Middle East thread

Israel plans to expand Golan settlements after fall of Assad​

Israel's government has approved a plan to encourage the expansion of settlements in the occupied Golan Heights.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move was necessary because a "new front" had opened up on Israel's border with Syria after the fall of the Assad regime to an Islamist-led rebel alliance.
Netanyahu said he wanted to double the population of the Golan Heights, which Israel seized during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered illegally occupied under international law.
Israeli forces moved into a buffer zone separating the Golan Heights from Syria in the days following Assad's departure, saying the change of control in Damascus meant ceasefire arrangements had "collapsed".

Despite the move, Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday evening that Israel has "no interest in a conflict with Syria".
"We will determine Israeli policy regarding Syria according to the reality on the ground," he said.
There are more than 30 Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights, which are home to an estimated 20,000 people. They are considered illegal under international law, which Israel disputes.
The settlers live alongside some 20,000 Syrians, most of them Druze Arabs who did not flee when the area came under Israeli control.
Netanyahu said Israel would "continue to hold on to [the territory], make it flourish and settle it".
The announcement comes a day after Syria's new de-facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa criticised Israel for its ongoing strikes on military targets in the country, which have reportedly targeted military facilities.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has documented more than 450 Israeli air strikes in Syria since 8 December, including 75 since Saturday evening.
Al-Sharaa - also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani - said the strikes "crossed red lines" and risked escalating tensions in the region, though he said Syria was not seeking a conflict with any neighbouring state.
Speaking to Syria TV, which was seen as pro-opposition during the civil war, al-Sharaa said the country's "war-weary condition, after years of conflict and war, does not allow for new confrontations", Reuters reported.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not commented on his remarks, but previously said the strikes were necessary to stop weapons falling "into the hands of extremists".

President Bashar al-Assad and his family fled to Russia and took up asylum when al-Sharaa's Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led other rebel factions in a lightning offensive on Damascus.
The groups are continuing to form a transitional government in Syria, of which al-Sharaa is the theoretical head.
On Saturday, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington had made direct contact with HTS, which the US and other Western governments still designates as a terrorist organisation.
United Nations' Syria envoy Geir Pedersen said on Sunday he hoped for a swift end to sanctions on the country to help facilitate an economic recovery.
"We will hopefully see a quick end to sanctions so that we can see really rallying around building up Syria," Pedersen said as he arrived in Damascus to meet Syria's caretaker government and other officials.
Elsewhere, Turkey's Defence Minister Yasar Guler said Ankara was ready to provide military support to Syria's new government.
"It is necessary to see what the new administration will do. We think it is necessary to give them a chance," Guler said of HTS, according to state news agency Anadolu and other Turkish media outlets.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz6lgln128xo
 

Israel plans to expand Golan settlements after fall of Assad​

Israel's government has approved a plan to encourage the expansion of settlements in the occupied Golan Heights.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move was necessary because a "new front" had opened up on Israel's border with Syria after the fall of the Assad regime to an Islamist-led rebel alliance.
Netanyahu said he wanted to double the population of the Golan Heights, which Israel seized during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered illegally occupied under international law.
Israeli forces moved into a buffer zone separating the Golan Heights from Syria in the days following Assad's departure, saying the change of control in Damascus meant ceasefire arrangements had "collapsed".

Despite the move, Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday evening that Israel has "no interest in a conflict with Syria".
"We will determine Israeli policy regarding Syria according to the reality on the ground," he said.
There are more than 30 Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights, which are home to an estimated 20,000 people. They are considered illegal under international law, which Israel disputes.
The settlers live alongside some 20,000 Syrians, most of them Druze Arabs who did not flee when the area came under Israeli control.
Netanyahu said Israel would "continue to hold on to [the territory], make it flourish and settle it".
The announcement comes a day after Syria's new de-facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa criticised Israel for its ongoing strikes on military targets in the country, which have reportedly targeted military facilities.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has documented more than 450 Israeli air strikes in Syria since 8 December, including 75 since Saturday evening.
Al-Sharaa - also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani - said the strikes "crossed red lines" and risked escalating tensions in the region, though he said Syria was not seeking a conflict with any neighbouring state.
Speaking to Syria TV, which was seen as pro-opposition during the civil war, al-Sharaa said the country's "war-weary condition, after years of conflict and war, does not allow for new confrontations", Reuters reported.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not commented on his remarks, but previously said the strikes were necessary to stop weapons falling "into the hands of extremists".

President Bashar al-Assad and his family fled to Russia and took up asylum when al-Sharaa's Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led other rebel factions in a lightning offensive on Damascus.
The groups are continuing to form a transitional government in Syria, of which al-Sharaa is the theoretical head.
On Saturday, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington had made direct contact with HTS, which the US and other Western governments still designates as a terrorist organisation.
United Nations' Syria envoy Geir Pedersen said on Sunday he hoped for a swift end to sanctions on the country to help facilitate an economic recovery.
"We will hopefully see a quick end to sanctions so that we can see really rallying around building up Syria," Pedersen said as he arrived in Damascus to meet Syria's caretaker government and other officials.
Elsewhere, Turkey's Defence Minister Yasar Guler said Ankara was ready to provide military support to Syria's new government.
"It is necessary to see what the new administration will do. We think it is necessary to give them a chance," Guler said of HTS, according to state news agency Anadolu and other Turkish media outlets.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz6lgln128xo
When: "from the river to the sea" turns into the Tigris or Euphrates to the Mediterranean... I know it will be a while, but I'm real curious how this collapse was engineered...
 
who did this ?

ukranians ? Actively involved . Finer points of drone use . Jihadists are the first users of FPV combat drones . Ukranian help in a couple of material improvements . Blue and Yellow armbands and stuff . As it looks seriously good for a number of people ...

them NAFO crowd . Who have this dream of the decisive win when they wean Israel from malign Russian influence . Down to cozy explanation that Israel needed Russian permission to attack Iranian supply runs across Syria . As if Israel didn't attack anything whenever it liked . Like as if Israel could not break the back of the Russian presence in country in 30 minutes flat . New Turkey could do it in maybe 2 hours . The difference being Israel has access to higher tech with deeper magazines and whatnot .

hey , free supplies of Israeli stocks would do as well . Like Merkavas do not ever loose their tracks when they hit mines . The NAFO crew is really an humourless lot , despite the mockery they have provided at the expense of Russians . Running to grasp the control of the media with everybody else being a Russian ... From the Israeli Lobby , no less ! They still do not believe that it is inevitable that Mossad will find interesting things about being actually forced to go war with Iran . Which they actually do not want to ; witness the missile barrages across the space in return for satellite pictures that show nothing . As if lran forced to fight for its life would not be matched with Russian desperation in their own battles . ı pity some people ... in their delusions .

israel in extremism needs Russia for the day when American Evangelism discovers "Magic does not exist" or whatever . Sig this , anyone who needs some random cryptic r16 thing . There have been an immense amount of lies going on in that affair from both sides . Israel in extremism collects any and all Jews into a concentrated place so that people will have to fight the dirty war and it is indeed an ugly , dirty , criminal war , with more to come . Zelensky peddling a second Israel , a safe haven out of daily strife with Arabs and darkening your soul with oppressing the Palestinians would have earned him some real pain , but for the thing that Washington DC considers itself smart and ... worse because it holds the money .

uh , oh , ah ? Did ı use to say my country was given undescribed support for stuff ? For a second 1492 ? Actually , on paper , too . Moshe Dayan , when he could no longer stand Ariel Sharon about how he would have won a much bigger victory if he wasn't held back and he would anyhow because he had met some Americans , sent a team . After Yom Kippur , before Labour would be voted out . At least tree of them from the Israeli Airforce . The youngest had a little shock about the talk when it began discussing how much could be lifted each day and so on . His face going through whole series of colours when Dayan's letter was read to him , according to some guy sitting on the other side . Most everyone expected to go to the States . Sharon by '82 had it declared null and void . He was found too bloodthirsty by Washington DC when he personally shot a Palestinian kid out of nothing . In front of some documentary producer , too .

this is the new confidence emanating from New Turkey lot . They are basically "promising" to drive the Israelis to the sea by 2028 . You know , the next Presidential Elections . So that A-K-P can maintain its hold on power . Political power is some sort of an illusion . It is there as long as people are convinced it is there . Islamist stuff is a minority but it forms the major ingredient . The idea that the PM appears to act in the interests of the Religion and his loss of power will be bad for the believers . It is the fear that 5 of 6% of the voters will leave the PM en masse . If they remain with the A-K-P and some hapless town votes against expectations , you can imagine trouble . This is why 9 Islamists , 7 of them women are suing the State for sexual harassment after they were arrested for challenging the PM in person over the trade with Israel . Which doesn't exist , according to New Turkey . Becoming more critical as the game plan for New Turkey is getting the steamshop work after China is cut out of the globe . Minimum wage is almost 500 dollars , with artificial controls on the exchange ratio . When it comes down to the desired 250-300 band , being effectively cut in half , all those staunch supporters of the PM will suddenly face the situation that they might really be expected to eat rocks for dinner . Hence the conqueror of Halep and Damascus . Should be promoted to Marshall . Even if it falls short of the well deserved Caliph .

arabs find that funny . They are first in New Turkey . Second are the Kurds who vote for the Party . Third are the seperatists , who will see the true path when America tells them to vote for the Party . Turks are garbage , unrequired , undesired in New Turkey , hence a whole damned Nazi Party on the wings to be activated , they might bash a few Syrians for effect , too . Some people are really ignorant of history , while basking in their Anglosaxon glory .

is it America then ? Trumpian fascism descending "requires" few distractions maybe ? Clearly the CIA finally ascendant over Pentagon ? Military indictrination basically makes it impossible for soldiers to be with the r_gheads , the t_welheads , the sandn_ . Teach them to respect those as humans and my ... Hence the Military support for the Kurds , or rather the seperatists ... Learning the ways of the world inevitably hurts the idealism . As such some people get promotions and some join the CIA . Some serious battles between two buildings in Virginia ! One with the Arabs , the oil baron and the heart eating rapist of a jihadist . One with the super heroic Marxist Leninist seperatist woman with an acute awareness of the Environment . It is really bad form to ask Americans whether those bright women they have encountered ever talk of their sisters raped in the mountains during the course of this so called struggle ...

except it isn't so . Lloyd Austin had already won his place in history for some hearing in which he was to answer for the 500 million dollars his command had spent to raise 5000 soldiers to fight ISIL . He replied he had 4 or 5 , all the rest had joined ISIL instead . The seperatists today are apparently getting a beating where actual US troops do not show up . The allegation being they have become too comfy with occupying Syria and will be forced to vacate some territory to fight Iran .

or maybe not . Lots of conquering talk in this country . Kurdish blood has become the central pillar of the US Strategy , it will be spilled freely , Americans might not risk things . Hence , the echo chamber today discusses this Italian map which might be all made up , not Italian or maybe even really Italian , being in the media and so on . Like at a time when Russian PR speaks of apocaliptic stuff in Syria against Israel and presents Tel Aviv with the offer to stab us in the back , we get the "National Contract of 1920" and a couple of islands in the sea and the Libyan oil . Like , to annex those islands against the Greeks , the French nuclear umbrella and full might of the US and whatnot , am pretty sure we would be in Rome as well . Like , if one remembers the Obama roadmap thing offered us Volga so that we would be teaching the unruly and wayward Poles some manners along its banks in 2060 , this map is ... stupid .

16-12-2024.jpg
 

Deadly Torture Device Discovered at Syria’s ‘Human Slaughterhouse’​

A macabre torture machine used to crush bodies has been discovered in a Syrian prison nicknamed the “human slaughterhouse.”

Video of the “iron press” was posted online as rebels freed inmates from Sednaya Prison near Damascus, the capital of Syria.

The hydraulic press was filmed along with ropes and bags allegedly used to dispose of the remains.

“After he is hanged, they put him in the press and press him to become like paper,” a caption accompanying the video reads. It continues: “His body and bones are crushed. There are blood channels under the press. Then his remains are put in a bag and disposed of outside the prison.”

The press was reportedly used to crush and execute prisoners held by the Assad regime, which has been accused of human rights abuses.

The video has not been independently verified.

Amnesty International called Sednaya Prison a “human slaughterhouse” and accused Assad’s government of systematic torture and of secretly executing up to 13,000 Syrians at the time of the last uprising between 2011 and 2016.

Syrian rebels are said to have released thousands of prisoners, including women and children, held in underground cells at the hellhole prison. There are reports that many more are still trapped. The cells are said to be in a vast network of buried tunnels that are only accessible using electronic keypads.

Women inmates could be heard screaming with their children as their cells were opened. One toddler walked down a corridor with his mother.

“Don’t be afraid… Bashar Assad has fallen,” a rebel told one group of freed women prisoners.

Writer Bashar Barhoum, 63, was among those freed. He told the Associated Press he was due to be executed on Sunday.

“I haven’t seen the sun until today,” he said after spending seven months behind bars.

“Instead of being dead tomorrow, thank God, he gave me a new lease of life.”

The country’s former President Bashar al-Assad has fled with his family to Moscow, where they are being given asylum.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/deadly-torture-device-discovered-syria-155317617.html
 
let us do this right ... Checked the date and it is from December 9th so obviously on time . Arab sources claim there are inmates who didn't know Hafız Esad had died , like back in 2000 or so . Pfft on the claim of not seeing the sun for 7 months .


not linking Israeli or Indian sources because politics , but watch how BSSS is on the BS path . Holding New Turkey responsible for Syria while it happened behind Ankara's back .
 
let us do this right ... Checked the date and it is from December 9th so obviously on time . Arab sources claim there are inmates who didn't know Hafız Esad had died , like back in 2000 or so . Pfft on the claim of not seeing the sun for 7 months .

“The things I saw beggar description.... I made the visit deliberately in order to be in a position to give firsthand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to ‘propaganda.’”

- General Dwight D. Eisenhower in a letter to Army Chief George C. Marshall in 1945 after visiting the Ohdruf Concentration Camp.
 
the evils of the Esad Regime solves nothing in Eastern Europe . That's some very big problem as Trump forgets about his promise about something and talks of the European goverments falling like dominoes . AND puts the blame on New Turkey as if it wasn't him that traded Esad with a certain head of state somewhere in Eastern Europe . Oh , yes , ı have heard 200 North Koreans are killed daily or whatever , right !
 
when ı write about people who knew of Lord Vader and stuff , they NEVER respond , this being some crazy guy daydreaming and this is a good thing that shouldn't be challenged . Apparently one did yesterday . No doubt the one mentioned in the evacuation post somewhere above . Apparently citing Lord Vader operated against Israel in regards to lraq . Gen Z crowd naturally knew this and makes Lord Vader an lraqi . Yes , bleak prospects for the future of Mankind , this Gen Z . Like , the Baath Iraq eagle in front of the house , now really weather beaten , my Late father got from the exiled Iraqi diplomat living across the street , after repairs made . Like r16 said that , right ? The place Humeyni of Iran lived in the 1960s is probably like an hours drive or whatever ...

what the guy probably said was probably to take nothing granted .

and this happens because ? Apparently there were contrails over Israel yesterday morning , one of which looked like a ribbon . In remembrance of the hostages . Israel officially declares some lsraeli spy plane made a turn in the sky unaware what it was doing ... The Pilots' Letter is a thing in history where a limited number of Airforce members challenged their commander of the time rationalizing it was a natural thing to kill innocents because there are no innocent Palestinians or whatever . Netanyahu faced some 1000 soldiers , a whopping 400 of them pilots before the Hamas attack in opposition to the political changes he sought . Ribbon thing in the sky and the guy has to talk ... that there is no foreign conspiracy in this great hour of Netanyahu finding an enemy to his North "big enough" to justify whole Israel uniting behind him , instead of sending him to jail as it has become the custom with Israeli politicians . You know Netanyahu had some book printed which claimed there were secret passages in the Jewish holy book that took computers to solve and Yehova had chosen Bibi to rule ...

this guy is no doubt in the books . As the single one who paid attention to lftach Spector in a combat pre-flight briefing on October 14th, 1973 . Tel Aviv had ordered some silly story be told to the troops and Spector's tired troops mostly slept through that particular part . They didn't need that to tell to their captors if they were shot down and made POWs . 14th is the day Egyptians got defeated in their attack for the Sinai Passes . It is also the Egyptian Airforce Day after some pitched battle no Westerner will ever believe and no historical records kinda sorta exist and numbers do not match and everything . It like basically boils down to a thing that USAF flew an lazer guided bomb package it had developed in Vietnam in a warning against Cairo , on an isolated facility . Egyptians met the Israeli diversion attacks with force and had some luck in discovering the USAF attack , breaking it and stuff , only after it was leaving and stuff . Made even more satisfying when the 8 USN Phantoms , naturally all crewed by Topgun graduates and instructors followed their orders to the letter and stayed off-shore . Before the day was over Spector's squadron came under a Blue on Blue attack , too , losing a Phantom to an Israeli Mirage ... Things happen . More things happen if one starts to believe religious made up things is taken to be true ...
 

At least 100,000 bodies in Syrian mass grave, US advocacy group head says​

The head of a U.S.-based Syrian advocacy organization on Monday said that a mass grave outside of Damascus contained the bodies of at least 100,000 people killed by the former government of ousted President Bashar al-Assad.

Mouaz Moustafa, speaking to Reuters in a telephone interview from Damascus, said the site at al Qutayfah, 25 miles (40 km) north of the Syrian capital, was one of five mass graves that he had identified over the years.


https://www.reuters.com/world/middl...grave-us-advocacy-group-head-says-2024-12-17/

Aljazeera runs the same story:

https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2024/12/17/thousands-of-bodies-found-in-syrias-mass-graves

The evil and depravity of the Assad regime appears to be bottomless.
 
Iran/Hezbollah/Hamas/Russia probably were/are OK with all this, sometimes taking lessons, sometimes giving them!
 
You're missing out one other country with recent experience in mass graves, but we also have a thread for that I guess.
Was that country aligned with Assad's regime?
...
Just asking for a friend.
 
Don't know if this a what Gorbles is referring to, but some mass graves were uncovered in Gaza recently during IDF operations.
 
Gorbles is indulging in some good ol fashion whataboutism!
 
Gorbles is indulging in some good ol fashion whataboutism!
You brought up Russia :D

Geopolitics is an awkward thing for thread boundaries, so I'm being obtuse on purpose. Stuff isn't as neat and tidy as "the folks doing bad things are The Bad Guys". It generally comes down to what folks make excuses for, and what folks choose to condemn.

I'm going to be controversial and say mass graves anywhere tend to be a sign that something bad happened (even if it was something like plague, which obviously isn't the case here).
 
as people in New Turkey are fond of thinking the world revolves around them , they are now thinking Israel will tremble when they show up or it is a coup attempt or whatever . Hostages are politically important only in one country in this thread . We heard the seperatists held a number of hostages only when none of them could be be saved in a New Turkey thing done at a time when both ratings were low and the so called intelligence service was sure it had come of age . Do not discuss this ; it is sure to be branded as terror propaganda .

accidental contrail , Netanyahu stresses this is not a coup against him , some guy who spent 20 or 30 years bombing Arabs is like What are you looking at me for and like it arrives here with lightspeed , because the thing you will not hear in internet discussions in this country is that Trump defined New Turkey's mighty powerful army as untired . Army of Petrol will now do the dying part instead of US or whatever .

also ... it obliquely involves who will do the fighting and everybody knows who did what and all those dead people might not really , ı mean really help the cause of the West . Like , you couldn't have trusted me to bring justice to the pink lines of Barack spineless jerk Obama in 2013 , right ?
 
You brought up Russia :D

Geopolitics is an awkward thing for thread boundaries, so I'm being obtuse on purpose. Stuff isn't as neat and tidy as "the folks doing bad things are The Bad Guys". It generally comes down to what folks make excuses for, and what folks choose to condemn.

I'm going to be controversial and say mass graves anywhere tend to be a sign that something bad happened (even if it was something like plague, which obviously isn't the case here).
Hasn't Russia been elbows deep involved with Assad?
 
Hasn't Russia been elbows deep involved with Assad?
The country I was referring to has also been very active in Syria! Historically and recently too.

Don't moan about "whataboutism" then maybe, eh?

EDIT

Like, the world is a complex place, and I understand the difference between punching up and punching down. But "mass graves" are pretty clear-cut bad, whether it's Russia, Assad's Syria, Israel or even Canada that has dug them. So you getting a dig in at Iran, Russia, etc, is funny, because they're not the only countries watching. Israel is currently trying to reshape the Middle East in its own image, taking land left, right and centre.

Sets an awkward precedent when we need to say land grabbing is bad. Same goes for mass graves.

So there you go, I de-mystified it. But I don't really want a tangent on it.
 
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