Syria updates - the UN terrorist apologism, US sadism and terror cells activated

Washington's long war of attrition against Syria escalates

Map showing the three border crossings in northern Syria that are being kept open by the Syrian government with conditions for Bab Al Hawa only. (Janes/UN)

Syria has effectively maneuvered the UN into a corner where, potentially, control over the northern and north-western border crossings will be restored in full to the legitimate Syrian government and authorities.

Syria has extended permission for the UN to deliver aid via two Turkish border crossings into northern Syria for three months. These are the Bab Al Salameh and Al Ra’ee border crossings where access will be extended until the 13th of November this year.

The UN has been using a third crossing in Bab Al Hawa to allegedly deliver aid to Idlib in north-west Syria. However, it is well known that this border crossing is under the control of Al Qaeda splinter group - Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS). The crossing provides considerable revenue for the terrorist group. A fact not denied by US-linked think tanks like the Brookings Institute.

In 2018 the UK Charity Commission put out the following warning:

The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, is issuing this alert to warn charities and charitable appeals which are operating in Syria or Turkey, directly or via partners, that there is a risk that a terrorist organisation may financially benefit from any aid passing through the Bab Al-Hawa crossing.

Following recent media reporting, since September 2018, regarding the Bab Al-Hawa border crossing between Turkey and Syria, the Charity Commission (‘the Commission’) is publishing this alert to raise awareness amongst charities – including their trustees, employees and volunteers of the current situation and to remind them of their duties under counter-terrorism legislation and charity law.

This is due to reporting that the crossing is under control of Hay’at Tahir Al-Sham (‘HTS’), an alternative name for the terrorist organisation Al Qa’ida which is proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000 (‘TACT’). HTS was added to the proscribed list in May 2017.

The Syrian government has told the UN that they could continue using the Bab Al Hawa crossing for a further six months but with two conditions that the UN deems “unacceptable”. Why?

The conditions are:

Syria has insisted aid deliveries must be done “in full cooperation and coordination with the government,” that the U.N. would not communicate with “terrorist organizations” and their affiliates, and that the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent would run aid operations.

You may well ask what is actually difficult about these very reasonable conditions for the UN to comply with.

The U.N. responded that the prohibition on communicating with groups considered “terrorist” by the Syrian government would prevent the U.N. and partner organizations from engaging “with relevant state and non-state parties as operationally necessary to carry out safe and unimpeded humanitarian operations.”

HTS is a US, UK proscribed terrorist organisation so it is not only the Syrian government that perceive HTS to be a terrorist group. The UN omits that rather vital information from their statement. As such, would the UN not be willing to try and avoid dealing with HTS rather than finding excuses to continue doing so, knowing full well that HTS exploit the “humanitarian” aid supplies to provide revenue through extortion and the exploitation of Syrian civilians?

Shouldn’t the UN be trying to prevent the expansion of terrorism in Syria and shouldn’t the UN prefer to deal with the internationally recognised government and their preferred organisations?

Stipulating that aid deliveries must be overseen by the Red Cross or Red Crescent is “neither consistent with the independence of the United Nations nor practical,” since those organizations “are not present in north-west Syria,” it [UN] said in a letter.

Why aren’t these organisations present in Idlib? Because it is too dangerous and would put them in conflict with the CIA/MI6 White Helmets - the Al Qaeda auxiliary operating out of Idlib. Why does the UN not address this fact?

UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters:

"We're still working to resolve those obstacles. We're hopeful that we can do so and we do stand ready to resume operations, if those obstacles are overcome,"

That is the same deputy spokesperson who denied that US troops were on the ground in Syria only four months ago when the US was actually increasing their military footprint in Syria:

Finally the UN letter also noted that the Syrian government’s request that aid deliveries should be carried out in “full cooperation and coordination” with Damascus requires “review.”

This is risible - the UN needs to review working with the legitimate Syrian government to provide aid to the Syrian people? Or does it need to refer to the US, UK, Israel and Turkey before taking any such decision? That the UN is entirely politicised and a vassal entity of the US, UK-led cabal should no longer be questioned in my opinion.

It is also worth noting that the BBC and other NATO-aligned media outlets are still calling the HTS terrorists “rebels” or “political opposition” despite all the 12 year evidence to the contrary. [see map at start of the article with “rebels” in legend produced by Janes for the UN and used by the BBC]

Map of the border crossings in 2020

A little background on the border crossings in Syria. In 2014 the UN Security Council authorised four border crossings into Syria for alleged humanitarian aid deliveries.

1. Al Yarubiyah in north-east Syria on the border with Iraq controlled by the Kurdish Contras and their US military partners.

2. Al Ramtha in southern Syria on the border with Jordan that was then under the control of terrorist groups armed and supported by the US alliance including Israel.

3. Bab Al Salameh in northern Syria on the border with Turkey - often used by groups like the White Helmets

4. Bab Al Hawa in Al Qaeda held territory on the border with Turkey

In 2019, Russia and China used their veto at the UNSC to prevent the renewal of Al Yarubiyah and Al Ramtha. In 2020 Russia and China vetoed the renewal of authorisation for Bab Al Salameh. This left Bab Al Hawa as the only UN-approved “aid” crossing into Al Qaeda controlled Syrian territory. Russia continued to limit extensions for Bab Al Hawa until recently.

Washington refuses to renew emergency sanctions waiver for Syrian people

So, while the Syrian government is clearly working towards stability and security - the US has refused to extend the emergency sanctions waiver that came into effect after the double earthquake hit northern Syria on February 6th this year.

Syria’s permanent representative to the UN, Bassam Sabbagh, announced on 9 August:

The decision [to open the border crossings] comes in light of Syria’s keenness on boosting stability, improving the humanitarian and livelihood situation of the Syrians and facilitating the delivery of aid to people in need.

In fact even the EU extended its waiver until February 24, but the US waiver expired on 8 August and will not be renewed despite the fact that the earthquake victims are still very much in need of housing and essential infrastructure that was destroyed in the quake.

In June, US lawmakers introduced the Assad Regime Anti-Normalisation Act of 2023 to penalise countries that might be tempted to help restore services to the areas of Syria affected by twelve years of war and the earthquake devastation.

The US knows full well that these sadistic economic measures will impact the Syrian people long before they have any effect on the named individuals or institutions. This is a deliberate ploy by Washington to deepen the misery for the most vulnerable in Syrian society.

Terrorist factions to reinforce illegal US military base at Al Tanf

At the same time as the US is driving the economic stake into the heart of the Syrian people, it is simultaneously orchestrating the terrorist attacks that have plagued Syrian civilians since the February earthquakes.

Terrorist media is also reporting that the US is creating a terror hub at their base in Al Tanf on the border with Iraq and Jordan. I reported this in one of my previous updates.

Syrian National Army factions are denying that their militants are being transferred to Al Tanf with a promised monthly salary of $ 1000. They also denied that they were dispatched to Libya and Azerbaijan previously.

Recent news suggests that up to 7,500 SNA militants will be sent in 15 batches to Al Tanf as a first stage in the operation. They will be flown in from Erbil airport in Iraq.

This coincides with the sharp increase in terrorist attacks, the majority claimed by ISIS in southern Syria that is also witnessing an attempt by the Syrian authorities to clean up the Captagon-dominated drug trade that is also centered in the southern provinces of Syria.

Journalist killed alongside Syrian Arab Army soldiers in IED explosion in southern Syria

SAMA TV reporter Firas Al Ahmed. Syria

A young SAMA TV reporter, Firas Al Ahmed was killed when their vehicle hit an IED in the road close to Daraa in southern Syria yesterday. Two Syrian Arab Army soldiers died instantly and a third died from his terrible wounds not long after. A Syria News cameraman, Ahmed Al Masalmeh was also injured but rescued from the wreckage by local people.

The media team had just been covering an anti-drug-smuggling mission by Syrian authorities. This demonstrates how this campaign to clean Syria of drug production and smuggling is a high risk one for all concerned.

In his recent interview with Sky News Arabic, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad told the Sky News interviewer (translated from Arabic by Syrian Arab News Agency):

If we are the ones seeking as a state to encourage the drug trafficking in Syria; This means that we, as a state, encouraged the terrorists to come to Syria and carry out destruction and killing, because the result is the same… If we put the people between terrorism on the one hand and drugs on the other, then we are destroying society and the country with our own hands, where is our interest [in doing this]?

The drug trafficking  is present and has not stopped, but when there is war and the weakness of the state, this trade could flourish, and those who bear responsibility in this case are the countries that contributed to creating chaos in Syria, not the Syrian State.

Please refer to my previous investigation into the BBC propaganda documentary that tried to portray Syria as a narco-state with President Assad at the helm.

Neither the BBC nor the UN will report on or raise concerns about the death of young journalist and the wounding of a media cameraman in Syria while battling the drug cartels introduced into Syria by the armed groups and their sponsors in the West. It is a reality that is not fit for purpose for their UK regime-generated narratives.

Meeting Erdogan is not on the cards for President Assad

During the Sky News interview the President was also asked about the potential of a meeting with Turkiye’s President Erdogan in the near future. Assad’s reply was typically succinct and blunt:

A word without preconditions for a meeting means without an agenda, without an agenda means without preparation, without preparation means without results, so why do Erdogan and I meet?! We want to reach a clear goal. Our goal is the Turkish withdrawal from the Syrian lands, while Erdogan’s goal is to legitimize the presence of the Turkish occupation in Syria. Therefore, the meeting cannot take place under Erdogan’s conditions.

That is all for now, more updates soon. Thank you for reading.

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