November 28, 2015 “Information Clearing House” – “RT”
– It all started with French President Francois Hollande, after the
Paris attacks, having the temerity to advance the idea of France working
together with Russia in the same coalition against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh in
Syria.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip “no
excuse” Erdogan thought NATO and Russia by this time would be at each
other’s – Cold War 2.0 – nuclear throats, while Washington had brushed
off Hollande’s idea with a cascade of platitudes and distortions.
And in less than 17 seconds, Prime
Minister Ahmet “I ordered it myself” Davutoglu had authorized Turkey to
shoot down a Russian Su-24 – only a few hours before Hollande met with
President Obama.
So everything seemed to be falling into
place. No chance of a new détente between the Atlanticist powers and
NATO. On the contrary. Erdogan was sure he had sabotaged for good the
Hollande-Putin face-to-face meeting in Moscow.
Not so fast, Sultan.
In Moscow, Hollande and Putin confirmed that France and Russia will not be torn apart. The French leader declared: “What
we agreed, and this is important, is to strike only terrorists and
Daesh and to not strike forces that are fighting terrorism. We will
exchange information about whom to hit and whom not to hit.”
Now that unveils a thrilling horizon. In the “to hit”
section we already find Daesh and Jabhat al-Nusra, a.k.a. al-Qaeda in
Syria, which the Vienna negotiations have already branded as terrorists.
And considering that al-Nusra has gobbled up, co-opted or instrumentalized an array of Salafi outfits, “moderate” or otherwise, it won’t be hard for the Russians to convince the French these are all legitimate targets.
Also significant is that France will increase support to “rebels” fighting Daesh on the ground; that’s code for the YPG Syrian Kurds – one of Erdogan’s nemeses alongside the PKK.
So the Sultan’s risky shoot down
investment is not paying too many dividends. What if Hollande came up
with the same old scratched Obama CD, as in “Assad just go”, while Putin re-emphasized that “the fate of the president of Syria must stay in the hands of the Syrian people”?
Everyone knows this is not the main priority of the Vienna
negotiations. The main priority – as reiterated by the declaration of
war inbuilt in UNSC resolution 2249 – is to smash ISIS/ISIL/Daesh.
And then the clincher, as Putin and
Hollande reached a consensus: there will be a barrage of air strikes
against the fuel tanker truck convoys transporting stolen Syrian oil
across Daesh-controlled territory on the way to Turkey.
There goes in flames the profitable
racket of ‘Sultan’s’ son Bilal Erdogan, a.k.a. ‘Erdogan Mini Me’, one of
three shareholders of marine transportation corporation BMZ.
Send in the Sukhois!
Putin delivered a sarcastic cruise missile as he said it was “theoretically possible”
that Ankara didn’t know about stolen Syrian oil entering Turkish
territory from all points Daesh, but he added that was hard to imagine.
So leaving nothing to the imagination,
one of Russia’s S-400 AA missile defense systems is already on combat
duty at the Hmeymim airbase, and another one is on the way.
The ‘Sultan’ has been warned. From now on Russia has three major priorities:
1. A de facto no-fly zone already
in effect south of the Turkish-Syrian border enforced by the S-400s.
Ankara is so scared it grounded even owls and crows.
2. Already in effect; Russia will
hit – hard – anything that suspiciously moves on every transport
corridor in and out of Turkey. Turkish “humanitarian” convoys –
carrying, what else, weapons – were pulverized in Azaz, which is only
five kilometers from the Turkish border. And truck distribution points
were also bombed near Raqqa.
3. Already in effect; Russia
massively bombing the whole wide region where CIA ops run a cash and
weapon highway to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and “innocent” Turkmen.
Russia started carpet bombing the Jabal Turkmen area immediately after
Russian pilot Lt. Col Oleg Pershin was rescued.
As I detailed here, there is absolutely nothing “innocent” about this whole war theatre crammed with a dozen al-Qaeda-friendly Turkmen militias.
And there’s more.
Cas Mudde
RT
