Posted tagged ‘Russia’

US, Russia reach deal on ceasefire in Syria to begin Feb. 27

February 22, 2016

US, Russia reach deal on ceasefire in Syria to begin Feb. 27 – reports

Published time: 22 Feb, 2016 16:27 Edited time: 22 Feb, 2016 16:31

Source: US, Russia reach deal on ceasefire in Syria to begin Feb. 27 – reports — RT News

© Alaa Al-Faqir
The US and Russia have agreed on a draft plan outlining a cessation of hostilities in Syria to begin on February 27, according to media reports. Islamic State (IS, former ISIS/ISIL) and the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front are excluded from the plan.

The reports come from two unnamed diplomatic sources cited by Reuters.

The sources confirmed an earlier report by Al Jazeera, which said the document has yet to be signed by all the parties to the Syrian conflict – with an obvious exception of IS and Al-Nusra, as they are on the UN Security Council’s list of terrorist organizations.

The draft document calls on all the parties concerned to sign up by midday on February 27 and to cease hostilities by midnight the next day, according to Al Jazeera.

Riad Hijab, a coordinator of the Supreme Negotiations Committee – a group of Syrian opposition backed by Turkey and Saudi Arabia – has also confirmed that a provisional agreement was reached. He added the deal would be “according to international guarantees“.

50 ISIS fighters killed in Syria regime Aleppo advance: monitor

February 21, 2016

50 ISIS fighters killed in Syria regime Aleppo advance: monitor

Source: 50 ISIS fighters killed in Syria regime Aleppo advance: monitor – Al Arabiya English

Residents inspect damage after an airstrike on the rebel held al-Fardous neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria February 18, 2016. (Reuters)

At least 50 ISIS group fighters have been killed in the last 24 hours in an advance by Syrian government forces east of Aleppo city, a monitor said Sunday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighters were killed in clashes as well as strikes by Russian forces that are waging an aerial campaign in support of government troops.

Since Saturday morning, Syrian government forces have taken more than a dozen villages from ISIS jihadists around a stretch of highway that runs east from the northern city of Aleppo to the Kweyris military base.

The advances have consolidated government control over the stretch of highway leading to Kweyris, which they seized in November.

“The army has encircled ISIS in 16 villages south of the road. The regime wants to take these villages to consolidate its position in the east and southeast of the province,” said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

The advances follow a major regime operation in northern Aleppo against rebel forces that has allowed them to virtually surround the opposition-held east of Aleppo city.

US State Secretary Kerry: Provisional agreement in principle reached on Syria truce terms

February 21, 2016

US State Secretary Kerry: ‘Provisional agreement in principle’ reached on Syria truce terms

Source: US State Secretary Kerry: Provisional agreement in principle reached on Syria truce terms – Daily Sabah

AA Photo

Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that a “provisional agreement” has been reached on a cease-fire that could begin in the next few days in Syria’s five-year civil war.

Kerry said he spoke in the morning with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss terms of a cease-fire and the two now must reach out to the parties in the conflict.

He declined to go into the details of the agreement, saying it “is not yet done.” But he said he hoped President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin would talk soon and that after that, implementation could begin.

“The modalities for a cessation of hostilities are now being completed,” Kerry said. “In fact, we are closer to a cease-fire today than we have been. A cessation of hostilities … is possible over the course of these next hours.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry seemed to stop short of Kerry’s announcement. The ministry said Lavrov and Kerry spoke on the phone Sunday for a second day in a row and discussed “the modality and conditions” for a cease-fire in Syria that would exclude groups that the U.N. Security Council considers terrorist organizations.

Fighting has intensified in Syria during recent weeks and an earlier deadline to cease military activities was not observed. The United States, Russia and other world powers agreed Feb. 12 on a deal calling for the ceasing of hostilities within a week, the delivery of urgently needed aid to besieged areas of Syria and a return to peace talks in Geneva.

U.N. envoy Staffan De Mistura halted the latest Syria talks on Feb. 3, because of major differences between the two sides, exacerbated by increased aerial bombings and a wide military offensive by Syrian troops and their allies under the cover of Russian airstrikes. The humanitarian situation has only gotten worse, with an estimated 13.5 million Syrians in need of aid, including 6 million children.

“Peace is better than more war,” Kerry said, standing next to Nasser Judeh, the foreign minister of Jordan, which hosts 635,000 Syrian refugees. “A political solution is better than then a futile attempt to try to find a military one that could result in so many more refugees, so many more jihadists, so much more destruction, and possibly even the complete destruction of Syria itself.”

However, he reiterated the long-time U.S. position that any political solution to the conflict will not work if Syrian President Bashar Assad remains at the helm of the nation. “Make no mistake. The answer to the Syrian civil war will not be found in any military alliance with Assad,” Kerry said. “Let me make that clear.”

He said Russia now has to talk with the Syrian government and Iran, which backs Assad, and the U.S. has to talk with the opposition and members of the International Syria Support Group. He said he knows that not every party will automatically agree to the agreement reached for a ceasefire.

“There is a stark choice for everybody here,” Kerry said.

“I know how much work remains and I don’t know if everyone is going to meet their commitments,” Kerry said. “I can’t vouch for that the United States can’t make certain of that.”

He said enforcement issues still need to be resolved in addition to how any breeches will be addressed.

“These are details that have to be determined if it going to be effective,” Kerry said.

Erdoğan to Obama: Turkey to stop shelling YPG only if YPG, Russia, Assad abide by Munich deal

February 21, 2016

Erdoğan to Obama: Turkey to stop shelling YPG only if YPG, Russia, Assad abide by Munich deal

Deniz Zeyrek – ANKARA

Source: Erdoğan to Obama: Turkey to stop shelling YPG only if YPG, Russia, Assad abide by Munich deal – MIDEAST

The fall of the town of Azez in northern Aleppo province where the Turkish military is pushing ahead with its cross-border artillery shelling campaign against U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia positions in Syria would mean emergence of a new refugee influx and security problem for Turkey, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told his U.S. counterpart, President Barack Obama. The People’s Protection Units (YPG), the militia force of Syria’s Democratic Union Party (PYD), and the Assad forces backed by Russia have been acting in cooperation, Erdoğan told Obama in an 80-minute telephone call on Feb. 19.

“Their goal is not fighting against ISIL [the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant]. If Azez falls, Turkey will face a serious migration and security problem. If [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad, Russia and the YPG abide by the agreement reached in Munich, then artillery fires will be ceased,” Erdoğan responded, when Obama reiterated the U.S. call for the Turkish Armed Forces’ (TSK) shelling of campaign of the YPG to stop.

The Turkish president was referring to a Feb. 12 deal reached by the 17-nation International Syria Support Group (ISSG) in Munich where many of the key actors in the Syrian conflict, including Damascus ally Russia, agreed on a proposed ceasefire and to increase humanitarian access.

Turkey will not let the continued building of a “corridor” south of its borders, Erdoğan said.

“Our artillery fires have this aim and will continue. We will never sit back and watch formation of such an illegitimate entity at our borders,” he told Obama, according Hürriyet reports citing sources from the Turkish president’s office and Turkish diplomatic sources.

As Obama expressed his condolences to Erdoğan over a Feb. 17 suicide car bomb attack that killed 28 people, many of them soldiers, in the heart of the capital city of Ankara, Erdoğan reiterated that they had “no doubt” that the YPG carried out the attack. As of Feb. 19, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), a group that once had links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), claimed responsibility for the bombing.

President asks for unconditional US support against YPG

Calling on the United States to give unconditional support in the fight against Syrian Kurdish militants, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said on Feb. 20 he did not rule out the responsibility of the YPG, calling TAK a “proxy” that claimed the bombing to shield the international reputation of the YPG.

The YPG’s political arm has denied the group was behind the Ankara attack and said Turkey was using the bombing to justify an escalation in fighting in northern Syria.

“The only thing we expect from our U.S. ally is to support Turkey with no ifs or buts,” Davutoğlu told a news conference following a five-hour security meeting with members of his cabinet and other officials.

“If 28 Turkish lives have been claimed through a terrorist attack, we can only expect them to say any threat against Turkey is a threat against them,” he said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavuşoğlu earlier accused the United States of making conflicting statements about the militia group.

Cavuşoğlu has also claimed that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told him the YPG could not be trusted, in what Cavuşoğlu said was a departure from Washington’s official position.

“My friend Kerry said the YPG cannot be trusted,” Cavuşoğlu said at a news conference during a visit to Tbilisi on Feb. 19, referring to call with Kerry that took place on Feb. 18.

“When you look at some statements coming from America, conflicting and confused statements are still coming…. We were glad to hear from John Kerry yesterday that his views on the YPG have partly changed.”

As of Feb. 20, Çavuoğlu held telephone conversations with both Kerry and Saudi Foreign Minister Abdel al-Jubair, Turkish diplomatic sources told Hürriyet Daily News on Feb. 21, without elaborating on content of talks or on who initiated the talks.

February/21/2016

Turkey has the right to conduct operations in Syria, elsewhere to combat terror threats:

February 21, 2016

Turkey has the right to conduct operations in Syria, elsewhere to combat terror threats: Erdoğan

ISTANBUL – Anadolu Agency

Sunday,February 21 2016

Source: Turkey has the right to conduct operations in Syria, elsewhere to combat terror threats: Erdoğan – MIDEAST

AA Photo

AA Photo

Turkey has the right to conduct operations not only in Syria but also any other place in which there are terrorist organizations that target Turkey, said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

“Turkey has every right to conduct operations in Syria and the places where terror organizations are nested with regards to the struggle against the threats that Turkey faces,” Erdoğan said Feb. 20, during the event “UNESCO City of Gastronomy: Gaziantep,” which was organized to celebrate the inclusion of Turkey’s southeastern province of Gaziantep on the list of UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network in the gastronomy category.

Erdoğan’s remarks came one day after he and U.S. President Barack Obama talked on the phone for more than an hour regarding the latest developments in Syria and Turkey.

During his address on Feb. 20, Erdoğan said the situation had “absolutely nothing to do with the sovereignty rights of the states that cannot take control of their territorial integrity.”

“On the contrary, this has to do with the will Turkey shows to protect its sovereignty rights,” he said. “We except attitudes to prevent our country’s right [to self-defense] directly as an initiative against Turkey’s entity – no matter where it comes from.”

Erdoğan said the point Turkey has reached is a place of self-defense and that no one had the right to restrict that right.

“The place where we have come is a point of self-defense. No one can restrict Turkey’s right to self-defense in the face of terror acts that have targeted Turkey; they cannot prevent [Turkey] from using it,” Erdoğan said.

Turkey has been shelling targets belonging to the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the military wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which Turkey sees as a terrorist organization due to its links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in Syria since Feb. 13.

Turkey and the U.S. differ on the designation of the PYD and YPG and relations between the two NATO allies have been tense for more than a month. While Turkey regards the two groups as a terrorist organization, the U.S. sees the PYD and YPG as an important partner in its fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria.

“Turkey will use its right to expand its rules of engagement beyond [responding to] actual attacks against it and to encompass all terror threats, including PYD and Daesh in particular,” Erdoğan said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL.

His remarks came after a suicide bomb attack in the Turkish capital Ankara killed 28 people and wounded 61 others on Feb. 17.

The Turkish government stated that the Ankara attack was carried out jointly by a YPG member – a Syrian national identified as 1992-born Salih Neccar – and PKK members.

The YPG denied the attack, while the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) claimed the attack, saying it was carried out by an operative named Abdülbaki Sönmez.

Erdoğan said that while Turkey was defending itself, they would treat anyone that stands in Turkey’s way as a “terrorist and treat them accordingly.”

“I especially want this to be known this way,” he added.

Erdoğan also lashed out at countries where similar terror attacks have taken place, criticizing them for severely reacting to the attacks when it was their country at stake but “preaching only patience and resoluteness” when it comes to Turkey.

This is “disingenuous,” Erdoğan said.

At least 25 killed, dozens injured in double extremist attack in Homs, Syria (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

February 21, 2016

At least 25 killed, dozens injured in double extremist attack in Homs, Syria (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

Published time: 21 Feb, 2016 07:07 Edited time: 21 Feb, 2016 13:24

Source: At least 25 killed, dozens injured in double extremist attack in Homs, Syria (VIDEO, PHOTOS) — RT News

Dozens of people have been killed and injured in a double bombing attack in Homs, Syria. Talal Barazi, the governor of Homs, said at least 25 people had been killed, but other sources say the death toll was even higher.

The explosions at a traffic light at al-Siteen Street in the al-Zahra neighborhood happened within minutes of each other, witnesses said. One of them may have been triggered by a suicide bomber.

RIA Novosti cites a medical official who estimated a higher casualty number, saying the attack has claimed at least 46 lives and injured as many as 110.

Witnesses said at least one of the two blasts was triggered by a suicide bomber driving a car.

A follow-up bombing after an initial blast is a common terrorist tactic, which allows them to hit first responders, who rush to help victims.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said the bombing was aimed at derailing the ongoing peace talks between Damascus and rebel forces, and called on the UN Security Council to condemn the attack.

Bombings targeting civilians happen regularly in Syria, which has been riven by a five-year armed conflict. Islamic State claimed responsibility for a bombing in Homs last month, which killed at least 24 people. Another attack in December claimed 32 lives.

EU won’t go to war against ISIS in Libya uninvited

February 21, 2016

EU won’t go to war against ISIS in Libya uninvited – Mogherini

Published time: 21 Feb, 2016 11:40

Source: EU won’t go to war against ISIS in Libya uninvited – Mogherini — RT News

© Goran Tomasevic
he EU will not intervene against the terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Libya if it receives an official invitation from a legitimate government of the country, the union’s top diplomat said.

“Defeating Daesh effectively can only happen through a legitimate Libyan government in charge of its own security,” Frederica Mogherini told Journal du Dimanche in an interview published on Sunday.

Mogherini called Islamic State by the Arabic language acronym of the organization. IS has been gaining ground in Libya, seizing the city of Sirte and advancing on the oil-rich regions in the east of the country, which remains split between rival groups in the wake of the toppling of its leader Muammar Gaddafi by a NATO-backed uprising in 2011.

The UN has spent months trying to negotiate a unified government, which would be supported by all major power centers including the Islamist militia alliance Libya Dawn, which currently controls the capital, Tripoli.

“We have supported efforts to create a national unity government for months,” Mogherini said. “If we want to help them, we should trust them because they know their country better than we do.”

The internationally recognized parliament of Libya is to vote on Tuesday on a unity government deal.

The EU’s foreign policy chief was speaking days after the US conducted an airstrike on a suspected IS training camp in western Libya targeting a commander responsible for terrorist attacks in Tunisia. Two Serbian hostages were among the four dozen people reportedly killed in the attack on Friday.

The Pentagon said it was acting with the consent of the Libyan interim government, but the Libyans have denied this and accused the US of violating the country’s national sovereignty.

While Mogherini said Libya’s permission is needed to bomb IS troops on its soil, some EU members are not as picky when it comes to Syria. Several countries, including European heavyweights Germany, France and Britain, have been conducting military missions over Syria as part of the US-led coalition fighting IS, even though neither Damascus nor the UN Security Council mandated such intervention.

Turkey calls for unconditional US support against YPG

February 20, 2016

Turkey calls for unconditional US support against YPG

February 20, 2016, Saturday/ 19:16:29/ REUTERS | ISTANBUL

Source: Turkey calls for unconditional US support against YPG

Turkey calls for unconditional US support against YPG

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu speaks with an official as he arrives for a security meeting at the Governor’s Office in Ankara, Feb. 20, 2016. (Photo: AP, Burhan Özbilici)

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on Saturday called on the United States to give unconditional support in the fight against Syrian Kurdish militants, illustrating growing tension between Ankara and Washington over policy in northern Syria.

Davutoğlu also said Turkey would tighten security across the country, especially the capital, after a car laden with explosives was detonated near military buses in Ankara on Wednesday, killing 28 people.

Turkey says the Syrian Kurdish YPG, which the United States is backing in the fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria, was involved in the bombing, working with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Washington, which does not consider the YPG a terrorist organisation, has said it is not in a position to confirm or deny Ankara’s charge the militia was behind the bombing.

“The only thing we expect from our US ally is to support Turkey with no ifs or buts,” Davutoğlu told a news conference following a five-hour security meeting with members of his cabinet and other officials.

“If 28 Turkish lives have been claimed through a terrorist attack we can only expect them to say any threat against Turkey is a threat against them.”

The disagreement over the YPG risks driving a wedge between the NATO allies at a critical point in Syria’s civil war, as the United States pursues intensive talks with Syrian ally Russia to bring about a “cessation of hostilities”.

The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), a group that once had links to the PKK, on Friday claimed responsibility for the bombing. However, Davutoğlu said that did not rule out the responsibility of the YPG, calling the TAK a “proxy” that claimed the bombing to shield the international reputation of the Syrian Kurdish fighters.

US President Barack Obama on Friday spoke to Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan in an 80-minute telephone call, sharing his concerns over the Syrian conflict and promising his support.

On Friday, a State Department spokesman told reporters Washington would continue to support organisations in Syria that it could count on in the fight against Islamic State – an apparent reference to the YPG.

Also on Saturday, Erdoğan’s spokesperson İbrahim Kalın said the US administration cannot see the whole picture on Syria. “… But the US administration has a dilemma. If you build your fight against Daesh on supporting YPG, you lose the whole picture. The fight against Daesh is continuing now, so does the one against Assad regime. Apart from all these, we have Russia’s huge military concentration in this region. If you disregard all relations and connections among these and only say ‘I will send weapons to the YPG so that they can do this’ , you cannot get the whole strategic picture,” Kalın said in televised remarks, using Daesh as an acronym for ISIL.

Saudi has a nuke ! ? ! ?

February 20, 2016

Saudi Political Analyst Dahham Al-‘Anzi: KSA Has Obtained Nuclear Bomb. Test May Be Held Soon

Published on Feb 16, 2016

Saudi political analyst Dahham Al-‘Anzi spoke on Russia Today Arabic TV channel on February 15 and claimed that Saudi Arabia has obtained a nuclear bomb. Al-‘Anzi said that the Saudis have acquired the bomb two years ago and that a nuclear test is expected soon. “The superpowers know about this,” he added.

Daesh Terrorists: A Multifunction Tool in Hands of Ankara, Riyadh, NATO

February 20, 2016

Daesh Terrorists: A Multifunction Tool in Hands of Ankara, Riyadh, NATO

Ekaterina Blinova

15:29 20.02.2016

Source: Daesh Terrorists: A Multifunction Tool in Hands of Ankara, Riyadh, NATO

The West and its Mideast partners are playing deceiving Machiavellian games in Syria, F. William Engdahl told Sputnik, adding that Russia is in a most risky situation if it believes that the other actors involved in the conflict, such as Recep Erdogan or King Salman and his impulsive son Prince Mohammed, are reasonable, as hate knows no reason.

While tensions are simmering over the prospect of a Turkish-Saudi invasion of Syria, six members of the UN Security Council, including the US, UK and France, have voiced their objections to a Russian draft resolution aimed at restoring the sovereignty of the Middle Eastern state, fanning the flames.The draft resolution, which denounces any actions that undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria and condemns any plans for a foreign military invasion, has been dismissed by the US and French UN ambassadors as “having no future.”

It is rather surprising that the proposed resolution, aimed at peace in Syria and the protection of the fundamental values of the UN charter, has immediately come under fire from Washington and the major European powers. However, there is an obvious explanation: the Western powers have repeatedly violated international law, having acted militarily in Syria without official permission from the legitimate government of President Bashar al-Assad.

In light of this, the contours of the Western strategy in Syria are getting clearer. The question then arises whether the Syrian Arab Army, backed by Russia’s Air Force, will help Damascus restore sovereignty and re-unite Syria?

“What I feel is that at present the energy in Syria is, regrettably, one of death and destruction, everywhere. This cannot easily be healed such that Syria becomes a healthy sovereign nation as it was perhaps a century ago, prior to World War I. This is the destructiveness of war. It is not a question of military reconquest of land lost in the past five years of war. Were it so easy, the world would have healed the scars of all wars centuries ago. No one side ‘wins’ in war, only in peace,” American-German researcher, historian and strategic risk consultant F. William Engdahl told Sputnik in an exclusive interview.

By stepping in in Syria, Russia has actually entered a geopolitical chess tournament with crafty Western players. Will Vladimir Putin and Bashar Assad beat Washington’s geopolitical grandmasters at their own game?”This is a very difficult question to answer. My honest feeling is that the American Patriarchs as I prefer to call them, not grandmasters, have a deep plan with their many wars in the Middle East. The plan is simple — spread hate, destruction, a killing energy, not only in the Middle East oil countries but also in the EU as well as inside the United States, in China, everywhere, with their wars over oil in the end,” Engdahl pointed out.

Fighters of the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road at the northern city of Mosul, Iraq. (File)
© AP Photo/
Fighters of the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road at the northern city of Mosul, Iraq. (File)

If the world is busy with such destruction, those Patriarchs have the misguided feeling they will prevail, the strategic risk consultant underscored, adding that we are in a kind of world war already.

“They ignited the Maidan Square coup in February 2014 to disrupt growing, positive economic and political relations, especially between Germany and Russia, to an extent between the EU and Russia. They have demonized Russia and her President in their media. China will be next in their sights,” Engdahl stressed.

Indeed, a belt of instability has stretched from North Africa and the Balkans to Central Asia and beyond. Five years have passed since the “Day of Rage” in Libya which was aimed against the rule of Muammar Gaddafi. The uprising, enthusiastically supported by the West, has lured the country into constant turmoil. Meanwhile, in another part of the world, the Afghani failed state is still desperately fighting against Islamic extremists.”I believe that they felt they were losing their control to nations [which were] acting more independently and sovereign in recent years, like Russia, like Germany, like China, like Iran and other states encouraged to assert national autonomy against the wishes of NATO. Of course, in the end they will only lose, but if we are not conscious of who we are, and who they are, as Sun Tzu said, they will manage to create huge destruction before that point. Simply think about the deep scars of the war 75 years ago,” the researcher told Sputnik.

A soldier of the Syrian Arab Army is seen here in Aleppo
© Sputnik/ Iliya Pitalev
A soldier of the Syrian Arab Army is seen here in Aleppo

Does that mean the notorious Daesh (ISIL/ISIS) is a kind of “agent of destruction”?

“Daesh, simply said, is Saudi Arabia’s monarchy. In my most recent book, The Lost Hegemon: Whom the gods would destroy, I describe in great detail the perverse ‘unholy alliance,’ brokered by the CIA in the early 1950s to mate the Egyptian death cult known as the Muslim Brotherhood with the primitive Saudi Wahhabist branch of Islam. The consequence of that was Mujahedeen, the Chechen wars, Bosnia’s Mujahedeen war against the Serbs, and now Al Qaeda-Al Nusra and Daesh. Erdogan’s family, supported in a perverse alliance by this Saudi monarchy, is embracing Daesh as a weapon to kill Kurds and create some kind of New Ottoman Sultanate, and to enable Saudi control of the oil and gas of Iraq, of Syria and of Yemen,” Engdahl elaborated.

“But they will fail,” the researcher remarked.

Despite the fact that the international community has repeatedly expressed its deep concerns over Daesh’s “extraordinary levels of funding” and the imminent danger this poses to the Western civilization, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman admitted on February 9 that the terror group continues to sell stolen oil on the global market.Some experts believe it would be impossible, hadn’t a “tacit agreement” been concluded by European and American decision-makers. Back in June 2014 French intellectual, founder and chairman of Voltaire Network Thierry Meyssan called attention to the fact that Daesh and al-Nusra Front were selling stolen crude on the international market, “so monitored by Washington,” without hindrance. That can only mean one thing, Meyssan suggested: they are either authorized by Washington or linked to storefront oil companies.

So, why do Washington and Western “oil barons” allow Daesh to continue selling stolen oil, replenishing its vaults with more money for war, terror and destruction?

“NATO uses Daesh and allows the oil to flow to that end, luring Erdogan and Salman into a well-planned trap. NATO, of course, is controlled by Washington and those American Patriarchs who steer the military-industrial complex and their oil barons. We need only to look at the statement recently of Hakan Fidan, head of Turkish MIT intelligence, urging the West to see Daesh as legitimate Muslims with a right to be respected and you get the idea,” Engdahl emphasized.

“Everyone in this war is deceiving, playing Machiavellian games — Erdogan, Salman and his son, Prince Salman, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, John Kerry, Obama, Cameron, Hollande. Russia is in a most risky situation in Syria if it and its leading people have any illusion that the other actors are reasonable. Hate knows no reason,” the researcher warned.