From ZeroHedge:
Even as all sides - including the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia,
and select rebel groups - pretend to be working towards a ceasefire and
a diplomatic solution to the five year conflict in Syria, actions speak
louder than words, and to put it as succinctly as possible, everyone is
still fighting.
In fact, the fighting is more intense than ever. Russia
and Hezbollah are closing in on Aleppo, the country’s largest city and a
key urban center where rebels are dug in for what amounts to a last
stand. If the city is liberated by the government (and yes,
“liberated” is more accurate than “falls” because occupied territory
belongs to the Syrian government, not to Sunni extremists), Assad will
have regained control of the country’s backbone in the west.
That would effectively mean the end of the rebellion and
the Gulf monarchies, not to mention Turkey, are not happy about it. “The
main battle is about cutting the road between Aleppo and Turkey, for
Turkey is the main conduit of supplies for the terrorists,” Assad said
in
an interview with AFP on Friday.
That supply line has been severed and now, it’s do or die time for the rebels’ Sunni benefactors in Ankara, Riyadh, and Doha. Either
intervene or watch as Hezbollah rolls up the opposition under cover of
Russian airstrikes, restoring the Assad government and securing the
Shiite crescent for the Iranians.
As we documented extensively this week, the Saudis and the
Turks are now set to invade. Assad has promised to “confront them”,
which of course means that the IRGC and Hassan Nasrallah's army
are set to come into direct contact with Turkish and Saudi troops,
setting the stage for an all-out sectarian war that will almost
invariably end up pitting NATO against the Russians. Note that this is different from Yemen, where Tehran fights via proxies rather than directly against the Saudi military.
On Saturday the stakes were raised when Turkey said Saudi Arabia is set to send warplanes to Incirlik.
As a reminder, access to Incirlik was the carrot Erdogan
used last summer to convince NATO to acquiesce to Ankara’s brutal
crackdown on the PKK. “Let me wage war against my political rivals, and
you can use our airbase,” is a fair approximation of Erdogan’s
proposition.
Now, it appears the Saudis are set to use the base as a staging ground for strikes in Syria.
As
RT reports, “
Saudi Arabia is to deploy military jets and personnel to Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base in the south of the country, Ankara said.”
Of course the excuse is the same as it ever was for everyone involved: the fight against ISIS....
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