United States should provide military aid to Syrian Kurds an Erdoğan be deamed

Erdogan Says US Arming Syrian Kurdish Militia

By Daren Butler and David Dolan

Posted 2016-09-23 17:28 GMT 

(Reuters) -- Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused the United States of supplying more weapons to Kurdish fighters in northern Syria this week, saying Washington had delivered two plane loads of arms to what Ankara considers a terrorist group.

Erdogan's comments are likely to add to the tension between Turkey and the United States over Syria, where Washington backs the Kurdish YPG forces against Islamic State. 

Turkey is part of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State but views the Syrian Kurdish YPG and its PYD political wing as an extension of Kurdish militants who have waged a three-decade insurgency on its own soil. 

"If you think you can finish off Daesh with the YPG and PYD, you cannot, because they are terrorist groups too," Erdogan said in comments in New York on Thursday that were broadcast on Turkish television. Daesh is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. 

"Three days ago America dropped two plane loads of weapons in enthusiasm for these terror groups," he said, adding he had raised the issue on Wednesday with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden who he said had no knowledge of this. 

The United States, which sees the YPG as a major strategic partner in the fight against Islamic State in Syria, air-dropped weapons to the group in the largely Kurdish town of Kobani in 2014. Erdogan said that half of those arms were seized by Islamic State fighters. 

Kobani was besieged by Islamic State for four months in late 2014 and is about 35 km (20 miles) east of the Syrian border town of Jarablus, which Turkish-backed rebels seized a month ago in an operation dubbed "Euphrates Shield". 

That operation is designed to clear Islamic State fighters from Turkey's southern border area but it has also brought Turkish and Syrian rebel forces into conflict with the YPG. 

FOCUS ON ASSAD 

Much of Turkey's focus during the six-year Syria civil war has been on the need to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rather than fighting Islamic State. Its recent push into northern Syria came after steady advances by the YPG.

Erdogan, who was on a visit to the United States this week, told broadcaster MSNBC that the blame for a deadly attack on a United Nations convoy rested squarely with Damascus. 

"The killer responsible for that attack is Assad's regime itself," he said, through a translator in an interview aired on Friday. 

He called again for the creation of a "safe zone" in northern Syria, an idea that has failed to gain traction with Western allies, who say it would require a significant ground force and planes to patrol. 

The top U.S. general on Thursday said the military was considering arming the Syrian Kurdish fighters, and acknowledged the difficulty of balancing such a move with the relationship with Ankara. 

"We are in deliberation about (what) exactly to do with the Syrian Democratic Forces right now," General Joseph Dunford told a Senate hearing, referring to a U.S.-backed coalition that includes the YPG. 

When asked whether he agreed that arming the Syrian Kurds fighters presented a military opportunity for the United States to be more effective in Syria, Dunford said: "I would agree with that. If we would reinforce the Syrian Democratic Forces' current capabilities that will increase the prospects of our success in Raqqa."

Raqqa is Islamic State's stronghold in Syria. 

Additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington and Tuvan Gumrucku in Ankara; Editing by Ralph Boulton.

Accord:  Times of Oman

__________

Here is  Raqqa, Syria

Koerden veroveren basis Islamitische Staat in noordelijk Syrië - NRC

The Battle for Raqqa in Syria and the coming battle for Mosel in Iraq are critical:  together they would amount to a defeat of the Islamic State.

From Turkey and Iraq's standpoint those victories would be major defeats in their campaigns against Kurds.

Turkey and Iraq have foolishly decided that the Kurds are their enemies.

The Kurds, who were promised an independent Kurdistan by the French, were assigned to Syria, Turkey, and Iraq, where they were treated abominably.  They are now poised to obtain partial freedom.  The jubilation is evident in the  enthusiasm with which they establish a free, multi-ethnic, non-sectarian, feminist state where no such state has ever existed in all of recorded history.

All freedom-loving peoples of the world should support them.

__________

Oman is ruled by a Greek philosopher-king, prescribed in Plato's Republic, as the ideal form of government.  Though a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Oman opposed the Saudi-United Arab Emirates' Yemen genocide on its helpless people, the only member of the council to refrai; and has done its best to end the genocide and bring peace to Syria.

Oman reminds me of Honolulu, if we were ruled by a philosopher-king, and if we had oil instead of tourists.

__________

Asyrans have lived in central Near East since the 25 Century BCE.  They have no empire now, and their great buildings and statues have been largely destroyed.  Per Wikipedia:

Islamic Terrorism (2003–present)

 

An Assyrian wedding in Mechelen, Belgium.

In recent years, particularly since 2014, the Assyrians in northern Iraq and north east Syria have become the target of unprovoked Islamic terrorism. As a result, Assyrians have taken up arms, alongside other groups (such as the Kurds, Turcomans and Armenians) in response to unprovoked attacks by Al Qaeda, ISIL, Nusra Front, and other Wahhabi terrorist Islamic fundamentalist groups. In 2014 Islamic terrorists of ISIS attacked Assyrian towns and villages in the Assyrian homelands of northern Iraq and north east Syria. Assyrians forced from their homes in cities such as Mosul have had their houses and possessions stolen, and given over to ISIS terrorists or Sunni Arabs.[67]

In addition, the Assyrians have suffered seeing their ancient indigenous heritage desecrated, in the form of Bronze Age and Iron Age monuments and archaeological sites, as well as numerous Assyrian churches and monasteries,[67] being systematically vandalised and destroyed by ISIS. These include the ruins of Nineveh, Kalhu (Nimrud, Assur, Dur-Sharrukin and Hatra).[68][69]

Assyrians in both northern Iraq, north east Syria and also central and southern Iraq[70][71][72] have responded by forming armed Assyrian militias to defend their territories,[73] and despite being heavily outnumbered and outgunned have had success in driving ISIS from Assyrian towns and villages, and defending others from attack.[74][75] Armed Assyrian militias have also joined forces with other peoples persecuted by ISIS and Sunni Muslim extremists, including; the Kurds, Turcoman, Yezidis, Syriac-Aramean Christians, Shabaks, Armenian Christians, Kawilya, Mandeans, Circassians and Shia Muslim Arabs and Iranians.

Wahhabi have much to answer for.

The Saudi, the Qatari, the GCC, and the West

This Reuters analysis of GCC infighting is interesting and long over-due.The most important question it raises is this:  if the Saudi don't want to relay on the Wet for protection, why should the West spend billions protecting he Saudi?  If there are geopolitical reasons why  the West should spend billions protecting the Saudi from price competition from Iran, shouldn't the West get a significant break in oil prices?

The Saudi, first among all the rich countries in the world, have resisted the Enlightenment's discovery that the people should be sovereign in theirs own country.  Saudi object to any group that supports the election of rulers.  That is the reason the Saudi engineered the ouster of he admittedly-inept Muslim Brotherhood from Egypt, and is at odds with Turkey, a democratic Muslim state.

[Oman is a Socratic Muslim dictatorship, viewed from the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and the only one of the Gulf States I would support.]

There can be no peace in the Middle East so long as the Saudi remain dominant.  I would not support Qatar's support for an regime change in Syria, and I am happy to see it push for an elected regime rather than one imposed by the Saudi.

Durell

From Reuters U.S.

Qatar rift is pivotal test for disunited Gulf families

Thu, Mar 6 2014

By Angus McDowall and Sylvia Westall

RIYADH/KUWAIT (Reuters) - A breach between Qatar and some of its Gulf Arab neighbors is a pivotal test for a three-decade-old union of monarchies formed to stand united when threatened by common enemies.

The six neighbors have struggled for years to transform their alliance from a simple security pact into an integrated economy. But plans for a customs union, integrated power grids and a joint military command remain unfinished or unrealized.

Critics of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) blame its inadequacies on petty jealousies, border disputes, or the perceived dominance of its biggest member, Saudi Arabia.

If the allies can no longer reach broad agreement on how to navigate the political troubles afflicting the region, then the main point of their partnership is in question, say analysts.

Born more out of fear than greed, the GCC, which also includes Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman, has managed to present a united front at times of threat ranging from Iranian revolution to Iraqi invasion..

The club was born in 1981 to counter the revolutionaries who had toppled Iran's Shah, a fellow dynast familiar to Gulf Arab leaders, two years earlier. As Iran and Iraq embarked on an eight-year war, survival became the watchword for the GCC.

Now, even as most Gulf Arab economies are booming and the GCC touts itself as a rare outpost of stability in a turbulent region, the member countries have never appeared more divided.

"Will the GCC kill itself?" ran Thursday's headline in Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai.

Wednesday's statement by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain that they were withdrawing ambassadors from Doha and all but accusing Qatar of undermining their internal stability was unprecedented as a public display of divisions.

BROTHERHOOD

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are incensed by Qatar's support for the Muslim Brotherhood, which they regard as a dangerous political enemy. They are also cross about Doha's backing for more radical Islamist groups in Syria.

The UAE summoned the Qatari ambassador in February after Qatar-based Brotherhood cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi condemned the UAE as was against Islamic rule, a remark the UAE described as insulting and shameful.

UAE media quoted Qatari Foreign Minister Khaled al-Attiyah as saying the comments did not reflect Qatar's views. Sources close to the cleric said he would not stop speaking his mind.

Qaradawi told Reuters Saudi Arabia was backing those who "are far from God and Islam" in Egypt - the military-backed authorities that overthrew an elected Islamist president.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar are leading backers of rival Syrian rebel groups, and they and other Gulf states are the principal external forces supporting key players in Egypt and Yemen.

Acting together they could effect regional change. Apart, they risk dragging the Gulf into the post-Arab Spring quagmire.

A Gulf Arab diplomat said the decision to recall the envoys was taken after a meeting of GCC foreign ministers on Tuesday at which it became clear Qatar would not change its approach.

"After this meeting they decided - the Saudis, the Emirates and Bahrain - to take this kind of step," the diplomat said.

"It is a very negative step in our experience as a group, in this organization."

There have been plenty of previous rifts among the six dynasties, which sometimes appear to regard each other as rivals rather than partners, but they have never involved such an airing of dirty linen or come at such a dangerous time.

Unlike in the past, the Gulf states cannot count on strong Arab allies with large armies to see off external threats.

Gulf citizens see their region as the last bastion of security in the Arab world, with Iraq and Syria in conflict, Yemen and Libya in chaos, Egypt destabilized and Lebanon and Jordan undermined by turmoil in neighboring states.

SIBLING RIVALRY

Critics of the GCC deride its failure to fulfill its promises, such as a currency or border union. Despite big arms purchases, all its members remain dependent for their defense on alliances with Western powers, principally the United States.

The Gulf countries refer to each other in official statements as "full brothers", the closest blood relationship in a society traditionally built upon large polygamous families.

But they have often nursed sibling rivalries in disputes ranging from border demarcation and foreign policy to occasionally unflattering portrayal of rulers in each other's state media.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar in particular have had a series of disputes, including border clashes in 1992 that led to several deaths and a five-year period from 2002 when Riyadh had no ambassador in Doha after arguments about al-Jazeera broadcasts.

Qatar and the UAE also fell out in the 1990s when Dubai gave refuge to a former Qatari emir who was ousted in 1995, and Doha has crossed swords with Bahrain. Smaller-scale rows have periodically flared up between Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE.

At root, these spats and the GCC's slow pace in creating a stronger union have often resulted from the fundamental imbalance among a group of countries in which Saudi Arabia has a bigger population than the other five combined.

Political analysts say some in the smaller countries have seen the GCC as a ratification instrument for Saudi policies.

"Becoming a mediating power in the region has upset a lot of governments who think we are too small. But we are here to say we are not small, we believe in our role and will continue it," said a source close to the Qatari government.

SAUDI FRUSTRATION

For Saudi Arabia in particular, the disunity is a source of frustration. Riyadh has pushed hard since late 2011 for the GCC to forge a closer union on a shared foreign and security policy.

The personal initiative of King Abdullah, the idea emerged as a response to the Arab Spring and fears of Iranian interference and represents an important building block of Saudi efforts to become less dependent on the West.

But in December Oman said outright it did not want to be part of such a union, weeks after angering Riyadh by facilitating secret U.S.-Iranian talks that the Saudis fear will reduce international pressure on Tehran.

Kuwait stayed above the fray this week, talking of acting as a mediator when its emir returns from a medical trip overseas, but refraining from joining the pressure on Doha.

"The Saudis are strongly committed to the unity of the Gulf states, and they want other states to take their share of responsibilities towards the people of the Gulf," said Saud al-Sarhan, director of research at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh..

"Saudi Arabia is taking control of regional and Arab security, and slowly bringing to an end the era of reliance on foreign partners for strategic priorities," he added.

(Additional reporting by Amena Bakr in Doha and Rania el Gamal and Yara Bayoumy in Dubai; Editing by William Maclean and Andrew Roche)

__________________

Web images follow:

Saudi Arabia:

Qatar

Kuwait

United Arab Emirates

A sand storm engulfs Dubai

Dubai

Bahrain

U.S. military bases in Bahrain

The Royal Family

Other families

Saudi causeway to Bahrain playgrounds

Oman

 Suntan Sultan Qaboos bin Said,whom I think, 

viewed from a Polynesian Island

in he middle of the Pacific Ocean

reflects Socratic virtues.