eye and Dutch Sea-Watch — called for “an immediate solution for those being held hostage by European States, who are denying them a safe port.”
“With the weather conditions forecast to worsen this evening, a solution must be found by the end of 2018 in order to prevent placing people’s heath at further risk,” they said in a joint statement.
The German-flagged Professor Albrecht Penck ship has 17 refugees from West Africa on board who were rescued on Saturday in international waters off Libya.
At the same time, the Dutch-flagged Sea-Watch 3 has 32 refugees rescued on December 22و including three young children, three unaccompanied adolescents and four women from Nigeria, Libya and Ivory Coast.
While Italy, Malta, Spain and the Netherlands have refused to accept the Sea-Watch 3 refugees, several German cities have offered to take them in.
On Saturdayو a government spokesman said Germany would only accept some of the refugees if other European countries also agreed to do so.
Last week, a newborn baby and his mother were helicoptered from a boat to Malta.
“The negotiations over which country takes them in must happen only once those rescued are brought safety to land,” UNHCR special envoy Vincent Cochetel said.
More than 1,300 refugees have died trying to reach Italy or Malta via the central Mediterranean since the beginning of the year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The Italian interior ministry said Monday that the number of 2018 arrivals in Italy was down over 80 percent compared with 2017 at just 23,370.
The biggest number came from Tunisia, followed by Eritrea, Iraq, Sudan, Pakistan and Nigeria.
In mid-2017, departures from Libya dropped after a controversial deal between Italy and the war-torn North African country.
A campaign against the NGO rescue organizations peaked in June this year with far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini’s “closed-ports” policy aimed at ending all rescue operations, including military ones.
(Source: AFP)