By newsfirstusa 
President-elect Trump on Monday described the new fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime as an “unfriendly takeover” orchestrated by Turkey.
“I think Turkey is very smart,” he stated from a press convention at his Florida place of dwelling. “Turkey did an unfriendly takeover, without a lot of lives being lost. I can say that Assad was a butcher, what he did to children.”
Assad fled to Russia simply over a pace in the past upcoming the al Qaeda-derived group dubbed Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) unexpectedly took over western Syria in an offensive that started on Nov. 27, first taking Aleppo, Hama and Homsc, prior to seizing the capital town of Damascus.
Rise up forces seized Mengh Airbase and the town of Tel Rifaat within the Aleppo nation-state on Dec. 1, 2024. (Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto by way of Getty Photographs)
ASSAD PAINTS HIMSELF AS ‘CUSTODIAN’ TO SYRIA AS PICTURE UNFOLDS ON COLLAPSE OF DAMASCUS
The pace of Syria, for each its executive and its public, remainder concealed because the HTS group, deemed a terrorist community by way of the U.S. however which has the backing of the Turkey-supported Syrian National Army (SNA), seems to be to retain directly to energy.
The autumn of the Assad regime has supposed an finish to the just about 14-year civil warfare that plagued the folk, despite the fact that the warning in opposition to the U.S.- subsidized Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) isn’t over as Turkey continues to view it as one among its eminent regional adversaries.
The SDF have assisted the U.S. in its fight against ISIS for more than a decade, however Turkey, which stocks a border with Syria, has lengthy seen the crowd as being affiliated with the extremist Kurdistan Staff’ Celebration (PKK), and which, in the course of the SNA, has clashed with the Kurdish-led forces.
President-elect Trump speaks all through a information convention at Mar-a-Lago, on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Palm Seaside, Florida. (AP/Evan Vucci)
It remainder concealed how the Kurds will fair under a potential HTS regime, however Western safety professionals are increasingly more involved that Turkey will have an oversized quantity of affect at the neighboring folk.
“The fall of Assad greatly amplified Turkey’s influence in Syria, giving unprecedented influence to his partners and proxies. If the United States wants to ensure that Syria has the best chance to become a reasonably free and stable country, it needs to keep a very close eye on [Turkish President Recep] Erdogan,” David Adesnik, vp for analysis on the Base for Protection of Democracies, advised Fox Information Virtual.
Comrades attend the funeral of 5 warring parties of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces who have been killed all through clashes with Turkish-backed opposition factions, in Qamishli in northeastern Syria on Dec. 14, 2024. (Delil Souleiman/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
TURKEY HITS US-ALLIED KURDS IN SYRIA, IRAQ FOLLOWING TERRORIST ATTACK ON DEFENSE GROUP
Ultimate pace, the U.S. brokered a cease-fire pledge between the SDF and the SNA over the northeastern town of Manbij, the place SDF coalition forces assuredly to pull back from the segment upcoming resisting assaults since Nov. 27, in keeping with a Reuters document.
However assets advised Fox Information Virtual on Monday that negotiations with regards to the cease-fire had collapsed and that the SNA had begun build up army forces west of the Kurdish the town of Kobani – more or less 35 miles east of Manbij – in an obvious warning to renew struggle operations.
The phrases of the cease-fire stay concealed, and neither the White Space nor the Circumstance Branch answered to Fox Information Virtual’s questions.
Consistent with a commentary immune by way of the SDF, the mediation efforts by way of the U.S. failed to ascertain an everlasting truce in Manbij-Kobani areas because of Turkey’s “evasion to accept key points,” together with the preserve switch of civilians and Manbij warring parties.
“Despite U.S. efforts to stop the war, Turkey and its mercenary militias have continued to escalate over the last period,” the SDF stated.
A spokesperson for Turkey’s U.N. Project didn’t right away go back Fox Information Virtual’s request for remark.
“The re-eruption of tensions around Kobani underlines the extent to which Assad’s fall has ‘opened the gates’ for Turkey and its SNA proxies in northern Syria,” Charles Lister, director of the Syria and countering terrorism and extremism methods on the Heart East Institute (MEI), advised Fox Information Virtual. “For the first time, they’re free to act without a green light from Assad or Russia.”
Anti-regime warring parties be on one?s feet at the roadside as displaced Syrian Kurds pressure automobiles loaded with assets at the Aleppo-Raqqa freeway, getaway Aleppo, on Dec. 2, 2024. (Rami Al Sayed/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
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The dynamic between the SDF and SNA forces, subsidized by way of Washington and Ankara, respectively, has lengthy proved tough to move for the reason that each the U.S. and Turkey are allies in NATO.
“After the loss of Tel Rifat and Manbij in recent weeks, the only possible obstacle to further SDF losses is the presence of U.S. troops – but Turkey’s role within NATO has always limited U.S. options,” Lister defined.
“[U.S. Central Command Gen. Michael’ Kurilla’s recent visit and the SDF’s willingness to cede Manbij spoke to the unprecedentedly isolated position the SDF currently faces,” he added in connection with a consult with Kurilla made to Syria latter pace. “If the SDF is going to survive these challenges, it’s going to need to be extremely flexible, willing to concede on major issues, and rely heavily on U.S. diplomacy with Turkey.”