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Concordo.

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Why Islamic State's caliphate is trouble for Egypt

Much has been written juxtaposing the rise of the Islamic State (IS, formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS) to the rise of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, with emphasis on how both are outdated and will eventually crumble as representations of two failed models — hypernationalism and radical Islamism. The “modern” military-led nationalist Arab state model may be decayed and likely to fall eventually, but the IS model will survive far longer than anyone expects.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/origina ... sisi.html##ixzz3JnWPLQJT

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/22/uk-mercenaries-fighting-islamic-state-terrorist-syria?CMP=fb_gu

Revealed: UK ‘mercenaries’ fighting Islamic State terrorist forces in Syria

“The Syrian press said on Friday that about 700 citizens are infiltrated in the country as mercenaries, armed gangs belonging to opponents who wish to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Cumprimentos

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Kobane já era. Mais umas decapitações ao vivo para alegria da malta e ainda não foi desta que levaram os turcos para o conflito directo na Síria.

http://www.priberam.pt/dlpo/informação

More Than a Battle, Kobani Is a Publicity War
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/world ... -well&_r=0

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http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/pr ... s%E2%80%99
Pro-uprising activists in Damascus countryside relocate to Turkey for ‘war on ISIS’

Map of regional and international influence in Aleppo
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/ma ... nce-aleppo

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Aleppo, Syria, could soon be under siege by government troops

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/ar ... -82064916/

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Control of Syrian Oil Fuels War Between Kurds and Islamic State
http://online.wsj.com/articles/control- ... 1416799982

'Scores dead' in air strikes on Syria's Raqaa
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeas ... 08654.html

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http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/11/2 ... D120141126

"To demand Assad's exit makes no sense now that everyone's main enemy is Islamic State, and a final destabilisation of power in Syria can only benefit them," said Fyodor Lukyanov, a foreign policy analyst with close ties to Russian authorities.

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http://sicnoticias.sapo.pt/especiais/ei ... o-a-Kobani

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INSIDE KOBANI: Kurdish civilians endure IS fight

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/035f6ebd ... dure-fight


‘One of deadliest attacks’: 50 ISIS militants reported dead in Kobani assault

http://www.rt.com/news/210315-isis-mili ... es-kobani/

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https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=703086416471436

Paris Match interview with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad

Bashar el Assad:It is true that there were demonstrations, but they were not large in number. In such a case, there is no choice but to defend your people against terrorists. There’s no other choice. We cannot say that we regret fighting terrorism since the early days of this crisis. However, this doesn’t mean that there weren’t mistakes made in practice. There are always mistakes. Let’s be honest: had Qatar not paid money to those terrorists at that time, and had Turkey not supported them logistically, and had not the West supported them politically, things would have been different.

Bashar el Assad : When a terrorist attacks you with weapons, how do you defend yourself and your people, with dialogue?! The army uses weapons when the other side uses them. For us in Syria, it is impossible to have our objective as shelling civilians. There’s no reason to shell civilians. If we are killing civilians, in other words killing our people, fighting terrorists at the same time, and fighting the states which stand against us and which support terrorists, like the Gulf countries, Turkey, and the West, how could we stand for four years? If we haven’t been defending the people, we wouldn’t have been able to stand all this pressure. Consequently, saying that we are shelling civilians doesn’t make any sense.

Paris Match: From a military perspective, do you have the means which enable you to win this war?

President Assad: Now we are fighting states, not only gangs. Billions of dollars are spent on those gangs. They receive arms from different countries, including Turkey. So, it is not an easy war from a military perspective. Nevertheless, the Syrian Army is winning in many places. On the other hand, no one can say how this war will end or when. But the major war for them in the beginning was how to win the hearts of the Syrians; and they have lost this war. The communities which embraced terrorists have become very small, and that is the reason why the army is winning. So, we have to look at this war militarily, socially, and politically.

Paris Match: Many people say that the solution lies in your departure. Do you believe that your departure is the solution?

Bashar el Assad : The president of any state in the world takes office through constitutional measures and leaves office through constitutional measures as well. No President can be installed or deposed through chaos. The tangible evidence for this is the outcome of the French policy when they attacked Gaddafi. What was the result? Chaos ensued after Gaddafi’s departure. So, was his departure the solution? Have things improved, and has Libya become a democracy? The state is like a ship; and when there is a storm, the captain doesn’t run away and leave his ship to sink. If passengers on that ship decided to leave, the captain should be the last one to leave, not the first.

Paris Match: This means that the captain is prepared to die. You talked about Gaddafi. Do you fear facing the same fate and to meet your death like Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi?

Bashar el Assad : A captain doesn’t think of life and death, he thinks of saving his ship. If the ship sinks, everybody will die, so we would rather save the country. But I want to stress an important point here. Remaining president had never been my objective, before, during, or after the crisis. But we as Syrians will never accept that Syria become a western puppet state. This is one of our most important objectives and principles.

Paris Match: The Americans, in their war against ISIS, are tactical allies. Do you still think that their intervention constitutes a violation of national sovereignty?

Bashar el Assad : First, you said that it is tactical, and this is an important point. You know that tactics without a strategy do not produce results, so it will not defeat terrorism. It is an illegal intervention, first because it is not authorized by a Security Council resolution, and second because it did not respect the sovereignty of a state, Syria, in this case. So, it is an illegal intervention, and consequently constitutes a violation of sovereignty.

Paris Match: According to Agence France Presse, your air forces made at least 2,000 sorties in 40 days, and this is a huge number. When your aircraft cross the alliance’s aircraft, for instance on their way to shell Raqqa, do you coordinate or do you have a non-aggression agreement?

Bashar el Assad : There is no direct coordination. We attack terrorism everywhere, regardless of what the United States, or the alliance it leads, is doing. You might find it strange that the number of daily Syrian air strikes against terrorists is larger than that launched by the alliance. There’s no coordination; and at the same time you need to realize that the alliance’s airstrikes are merely cosmetic.

Paris Match: Since one result of the alliance’s airstrikes, from an American perspective, was Chuck Hagel’s resignation, do you think that the alliance’s airstrikes are helping you?

Bashar el Assad : Terrorism cannot be destroyed from the air, and you cannot achieve results on the ground without land forces who know the geographical details of the regions and move in tandem with the airstrikes. That’s why, and after two months of the alliance’s airstrikes, there are no tangible results on the ground in that direction. And that’s why saying that the alliance’s airstrikes are helping us is not true. Had these airstrikes been serious and effective, I would have said that they would be certainly useful to us. But we are the ones fighting the battles against ISIS on the ground, and we haven’t felt any change, particularly that Turkey is still extending direct support to ISIS in those regions.

Paris Match: Are there chemical weapons in Syria today, yes or no?

Bashar el Assad : No. When we announced this, it was a clear announcement, and when we decided to abandon chemical weapons, our decision was final.

Paris Match: But U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accuses you of violating the agreement because you used chlorine. Is that true?

Bashar el Assad : You can find chlorine in any house in Syria. Everyone has chlorine, and any group can use it. But we haven’t used it because we have traditional weapons which are more effective than chlorine, and we do not need to use it. We are fighting terrorists, and using traditional weapons without concealing that or being shy about it. So, we don’t need chlorine. These accusations do not surprise us; for when did the Americans say anything true about the crisis in Syria?

Paris Match: Have you used chemical weapons?

Bashar el Assad : We haven’t used this kind of weapons; and had we used it anywhere, tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people would have died. It’s impossible for these weapons to kill, as it was claimed last year, only one hundred people or two hundred people, particularly in areas where hundreds of thousands, and maybe millions, of Syrians live.

Paris Match: Your wife used to consider herself an ambassador of modernity. How does she live in Syria, and how does she feel about what is happening in Syria, particularly that she hasn’t left the country?

Bashar el Assad : Like all Syrians, she feels pain. Both of us feel pain for the destruction and the blood we see in Syria, to see Syria going backwards decades and not years. It’s painful to see the country which used to be one of the top five countries in the world in terms of security become a safe haven for terrorists. It is also painful for both my wife and I to see our belief that the West will help us in our bid for development and openness go in the opposite direction, and what is even worse, to see the West having allies among these medieval states in the Gulf, like Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Paris Match: People describe you as being very close to your children. How do you explain to them what is happening to your country when you return home in the evening?

Bashar el Assad : Of course, this discussion goes on in every Syrian house now; and the most difficult thing in this discussion is when you deal with children whose social consciousness has developed during this crisis. There are two basic questions asked, not only in our family but in many families. The first question: how can people who believe or say they are defending God and Islam kill and murder? This is a case which is not easy to explain, and children ask whether these people know that they are wrong. And the answer here is that there are those who know but make use of religion for private purposes, and there are ignorant people who do not know that religion is good. They think, instead, that religion means killing.

The second question: why does the West launch an aggression against us, and why does it support terrorists and destruction? Of course, they do not say the West in general, they specify certain countries, including the United States, France, and Britain. Why do they do that? Have we done anything to hurt them? We also explain to them that people are something, and states are something else.

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Síria acusa Israel de realizar ataques aéreos perto de Damasco


A Síria acusou este domingo Israel de ter realizado pelo menos dois ataques aéreos perto do aeroporto internacional de Damasco e da cidade de Dimas, junto à fronteira com o Líbano.

"Esta tarde, o inimigo israelita atacou a Síria atingindo duas zonas em Damasco, nomeadamente a cidade de Dimas e o aeroporto internacional", declarou fonte do  Exército sírio, em declarações à televisão estatal, garantindo que não houve feridos a registar, mas apenas danos materiais em algumas instalações.

O exército sírio fala numa "agressão flagrante" de Israel que prova o envolvimento direto do país no apoio ao terrorismo na Síria. "Este ataque de Israel serviu para levantar a moral dos grupos terroristas, principalmente de Jabhat al-Nusra e do Estado Islâmico, após os golpes do exército sírio", sublinhou.

Segundo o Observatório Sírio dos Direitos Humanos foram ouvidas 10 explosões próximo de Damasco,  havendo registo de oito raides em zonas da cidade de Khan al-Sheeh, nos subúrbios a leste da capital, tendo sido também atingido um armazém perto de aeroporto internacional. Entretanto, testemunhas locais já divulgaram algumas imagens das explosões.

O governo israelita recusou-se, contudo, a comentar as acusações com base em "relatórios estrangeiros", refere a agência Reuters.

Desde o início do conflito na Síria, em março de 2011, que já causou mais de 200 mil mortos e levou três milhões de pessoas a refugiarem-se noutros países, de acordo com as Nações Unidas (ONU), o exército israelita já perpetrou vários ataques no país como forma de retaliação contra os ataques a Israel devido à ocupação dos Montes Golã.

Expresso

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Syria strike said to target advanced air-defense missiles

http://www.timesofisrael.com/syria-stri ... -missiles/


Russia demands Israeli explanation of air strikes in Syria

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.630584

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New Evidence Suggests Israel Is Helping Syrian Rebels in the Golan Heights

https://news.vice.com/article/new-evide ... an-heights

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