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In recent weeks, we have seen how Caliph al-Julani – known globally as Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa – struggles to maintain control over his caliphate, formerly known as Syria. He is slowly losing his command over the territory and his grip on the Syrian people. Under his one-year rule, numerous massacres have been committed against Alawites, Christians, Druze, and, most recently, the Kurds.

The first major massacre targeted the Alawites. The most intense violence occurred between March 6 and 9, 2025, concentrated in the coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus – home to most of Syria’s Alawites and Christians, including those in Safita and the Valley of the Christians (Wadi al-Nasara).

The massacre erupted on March 6, 2025, when remnants of Assad’s legitimate army launched coordinated attacks on the caliphate’s new security forces in cities like Jableh and Baniyas. These so-called security forces consist largely of foreign fighters who joined al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups to sow terror in Syria and Iraq – a conflict the West labeled a civil war. The trigger was U.S. inaction and illegal wars in Iraq, which created ISIS in Camp Bucca, unleashing a monster that remains untamed to this day.

In the West, the group was known as ISIS in 2014; in the Arab world, as Daesh. Sunni Bedouin tribes, still traveling between Syria and Iraq, also joined ISIS in 2014 and have since been incorporated into the caliphate’s security forces. In collaboration with other jihadists, they carried out the recent attacks.

The so-called Syrian army is no longer a unified force like under the Assad government but a patchwork of hundreds of militias – jihadists, pro-Turkish factions, Arab tribes, al-Qaeda affiliates, and foreign fighters, primarily from Central Asia.

Under the Assad government, attempts were made to educate the Bedouin of Deir ez-Zor and elsewhere, but these efforts failed. The Bedouin communities of Deir ez-Zor traditionally inhabit the Euphrates region and the al-Badia desert, with major tribes including the al-Ogaydat, Baggara, and Bani Khalid. The Bani Khalid tribe was responsible for the Druze massacres. They still live as they did centuries ago – with multiple wives, many children, and a brutal adherence to Sharia law, much like al-Julani and his caliphate.

Back to the Alawite massacre: in response to the March 6 attacks, forces affiliated with the new caliphate – including the so-called Ministry of Defense and various Sunni militias, including the aforementioned Bedouin – launched a counteroffensive.

These jihadists and Bedouin-jihadists went door to door, asking residents if they were Sunni or Alawite. Those identified as Alawite – men, women, and children – were often executed without trial. In Baniyas alone, more than 300 people were killed during a three-day terror campaign that included the execution of women, men, children, the elderly, and the sick.

Next came the massacre of the Druze, whom the Damascus caliphate views as apostates, along with the Alawites and Kurds.

The violence against the Druze began in April 2025 in Jaramana and Sahnaya, towns in the Rif Dimashq Governorate, after a falsified audio recording – falsely attributed to a Druze leader and promoted by the caliphate – insulted the Prophet Muhammad. More than 100 Druze fighters and civilians were killed, including at least 43 in an ambush on a relief convoy by caliphate-allied forces.

The massacres continued in Suwayda, southern Syria, where the U.S.-led uprising for regime change began in 2011 with the arming of Iraqi jihadists – remnants and paid mercenaries of the former Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein. Iraq, where the U.S. launched a bloody war under false pretenses in 2003, is the cradle of all modern Middle Eastern wars.

Violence against the Druze in Suwayda flared in July 2025, with the worst outbreaks beginning on July 13 after renewed conflict between Druze and Bedouin-jihadists. UN experts and human rights groups reported systematic atrocities committed by caliphate-affiliated forces and local militias. By the end of July, the death toll was estimated between 600 and 2,000, including at least 1,000 Druze civilians.

This was followed by a horrific attack on the national hospital in Suwayda, where witnesses reported patients executed in their beds or thrown from rooftops. Doctors and medical staff were also killed on the spot. Reported violations included summary executions, public beheadings, forced suicides, and sexual violence.

The caliphate’s most recent massacre targeted the Kurds, beginning in late December 2025 and early January 2026. Heavy fighting broke out in the Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh in Aleppo between Kurdish Democratic Forces (SDF) – formerly supported by the U.S. and Western proxies – and caliphate forces.

The Kurds, who have fought fiercely against jihadists since 2012 in places like Afrin and Kobane, now face many of those same jihadists in ministerial positions within the al-Julani caliphate. Violent clashes erupted on December 22–23, 2025. The caliphate claimed the SDF attacked its checkpoints; the SDF accused the caliphate of initiating the assault.

On December 23, the caliphate cut off electricity to the affected neighborhoods and imposed a blockade, restricting food and medical supplies. The Kurds faced starvation, and their hospital was bombed – a familiar tactic of the al-Julani caliphate, previously used against the Druze. Hundreds were killed. Female Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers were reportedly sexually assaulted, mutilated, and thrown from rooftops – horrors perpetrated by the barbarians the world now calls Syria’s new government.

Heavy weapons and shelling continued despite temporary ceasefires. The Kurds were eventually driven out during the cold winter, fleeing advancing caliphate forces.

The caliphate spins lie after lie for its naive Western allies, including the EU. But America, too, has shot itself in the foot with its appalling policies in Syria and the Middle East. By helping this puppet caliph to power, it fueled violence with now-immeasurable consequences. The caliph has opened the gates of hell: the the al-Hawl camp, where thousands of ISIS terrorists are held, has seen mass escapes after the gates were flung open.

According to an SDF commander: “Attacks on detention centers for ISIS fighters and their families in al-Shaddadi and al-Hol camps are escalating dangerously. Al-Hol Camp has been targeted by heavy attacks and attempts to storm it. Guards were attacked by military convoys, armored vehicles, and tanks, forcing them to withdraw. We have now withdrawn to predominantly Kurdish areas – protecting them is a red line. We don’t know what will happen to the camps; they are no longer under our control. Reports indicate many ISIS terrorists have escaped and joined the new so-called Syrian government forces.”

Even the belligerent Lindsay Graham, a staunch Christian Zionist, is now involved – but far too late. The massacres have already happened; these are the so-called peace interventions of the U.S. Now there is also a “Gaza peace board,” which has nothing to do with money, because violence in the new caliphate continues unabated for Palestinians, just as it did in former Syria and, to a lesser extent, Lebanon.

Due to the incompetent foreign policy of American and European governments, the Middle East is back to square one – back to 2011 and a new war on terror. Groups are being pitted against each other, and many illiterate factions, such as the Bedouin and the group to which al-Sharaa belongs, have not adapted to the modern era. They live as if in the Middle Ages, under Sharia law.

The West, including America and Europe, condemned the Assad government – yet under it, there was modernity, institutions, free education, and healthcare. These underdeveloped groups reject that progress and are supported by America and Europe, who seek to realize their colonial aspirations. The Middle East has been robbed of its oil by criminals. It is time for the region to develop and become great again, like during the Golden Age of Islam (8th–13th centuries), which contributed profoundly to science, culture, and philosophy – the very foundations of modern European civilization. Instead of gratitude, the West has exploited Arab countries to this day, fostering immense and lasting hatred among Arabs toward the U.S. and Europe – a dangerous sign the West would be wise to heed.

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December 8, 2024, was a dark day for a large part of the indigenous Syrian population. Turkey and Israel, along with the U.S. and Europe, staged a coup against President Assad’s weakened government and army – both significantly degraded after fourteen years of war. The population had been living under the harshest sanctions ever imposed. The Caesar Act (sanctions), introduced by Donald Trump during his first term as U.S. president in 2019, was the strictest sanctions regime ever imposed by the West. Today, of course, Russia has become the most heavily sanctioned country in the world, a status even worse than that of Syria and Iran.

The war, and later the sanctions, were not only aimed at the Syrian government but primarily at what are now known as minority groups such as the Alawites, Christians, Druze, and to a lesser extent, the Kurds. The conflict waged by the West began as a proxy war with Operation Timber Sycamore. Terrorists fighting in Iraq were instructed to go to Syria, supplied with Western weapons (primarily from the U.S. in 2011), and organized a revolution in Dar’aa, southern Syria, in 2011. The rest is history.

Operation Timber Sycamore was a secret weapons delivery and training program carried out by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), supported by the United Kingdom, the EU, and several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The goal of the program was to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power.

The program, which according to numerous sources was already in place before 2011, was aimed at sponsoring so-called opposition groups. The U.S. and many EU states, including the Netherlands – which, as always, played a prominent role in sponsoring war and violence – provided money, weapons, and training. Many of these weapons ended up in the hands of extremist groups, including al-Qaeda and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (the current President al-Shaara was the head of these terrorist groups).

The coup in December 2024, along with the hordes of terrorists who advanced from Idlib into Syria, was primarily orchestrated and trained by Turkey. However, Ukrainian drone specialists – armed with drones manufactured in the Netherlands – were also present in Idlib, a notorious hotbed hosting terrorists, Uighurs, Turks, Tajiks, Kyrgyz, and Chechens who had previously fought against Russia in the First and Second Chechen Wars. This terrorist contingent now forms the core of what remains of Syria’s security apparatus in 2025.

Current U.S. President Donald Trump, who originally enacted the Caesar Act, has referred to the new so-called President, Mohammad al-Julani (nom de guerre) – known by his birth name Al-Shaara and hailed among terrorists as the new caliph, akin to Osama bin Laden or Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, all puppets of the U.S. and wealthy Arab oil states – as a “Young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.” This characterization conveniently overlooks the fact that there was once a $10 million bounty on his head; after all, he was a notorious “headhunter” who killed, or ordered the killing of, many people, including civilians. But in these times of prevailing Western madness, terrorists are rebranded as the “good guys,” while legitimate leaders are labeled terrorists and “bad guys.”

Returning to the present in 2025, Syria has degenerated into a second Iraq or Libya, where minorities are being mercilessly slaughtered. Since the beginning of the orchestrated Western revolution in 2011, the terrorists – sponsored by the West and portrayed as “good guys and rebels” – have chanted “kill the Alawites,” a campaign that began in Hama and Homs.

In 2025, they are acting on this slogan. Alawites in particular are being murdered daily – some of them simple farmers or students who had no interest in politics or were too young to have served in the former Syrian army. They are killed solely because they are Alawites, sometimes Christians or Druze. This is starkly evidenced by the massacre of Alawites in March 2025 and the subsequent murder of Druze.

Why is this happening? Because the current regime is founded on Sharia law and an extreme interpretation of Islam that seeks to exterminate all other faiths, whom they deem “infidels.” We have regressed to the Middle Ages in Syria, just as in other Middle Eastern countries ravaged by wars waged by the U.S. and its NATO and EU allies. In Syria, the Assad government had attempted to foster modernity and prosperity – no easy task after years of colonial rule, even if under a strict regime. But such firm governance appears necessary in many Middle Eastern societies, which, as we now see, have not yet evolved to meet the realities of 2025.

If you believed the West would be satisfied with installing their favored terrorist as president, you are in for a surprise. While Trump may appear naive or foolish for promoting a terrorist, the EU – specifically the Netherlands and Germany – continues to use so-called evidence and baseless accusations to target Assad, his government, or anyone who still believes in the truth and understands what really happened.

A new investigation known as the “Damascus Files” is being promoted by state-sponsored EU media, claiming to present further evidence of Assad’s alleged crimes – specifically targeting him, just as they have done with Putin. They report: “Journalists reviewed the images together. The dataset, containing 33,000 images and 134,000 internal emails, reports, telephone conversations, and other documents, ended up in the hands of the German broadcaster NDR, which shared the data with the investigative staff of the Dutch magazine Pointer.”

Now I will dispel your illusions about the so-called Dutch investigative collective Pointer, which employs only three or four people. This group, for example, has told the most egregious lies about me as well. They devoted three or four articles to me and even an entire broadcast on Dutch state television. Of course, I never spoke to them personally. My family and remaining friends were pressured and harassed to do so, but they refused. Consequently, everything they write or broadcast consists of text and video taken out of context, designed to portray me as an incorrigible Kremlin journalist and Assad supporter. Now they are employing the same tactics against Assad and his government, and naturally, they continue to do so with Putin. They are like parasites, thriving on gossip and lies.

Predictably, not a word appears in their so-called “Damascus Files” about the terrorist crimes committed over the past fourteen years. Instead, the article claims Assad has caused at least 160,000 people to disappear, among other slanders. There is no mention of the massacre of March 8, 2025, against the Alawites, or the atrocity at a Druze hospital, where patients and doctors were murdered in cold blood by al-Julani’s so-called “security forces.” In the eyes of the West, it seems these victims are either guilty or unworthy of being acknowledged as human – otherwise, they would have been mentioned.

Meanwhile, calls for federalism in what real Syrians call the former Syria are growing. Alawites are making plans in various countries, right under the noses of politicians who seem to despise this group, for a new Syria. The coastal strip and surrounding mountains will secede from the caliphate in Damascus and Aleppo if they are strong enough. The Druze and Kurds face the same fate and are making their own plans. It is, of course, tragic that the goal of “Balkanizing” Syria appears poised to succeed, just as it did in the former Yugoslavia. Currently, however, there is no other solution as long as a Western-backed al-Qaeda president, or caliph, remains in power with his murderous gangs, conducting endless bloodshed.

Modernity and extreme Islam are fundamentally incompatible – a reality the West knows all too well. Germany, for example, hosts many of these “extremists” – al-Qaeda supporters who fled to Germany in 2016 after the fall of Aleppo. They are conveniently labeled as Syrians, but in fact represent a mixture of nationalities, including Iraqis, Afghans, and others. They commit acts of terror in Germany daily, targeting women and assaulting or killing native Germans. A broad European campaign has even been launched against what they term United Against Femicide. These same al-Qaeda terrorists were known for keeping sex slaves in Syria and Iraq, so what else could one expect? In the name of tolerance, supposedly liberal Europe permits anything that deviates from the norm and morality – a tolerance that appears to extend only to terrorists or the LGBTQ community.

It will be a long road for the minorities in Syria, especially the Alawites, most of whom are now in exile – not in Europe, but scattered across the globe. They must wait until they are strong enough to envision their own homeland. The coastal region and its hinterland, home to minorities like the Christians (in the so-called Valley of the Christians), will need to be reclaimed. External assistance is unlikely. Russia was a crucial ally starting in 2015, but it now faces NATO at its doorstep and must commit all its manpower and equipment to the Special Military Operation and to countering radicalized NATO states, especially EU nations whose leaders speak of little but war. The Alawites must be resilient – they must become strong once more.

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Although stupid and selfish people have given many reasons for the collapse of the Syrian Arab Republic on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 8 December 2025, the best explanation was given to me in Damascus almost ten years previously by an Alawite friend of mine, which said that even the biggest buffalo will fall if you lance it with enough spears. Putting that another way, the Syrian Arab Republic fell because, not unlike today’s Gaza, it had been under relentless siege by NATO’s serial liars, serial thieves and serial killers for over a decade.

There was never anything moderate about Jolani’s moderate rebels, most of whom, like himself, had backgrounds in ISIS and in the Muslim Brotherhood, which has always been largely under the control of British military intelligence in their ongoing efforts to ward off the Arab secularism typified by such historical figures as Hafez Assad, Gamal Nasser and Yasser Arafat.

British and Turkish military intelligence put out the word that Syria was a happy hunting ground where Tunisian, Moroccan and European jihadists could steal and rape at will and all without consequence. That had been the policy in Idlib since Turkey overran it the guts of a decade ago and it is the policy in all of Syria today. When Jolani’s crew are horny, they are free to kidnap and rape Alawi and Ismaili women, just as they were free to do the same to Yazidi and Mandaean women in Iraq.

The collapse of the Syrian Arab Republic and of its defenders, the heroic men and women of the Syrian Arab Army, has not changed that a whit, as anybody who follows events there or who are aware what British military intelligence are up to there, will know. Women and girls are regularly raped and murdered, hospitals are stormed and patients and doctors are executed on the spot. Nothing has changed.

Not only should British and American spymasters be on trial for war crimes but so too should Irish “journalists” like Skateboard Sally and Irish politicians like Barry Andrews, whose ugly mug this SCF article adorns as this serial huckster rallied support and funding for Jolani’s gang rapists, in his successive roles as a failed politician, a corrupt NGO boss, a NATO think tank boss and now as a squeaky clean MEP.

Although success may well have many fathers and failure may well be an orphan, there are far too many people who were complicit in reducing Syria’s girls, boys and women to be the sex slaves of NATO’s allies to adumbrate here. Far from that being a new development, I was “in trouble” with British police and what passes for their judicial system over a decade ago for pointing out that Leicester University hosted Muhammad al-‘Arafi, who was the main ISIS recruiter for child sex jihad, a despicable crime Canadian military intelligence also infamously got into by trafficking British schoolgirls from the east end of London. Just think about that for a second. MI6 gave al-‘Arfi carte blanche to prance around Blighty recruiting kids to be raped by Blighty’s ISIS allies and Canada was busily recruiting sex slaves in London and I, who actively opposed all that, was the villain of the piece.

As, of course, were the Assads, Putin, Hezbollah and all the usual suspects we will now look at in turn. Hezbollah has the distinction of being pivotal to the first major victory of the heroic Syrian Arab Army when they defeated the head hackers in the Qalamoun Mountains and so began the process of lifting the sieges of Saidnaya and Damascus and liberating Maaloula. Although the Christians of Syria and all of the world cannot thank Hezbollah enough for their immense sacrifices, Russian military commentators did say Hezbollah were not up to par when it came to big-formation armoured warfare. Although the Russians may have a tactical point there, it does not detract in the least from Hezbollah’s immense sacrifices.

As regards Russian involvement, the first thing to say is that over 200 Russian servicemen, the heroic Alexander Prokhorenko and pilot Oleg Peshkov included, paid the ultimate price in defence of the Syrian Arab Republic and, for MI6 scavengers to accuse Russia of cutting and running is to accuse Russia of abandoning those servicemen and to thereby deserve much more than a punch in the mouth. When Russia first became directly involved in the Syrian conflict, she flew a few information-gathering air sorties and then started hitting the NATO gangsters, where it hurt, which is in the pocket or, to be more precise, in the Syrian oil installations NATO were looting wholesale. Russia having hit the oil installations and oil tankers hard, the United States and her toadies then upped the ante by blitzing their own ISIS allies in Raqqa and sending their air forces in to bomb Syrian forces in Deir Ezzor, who were under the command of the legendary General Issam Zahreddine, the Druze leader who was subsequently assassinated and whose civilian family were later slaughtered by Jolani’s henchmen.

After the Syrian Army collapse on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, there are videos galore of Russian troops driving by their disarmed Syrian counterparts and expressing their disgust at them for cutting and running, just as there are of the head hackers doing the same thing. The importance of those Russian videos in terms of this autopsy is that there was no Russian “stab in the back” and those who argue the contrary, many of whom I know from their Syrian and Gazan grifts, are simply parasites who were sucking the life blood from Syria for their own gain, just as they are now trying to do with Russia and Iran. The idea that Jolani and his MI6 handlers would allow Russian patrols anywhere near southern Syria and thereby possibly lift the siege of south Lebanon or team up with the Druze is fanciful nonsense typical of those menopausal chancers,who have been quite successful at spreading this smear among their grifting groupies.

The Syrian problem, as I have already stated, was that untold amounts of arrows were being rammed into her and all of her young people, who could flee, had fled, not only for their own sakes but for that of their families..All that really remained were a relatively small number of the elite, who were either in it for their own ends or who were prepared to go down fighting and, as often transpired, take a few of the head hackers with them with the help of a few hidden hand grenades.

With respect to Idlib, the Assads and their Russian and Iranian allies had the goalkeeper’s dilemma of diving either to the left or the right, of saving the penalty and being a hero or of missing it and being regarded as a fool, just as we now have the Monday morning quarterback problem of judging after the horse has bolted. Specifically, the Syrian Army could have retaken Idlib at great cost or, as the Russians advised and, as Bashar Assad favoured, negotiating with the devils, gang rapists and serial throat cutters who had set up shop there. Although it is easy to be wise after the event, had the Syrian Army’s legendary Tiger Forces gone in hard as nails on Idlib, the Americans, the Turks and the rest of the puppet masters would have responded with even greater force. Assad was doomed either way.

As regards the wonderful Asma Assad, it has to be again stated that Bashar Assad scored the jackpot when he hooked up with her as she was, far and away, the world’s finest and most cultured First Lady and, certainly, light years ahead of anything that crawled to the top in NATO land. The attacks on her by NATO ignoramuses, mercenaries and despicable weasels are just a continuation of the war they have waged against everything Syrian, Palestinian and Arab for long before this dirty war on Syria ever began in earnest.

Although Syria now lies prostrated under the jackboot of her Israeli and NATO enemies, the hope has to be that she will rise again, just like she did against the Ottomans and the French. But, before that can happen, there must be a much deeper analysis that goes beyond the child like finger wagging at Russia and other external forces. The key weakness of the Syrian Arab Republic was that it drew from a very narrow vein of support, even from within the Alawis and much of that had to do with the screwed up way in which Syrian civil society was organised and for which all good Syrians are now paying the most unconscionable of prices.

Chief of these was, contrary to Assad’s earlier Presidential efforts, a failure to involve Syrian civil society in the defence of the Syrian Arab Republic. Although I could give many examples, here are a few. First off were the patriotic Syrian computer hackers, who were used as disposable dixie cups, rather than being molded into an effective weapon in Syria’s counter-hegemonic arsenal. Allied to that was the way the Syrian Ministry of Information, most of whom have now deserted to Jolani (quelle surprise with those sniveling curs) stifled internal and external voices in support of Syria, while simultaneously supporting their own compromised internal and external assets. Next off are Christian middle management, who were given far too much leeway in a time of war (when there should be direct chains of command) and at least one of whom, a notorious Melkite nun, was skimming wholesale off the top, and off the middle and the bottom as well.

But selfish Lebanese-born and Maronite-raised nuns stealing planes full of Iranian aid was not the only problem. Ali Baba’s forty thieves were another and I often saw upper class scumbags exchange fistfuls of Benjamins in Damascus’ more fashionable areas. And then there were the jollies to Tehran and Beijing, which the same sort of riff raff treated as free holidays (on the Chinese and Iranian dime) instead of the chance to glean practical economic, military and diplomatic support, which is what they were supposed to be. Whenever Assad, to his eternal credit, flew to meet Putin, he went to get military, diplomatic and economic help, not to take selfies in Red Square or to stock up on duty free vodka. He was the exception to the rule.

And last of all, there is the Tiger, Major General Suhayl al-Hasan, the legendary leader of Syria’s Special Forces and probably the toughest, bravest and most battle hardened military leader of our era. The problem was not with the Tiger or with the Tiger Forces but that their successes showed what was wrong elsewhere in the Syrian Army and, by extension, in all of Syrian and Arab society. Whereas the Tiger could always summon reinforcements or air strikes with a phone call, the sycophantic nature of Syrian society meant no other military or civil leader could do that and untold numbers of Syrian soldiers needlessly bled to death or died at the hands of the head hackers as a result.

If the Syrian people and, more generally, all the Arab people, are to achieve the august destiny to which they are called, they must somehow rid themselves of those self imposed manacles and, should Hezbollah or some other external force open up a door of opportunity, strike, and strike hard, in the Four Seasons Hotel and other MI6 hotspots.

They say that night is darkest before the dawn and Syria is certainly in a very dark place right now, which MI6, ISIS and their toadies want to make darker still. But life, however imperfectly goes on and, when the tide turns, which it will, patriotic Syrians must be prepared to once more put their shoulders to the wheel and dispatch the British, the Americans and their toadies the same way they previously dispatched the Ottomans and the French but, this time, the Tlass family and all internal and external enemies must also be flushed down the chute so that Damascus and all of Syria can once more rise from the ashes.

All of the foregoing said, the main problem lies not in Syria but in the West, which allows its own jackals to rise to the top and, at best, turns a blind eye to the massacres they sanction in Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Yemen and wherever else they have condemned to hell on earth. Though the road before us is as long and as bloody as the road we have left behind, there is no turning back. There will be another day.

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Estados Unidos ha revocado la denominación de Hay´t Tahrir al-sham (HTS) también conocido como el Frente Al- Nusra como una organización terrorista extranjera. La decisión fue anunciada por el Secretario de Estado Marco Rubio, en un memorándum con fecha 23 de Junio y publicado adelantadamente en el Registro Federal.

Si, correcto: una vez más Estados Unidos juega a ser el alguacil del mundo y decide quien recibe la medalla de honor y quien tiene que ser considerado un criminal. Podría tratarse de una coincidencia pero Estados Unidos nunca acusa a aquellos que sirven sus intereses económicos de terroristas. En cambio es muy aficionado a enjuiciar a aquellos que contradigan su voluntad. La geopolítica del abuso.

Ahora la revocación llega dentro de un contexto de cambio más amplio en la política norteamericana hacia Siria, luego que el Presidente Donald Trump firmó una orden ejecutiva para reducir las sanciones unilaterales contra Damasco, aplicadas desde el año 1979 debido a su hostilidad hacia Israel. Luego de la caída del Presidente Bashar al Assad, HTS tomó el control del país y, al mismo tiempo, Israel intensificó sus ataques aéreos y ocupó nuevas áreas en Siria más allá de las Alturas del Golán. El nuevo gobierno sirio ha demostrado una apertura hacia la normalización de las relaciones con Israel y las negociaciones están en camino por un posible acuerdo el año 2026. El cambio de enfoque de parte de Estados Unidos y Siria pareciera marcar un nuevo curso en la dinámica geopolítica del Medio Oriente.

*Irán como Enemigo Hasta la Muerte*

Dos posibles estrategias están actualmente emergiendo: una comprende la intervención militar directa de Estados Unidos e Israel contra Irán; la otra consiste en una masiva campaña de manipulación psicológica apuntada hacia la población iraní e internacional como preludio de una agresión armada. Los métodos, las razones y el tiempo dependerá del desarrollo y síntomas iniciales que aún no están suficientemente claros para ser revelados.

No obstante, el conflicto armado pareciera inevitable.

Irán está bien preparado pero las estrategias preparadas por sus adversarios podrían generar confusión y temor con un riesgo de pérdidas graves. La evolución de los eventos sigue siendo incierta pero una cosa está clara: Estados Unidos e Israel tendrán que pensarlo cuidadosamente antes de embarcarse en un conflicto en gran escala, considerando las consecuencias.

Mientras tanto existen síntomas crecientes para desestabilizar al Líbano especialmente apuntando contra las comunidades Shiitas con el apoyo de Israel, los Estados Árabes Unidos y sus aliados. Esto podría inaugurar un nuevo frente y arrastrar a Irán hacia un conflicto mayor o incluso desatar una guerra civil libanesa.

La decisión de sacar a Al Nusra de la lista de organizaciones terroristas aparece estrechamente vinculada al deseo de permitir que los socios regionales de Estados Unidos lo apoyen abiertamente, empleándolos contra las comunidades Shiitas. Esto no es solo una movida diplomática sino un aprovechamiento planificado del terrorismo disfrazado como una defensa del derecho internacional.

En este contexto resulta esencial fortalecer el frente común de resistencia. Ya sea a través de la disuasión nuclear u oposición en todos los frentes, es urgente para contrarrestar y neutralizar cada instrumento del eje Estados Unidos – Sionista-Wahhabista-Julani o como sea el nombre que utilicen. En todo caso, Irán debe ser derribado. Se trata del enemigo por excelencia en Asia Occidental y no puede prevalecer.

Por otra parte, el Estados Unidos de Trump conoce bien esta letanía: cuando en el 2020 el presidente ordenó – y luego orgullosamente proclamó durante una conferencia de prensa nacional – el asesinato del General Qassem Soleimani quien estaba de visita en Bagdad para firmar acuerdos de cooperación internacional, lo hizo para reiterar su promesa de “liberar” la región del monstruo iraní. Monstruo que sigue siendo descrito como tal por la prensa internacional la cual rápidamente se reagrupó a los doce días de la agresión israelí.

*La Geometría Fluctúa*

No obstante Estados Unidos está abandonando su posición como perro de presa del mundo debido a que el poderío militara a pesar de lo grande que sea ya no es suficiente, además cuando la influencia política no está presente. Quince años atrás, una batalla como la de los doce días probablemente habría significado una masacre para Irán. Pero Irán ha cambiado y es ahora una potencia mundial y un país clave para la estabilidad de esta. No obstante, lo más que hoy en día Estados Unidos puede hacer es salvaguardar a su aliado de una fallida guerra relámpago a través de una serie de ataques dirigidos.

En todo caso, ciertos modos de pensar parecieran muy duros de erradicar: Donald Trump siguiéndole los pasos a George W. Bush ha planteado demandas extremas a Teherán, exigiendo rendición total. En algún momento esas exigencias fueron exitosas: Yugoslavia fue obligada a ceder Kosovo, Irak fue ocupado y Libia llevada al caos. Pero actualmente, esa estrategia ya no funciona: el cambio de régimen en Irán continúa siendo una meta inalcanzable. El programa balístico de Teherán sigue activo y su programa nuclear sigue adelante.

Washington está enfrentando una situación en la cual pronto se verá obligado a demostrar con hechos que todavía puede imponerse a la fuerza en el plano internacional. De otra manera la creciente ola de desafíos contra el orden unipolar se intensificará y lo empujará hacia una lenta pero inexorable desintegración.

Y ahora, Estados Unidos que durante años se mantuvo como el campeón contra el terrorismo islámico, está entrenando terroristas y poniéndolos a cargo de un país entero y en consecuencia, cumpliendo con el sueño de ISIS de controlar todos aquellos países y explotar su posición para mantener la región en un estado de permanente precariedad, terror y un alto riesgo de conflicto generalizado. Una vez más la geopolítica de los matones amenaza con agredir a todos. Pero, querido matón llamado EE.UU. sus golpes ya no son aterradores: existe todo un mundo que ha aprendido a resistir los golpes y a responder en consecuencia.

La geometría internacional ha cambiado y Washington necesita darse por enterado.

Traducción desde el inglés por Sergio R. Anacona

Segue nostro Telegram.

Chi è terrorista lo decidiamo noi

Gli Stati Uniti hanno revocato la designazione di Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), noto anche come Fronte al-Nusra, come organizzazione terroristica straniera. La decisione è stata annunciata dal Segretario di Stato Marco Rubio in un memorandum del 23 giugno, pubblicato in anteprima sul Federal Register.

Sì, proprio così: ancora una volta, gli USA fanno gli sceriffi del mondo e decidono a chi affibbiare la medaglia al valore e chi invece è da considerarsi un criminale. Sarà una casualità, forse, ma gli USA non accusano mai di terrorismo chi fa i loro interessi economici, mentre sono molto abili a sputare sentenze su chi contraddici il loro volere. La geopolitica del bullismo.

Ora, la revoca avviene nel contesto di un più ampio cambiamento nella politica americana verso la Siria, dopo che il presidente Donald Trump ha firmato un ordine esecutivo per allentare le sanzioni unilaterali contro Damasco, in vigore dal 1979 per via della sua ostilità verso Israele. Dopo la caduta del presidente Bashar al-Assad, l’HTS ha assunto il controllo del Paese e, parallelamente, Israele ha intensificato gli attacchi aerei e ha occupato nuove aree in Siria oltre le Alture del Golan. Il nuovo governo siriano ha mostrato apertura verso la normalizzazione dei rapporti con Israele, e sono in corso negoziati per un possibile accordo entro il 2026. Il cambio di approccio degli Stati Uniti e della Siria sembra segnare un nuovo corso nelle dinamiche geopolitiche del Medio Oriente.

L’Iran come nemico fino alla morte

Attualmente si delineano, dunque, due possibili strategie: una prevede un intervento militare diretto da parte degli Stati Uniti e di Israele contro l’Iran; l’altra consiste in una massiccia campagna di manipolazione psicologica, rivolta sia alla popolazione iraniana che a quella internazionale, come preludio a un’aggressione armata. Le modalità, le ragioni e la tempistica dipenderanno dagli sviluppi e dà segnali iniziali che, al momento, non sono ancora abbastanza evidenti da essere resi noti. Tuttavia, lo scontro armato sembra inevitabile.

L’Iran è ben preparato, ma le strategie impiegate dai suoi avversari potrebbero generare confusione e paura, con il rischio di gravi perdite. L’evolversi degli eventi resta incerto, ma una cosa appare evidente: Stati Uniti e Israele dovranno riflettere con cautela prima di avviare un conflitto su larga scala, considerando le conseguenze.

Nel frattempo, si moltiplicano i segnali di un piano volto a destabilizzare il Libano, in particolare colpendo le comunità sciite, con l’appoggio di Israele, Emirati Arabi Uniti e loro alleati. Questo potrebbe aprire un nuovo fronte e trascinare l’Iran in un conflitto più ampio, o addirittura scatenare una guerra civile libanese.

La decisione di cancellare al-Nusra dalla lista delle organizzazioni terroristiche appare strettamente legata alla volontà di consentire ai partner regionali degli Stati Uniti di sostenerla apertamente, impiegandola contro le comunità sciite. Questa non è solo una mossa diplomatica, ma una strumentalizzazione pianificata del terrorismo, mascherata da difesa del diritto internazionale.

In tale contesto, è fondamentale il rafforzamento di un fronte di resistenza comune. Che si tratti di deterrenza nucleare o di opposizione su tutti i fronti, è urgente contrastare e neutralizzare ogni strumento dell’asse USA-sionista-wahhabita-julani, qualunque sia il nome con cui si presenti.

L’Iran, in ogni caso, dovrà essere abbattuto. È il nemico per eccellenza in Asia Occidentale, non può essere risparmiato. L’America di Trump, d’altronde, conosce bene questa litania: quando nel 2020 il Presidente ordinò – e poi rivendicò con orgoglio in una diretta stampa nazionale – l’attentato omicida al Generale Qassem Soleimani che era in visita a Baghdad per accordi di cooperazione internazionale, lo fece ribadendo la promessa di “liberare” la regione dal mostro iraniano. Un mostro che continua ad essere additato come tale dalla stampa internazionale, che si è subito ricomposta dopo i 12 giorni di aggressione israeliana.

Le geometrie variano

Eppure, l’America si sta ritirando dalla sua posizione di cane da guardia del mondo, perché la potenza militare, seppur grandiosa, non è più sufficiente, come non è più presente l’influenza politica. Probabilmente, quindici anni fa una battaglia come quella dei 12 giorni avrebbe significato un massacro per l’Iran, che però è cambiato ed oggi è una potenza globale ed un Paese chiave per la stabilità globale. Oggi, invece, il massimo che gli Stati Uniti attuali sono in grado di fare è salvare il proprio alleato da un blitzkrieg fallito attraverso una serie di attacchi mirati.

Tuttavia, certe logiche sembrano dure a scomparire: Donald Trump, ricalcando la linea di George W. Bush, ha avanzato verso Teheran pretese estreme, chiedendo una resa totale. Un tempo, simili richieste ottenevano risultati: la Jugoslavia fu costretta a cedere il Kosovo, l’Iraq venne occupato e la Libia precipitò nel caos. Ma oggi quella strategia non funziona più: il cambio di regime in Iran resta un obiettivo mancato. Il programma balistico di Teheran è ancora attivo e quello nucleare procede senza sosta.

Per Washington si profila una situazione in cui sarà costretta, a breve, a dimostrare con i fatti che può ancora imporsi con la forza sul piano internazionale. In caso contrario, la crescente ondata di sfida all’ordine unipolare si intensificherà, spingendolo verso un lento ma inevitabile disfacimento.

Ed ecco che gli USA, che per anni si sono eretti a paladini contro il terrorismo islamico, oggi preparano terroristi e li mettono a capo di un intero Paese, realizzando per altro il sogno dell’ISIS di controllare quelle terre, e sfruttandone la posizione per mantenere la regione in uno stato di precarietà senza fine, paura e alto rischio di conflitto esteso. Ancora, la geopolitica dei bulli, che minacciano di fare del male a tutti. Ma, caro bulletto di nome America, i tuoi pugni non fanno più così paura: c’ un mondo intero che ha imparato a incassare i colpi e rispondere con forza.

Le geometrie internazionali sono variate e di questo Washington dovrebbe farsene una ragione.

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Daniel KOVALIK

Оn June 29, 2025, I attended a church service at St. Moses the Black Orthodox Church in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. St. Moses is an Antiochian church, also known as the Church of St. Peter, and harkens back to ancient Antioch, Syria (now Antakya, Turkey)—the birthplace of Christianity.

Quite appropriately, as the pastor of the church, Father Paul Abernathy explained to the parishioners that June 29 is the feast day and the day of the martyrdom of both St. Peter, the founder of the Chrisian Church, and St. Paul who famously was converted to the faith on the road to Damascus, Syria.

In his sermon, Father Abernathy pointed to the modern-day martyrdom of Christians in Syria who are being slaughtered at the hands of an al-Qaeda-dominated government that was installed by the U.S. and its Western allies following a decades-long regime-change operation.

The most dramatic event in this modern period of martyrdom took place just a week before, on Sunday, June 22, 2025, when at least 25 Christians were killed and 52 injured when an attacker fired an automatic weapon into the Mar Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Damascus during the celebration of mass and then set off a bomb inside the church.

Father Paul Abernathy, referencing the recent massacre in Syria, warns that this is the new period of Christian martyrdom. (Source: Photo courtesy of Dan Kovalik)

Syrians are calling this the worst attack upon a Christian church in Syria since 1860. This is saying a lot because, during the Western regime-change war against Syria from 2011 to 2025, there were numerous assaults upon Christian churches throughout Syria.

The latter were committed by the very forces which have now come to power in Damascus. I have visited ancient Christian churches in places like Homs and Maaloula, Syria, which were violently attacked by a mix of extremist groups—including the Al-Nusra Front of al-Qaeda which was rebranded as HTS and now rules Syria—during the war.

It was the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) of Bashar al-Assad and Hezbollah, which had successfully defended these churches from destruction. But, of course, with the overthrow of Assad, there is virtually no protection for these churches.

Ancient mosaic of Mary and Jesus in the St. Tecla Church of Maaloula, Syria, defaced by Western-backed terrorists in 2013. [Source: Photo courtesy of Dan Kovalik]

The Cradle explained that the June 22 bombing at Mar Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Damascus “shattered the fragile sense of protection Syria’s Christians once clung to. The attack is emblematic of the increasingly sectarian rule imposed by Syria’s new leadership—rooted in al-Qaeda ideology and headed by Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani.”

The Cradle continued, “[o]nce dispatched by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to establish the Nusra Front, Sharaa now governs Damascus through the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) apparatus, whose rise was midwifed by a decade of Western regime-change operations. Under this rebranded Salafist extremist authority, the Christian minority—already decimated by war and displacement—faces a renewed wave of targeted violence and official indifference.”

Syrian man reacts inside Mar Elias Church, where a suicide bomber detonated himself, in Dweil’a in the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, on Sunday, June 22, 2025. [Source: aljazeera.com]

A Massacre Foretold

While shocking, this type of anti-Christian violence should not be surprising given the very explicit goals of the al-Qaeda forces now ruling Syria.  As far back as 2012, the U.S.’s own Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) stated it clearly: The Western allies in Syria were backing al-Qaeda to overthrow Assad, and that the goal of al-Qaeda was to establish a radical religious Califate in Syria. And this is exactly what the rebranded al-Qaeda government has done.

Thus, as the non-profit group Global Christian Relief—an organization founded to protect persecuted Christians around the world—has reported:

In March 2025, interim president and militant Islamist Ahmed al-Sharaa signed a constitutional declaration placing Syria under Islamic rule for five years. Tragically, religious minorities, including persecuted Christians, have been targeted or affected by violence in Syria from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamic militant faction that al-Sharaa once commanded:

“Syria had long been under the reign of Bashar al-Assad. Although he committed many human rights violations during his time in power, Syrian Christians and other persecuted religious minorities in Syria found relative stability and predictability under his authoritarian rule. When HTS conquered Assad’s forces and took control of major Syrian cities in December 2024, Christians and other minorities were fearful of the potential changes under the new regime. HTS promised they would not enact radical religious policies, but as time passed, persecution against Christians and other minorities intensified. Militants have attacked churches, desecrated cemeteries, forced Christian women to adhere to Islamic dress codes and confiscated Christians’ homes.”

When I visited Syria in January 2025, the new al-Qaeda government had yet to fully show its hand. While there were acts of persecution against religious minorities, they were limited in number and scope, allowing the new government some plausible deniability for what was happening. Accordingly, many Syrians, while concerned, were taking a wait-and-see attitude about the new regime, which was careful to go slowly with its extremist plans to curry favor with foreign governments.

But once most of the world had accepted the new regime and promised aid and an end to sanctions, and once the Western press corps had left town after their obligatory photo-op with the Sednaya Prison, the new government decided it could fully reveal its hand and begin its terror in earnest without international reprisals.

Donald Trump with Ahmed al-Sharaa, right, and the Saudi Prince. [Source: ndtv.com]

The Vatican News said it well, when it explained back in March of this year that “[k]illings, kidnappings, theft, harassments, and murders have marked the last few weeks in Syria. The Bashar al-Assad regime fell at the beginning of December and three months later unrest has once again erupted.”

At that time, the Vatican estimated that 4,700 people had already been killed since the fall of Assad and that any doubts about the nature of the new government had now been put to rest.  As the Vatican representative in Syria was quoted as saying, “the few certainties that existed [under Assad] are now gone.”

I personally know a number of Syrians, first hopeful and even excited about the fall of Assad, who are now realizing that the new regime is much worse. In Syria, it is now the time of much grinding and gnashing of teeth.

Original article: covertactionmagazine.com

By Caitlin JOHNSTONE

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The US has removed Syria’s Al Qaeda franchise from its list of designated terrorist organizations just days after the UK added nonviolent activist group Palestine Action to its own list of banned terrorist groups.

The western empire will surely find ways to be even more hypocritical and ridiculous about its “terrorism” designations in the future, but at this point it’s hard to imagine how it will manage to do so.

Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp writes the following:

“Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Monday that the Trump administration is revoking the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the al-Qaeda offshoot that took power in Damascus in December 2024.

“HTS started as the al-Nusra Front, which was the official al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria until the group’s leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who is now Syria’s de facto president, rebranded. In 2016, Sharaa, who was known at the time as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, announced he was disassociating from al-Qaeda, and thanked the ‘commanders of al-Qaeda for having understood the need to break ties.’

“Sharaa renamed his group HTS in 2017 and ruled Syria’s northwestern Idlib province until he led the offensive that ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at the end of last year. The US has embraced the new Syrian leader despite his al-Qaeda past, which included fighting against US troops in Iraq.”

This move comes as Sharaa holds friendly meetings with US and UK officials and holds normalization talks with Israel, showing that all one has to do to cease being a “terrorist” in the eyes of the empire is to start aligning with the empire’s interests.

So that was on Monday. The Saturday prior, the group Palestine Action was added to the UK’s list of proscribed terrorist groups under the Terrorism Act of 2000, making involvement with the group as aggressively punishable as involvement with ISIS.

The “terrorism” in question? Spraying red paint on two British war planes in protest against the UK’s support for the Gaza holocaust. A minor act of vandalism gets placed in the same category as mass murdering civilians with a car bomb when the vandalism is directed at the imperial war machine in opposition to the empire’s genocidal atrocities.

Even expressions of support for Palestine Action are now illegal under British law, leading to numerous arrests over the weekend as activists expressed solidarity with the organization. Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, who is British, has been formally reported to UK counterterrorism police by UK Lawyers for Israel following the musician’s public statement saying “I support Palestine Action. It’s a great organisation. They are non-violent. They are absolutely not terrorist in any way.”

So let’s recap.

Nonviolent protest against a genocide that’s being backed by the western empire: Terrorism. Banned. Nobody’s allowed to support this.

Being actual, literal Al Qaeda but aligning with the interests of the western empire: Not terrorism. Okie dokie. This is fine.

These hypocrisies and contradictions of the empire are worth drawing attention to because they clearly show that the empire does not stand where it claims to stand. For decades we’ve been told that western military explosives are falling from the sky in the middle east and Africa because there are terrorists there who need to be stopped, but it turns out “terrorism” is just a meaningless label that means whatever the empire needs it to mean at a given time and place.

Iran’s IRGC is labeled a terrorist group because the Iranian military is not aligned with the US empire. Israel’s IDF is not labeled a terrorist group despite its constant use of violence upon civilian populations in order to advance political goals. Palestine Action is labeled a terrorist group because it opposes the empire’s genocidal atrocities. Al Qaeda in Syria is no longer a terrorist group because it’s making nice with Israel and doing what the empire wants.

“Terrorist” just means “anyone who inconveniences the empire in any way.” It really is that simple.

Original article: caitlinjohnstone.com.au

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We decide who is a terrorist

The United States has revoked the designation of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), also known as the al-Nusra Front, as a foreign terrorist organization. The decision was announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a memorandum dated June 23, published in advance in the Federal Register.

Yes, that’s right: once again, the U.S. is playing world sheriff and deciding who gets the medal of honor and who is to be considered a criminal. It may be a coincidence, but the U.S. never accuses those who serve its economic interests of terrorism, while it is very adept at passing judgment on those who contradict its will. The geopolitics of bullying.

Now, the revocation comes in the context of a broader shift in U.S. policy toward Syria, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to ease unilateral sanctions against Damascus, in place since 1979 because of its hostility toward Israel. After the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, HTS took control of the country and, at the same time, Israel intensified its air strikes and occupied new areas in Syria beyond the Golan Heights. The new Syrian government has shown openness towards normalizing relations with Israel, and negotiations are underway for a possible agreement by 2026. The change in approach by the U.S. and Syria seems to mark a new course in the geopolitical dynamics of the Middle East.

Iran as an enemy until death

Two possible strategies are currently emerging: one involves direct military intervention by the U.S. and Israel against Iran; the other consists of a massive psychological manipulation campaign aimed at both the Iranian and international populations as a prelude to armed aggression. The methods, reasons, and timing will depend on developments and initial signals that are not yet clear enough to be disclosed. However, armed conflict seems inevitable.

Iran is well prepared, but the strategies employed by its adversaries could generate confusion and fear, with the risk of serious losses. The evolution of events remains uncertain, but one thing is clear: the United States and Israel will have to think carefully before embarking on a large-scale conflict, considering the consequences.

Meanwhile, there are growing signs of a plan to destabilize Lebanon, particularly by targeting Shiite communities, with the support of Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and their allies. This could open up a new front and drag Iran into a wider conflict, or even trigger a Lebanese civil war.

The decision to remove al-Nusra from the list of terrorist organizations appears to be closely linked to the desire to allow the United States’ regional partners to openly support it, using it against Shiite communities. This is not just a diplomatic move, but a planned exploitation of terrorism, disguised as the defense of international law.

In this context, it is essential to strengthen a common front of resistance. Whether through nuclear deterrence or opposition on all fronts, it is urgent to counter and neutralize every instrument of the U.S.-Zionist-Wahhabi-Julani axis, whatever name it goes by. Iran, in any case, must be brought down. It is the enemy par excellence in Western Asia and cannot be spared.

Trump’s America, on the other hand, knows this litany well: when in 2020 the President ordered – and then proudly claimed in a national press conference – the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, who was visiting Baghdad for international cooperation agreements, he did so by reiterating his promise to ‘liberate’ the region from the Iranian monster. A monster that continues to be portrayed as such by the international press, which quickly regrouped after 12 days of Israeli aggression.

The geometry varies

Yet America is retreating from its position as the world’s watchdog, because military power, however great, is no longer enough, just as political influence is no longer present. Fifteen years ago, a battle like the 12-day one would probably have meant a massacre for Iran, but Iran has changed and is now a global power and a key country for global stability. Today, however, the most the United States is capable of doing is saving its ally from a failed blitzkrieg through a series of targeted attacks.

Nevertheless, certain ways of thinking seem hard to shake off: Donald Trump, following in the footsteps of George W. Bush, has made extreme demands on Tehran, calling for total surrender. At one time, such demands achieved results: Yugoslavia was forced to cede Kosovo, Iraq was occupied, and Libya plunged into chaos. But today, that strategy no longer works: regime change in Iran remains an unachieved goal. Tehran’s ballistic program is still active, and its nuclear program is proceeding unabated.

Washington is facing a situation in which it will soon be forced to demonstrate with facts that it can still impose itself by force on the international stage. Otherwise, the growing wave of defiance against the unipolar order will intensify, pushing it toward a slow but inevitable disintegration.

And now the U.S., which for years has set itself up as a champion against Islamic terrorism, is training terrorists and putting them in charge of an entire country, thereby fulfilling ISIS’s dream of controlling those lands and exploiting their position to keep the region in a state of endless precariousness, fear, and high risk of widespread conflict. Once again, the geopolitics of bullies, threatening to hurt everyone. But, dear bully named America, your punches are no longer so scary: there is a whole world that has learned to take the blows and respond with force.

The international geometry has changed, and Washington needs to come to terms with this.

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Fighting units associated with Syria’s government, including its ruling faction, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), played a key role in the mass killing of Alawite civilians on the Syrian coast last March, an investigation by Reuters published on 30 June has found.

The British news outlet stated that between 7 and 10 March, “1,479 Syrian Alawites were killed and dozens were missing from 40 distinct sites of revenge killings, rampages and looting.”

The investigation found that armed units associated with HTS, the former Al-Qaeda affiliate led by Syria’s now de facto President Ahmad al-Sharaa, participated in the killings in at least 10 sites, where nearly 900 people were killed.

These include the General Security Service (GSS), which is the legal enforcement arm of Syria’s Ministry of Interior, as well as Unit 400 and the Othman Brigade.

The Syrian government has claimed that the GSS was deployed to protect, rather than massacre, Alawite civilians during the three-day killing spree.

Unit 400 is reportedly “among the strongest units” in HTS, having received “high levels of training and equipped with the most modern weaponry,” Reuters wrote.

Unit 400 was moved to the coastal regions after HTS deposed the government of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and took power in Damascus in December. A foreign intelligence source speaking with Reuters said Unit 400 set up its headquarters in the former Syrian naval academy and takes orders from senior officials in the Defense Ministry.

The Cradle reported that members of Sharaa’s General Security also carried out the 22 July suicide bombing at the Mar Elias Church in Damascus, leaving 25 worshippers dead and injuring over 50.

The British news agency’s investigation found that armed groups belonging to the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) also participated widely in the killing of Alawites in March.

SNA factions, including the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade and the Hamza division, have been incorporated into the Ministry of Defense. Prominent SNA commander Mohammad al-Jassim, or “Abu Amsha,” was appointed commander of the Syrian Army’s 25^th Division based in Hama shortly after the massacres unfolded.

“SNA factions have a track record of abductions, sexual violence, and widespread looting, according to Human Rights Watch and other rights groups,” Reuters wrote.

The British news agency found the involvement of the Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade and the Hamza division in at least eight different sites where nearly 700 people were killed.

Reuters noted that just as the massacres were unfolding, a gunman affiliated with the Sultan Suleiman Shah division posted on Facebook: “Turn off cameras. Kill every male. Their blood is as dirty as pigs.”

Since Assad fell, Syria has witnessed a chilling wave of mysterious kidnappings of young women, predominantly from the Alawite community.

Evidence continues to emerge that these women have been abducted and taken to live as sex slaves in Idlib governorate, the traditional HTS stronghold, by armed factions affiliated with the new Syrian government.

While under Sharaa’s command, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front (the forerunner to HTS) committed similar massacres and abductions throughout the 14-year war that began in 2011 to topple the Syrian government.

In August 2013, militants from the Nusra Front, ISIS, and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) raided 10 Alawite villages in Latakia, slaughtering 190 civilians, including 57 women, 18 children, and 14 elderly men, while taking another 200 hostage, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported.

During an interview with Al Jazeera in 2015, Sharaa (then known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani) vowed to kill any Alawites who refused to convert to Sunni Islam.

Original article: thecradle.co

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First Emmanuel Macron, now Donald Trump. The two transatlantic strands of the so-called “Western civilization”, or “our civilization”, apparently so at odds in these times, now bow to the Islamic terrorist leader Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, who seized power in Damascus on 8 December last.

Forget all the differences that are said to exist between the European Union and the Trump administration in the White House. None of this is to be taken seriously, least of all the supposed criticisms made by the federalist institutions and the heads of government of the majority of the 27 to the clumsy individual who governs the United States of America. When it comes to so-called Islamic terrorism and its exponents, whether al-Qaida, Isis or the “Islamic State” and the myriad heteronyms in which they mimic themselves, Washington and Brussels speak with one voice, that of support and gratitude. It has been like this since the 80s of the last century, but the admiration and affection now publicly witnessed for the terrorist mercenary responsible for the carnage of the war against Syria makes all masks fall, nullifies any exercises in hypocrisy.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The cult of the figure of the butcher Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, now known as Ahmed al-Sharaa and vice versa, is a treatise, or could be a case study on the “rules-based international order” by which a “superior civilization” such as the Western one is guided, permanently involved in the fight against “barbarism”.

There is an al-Jolani who was a senior adviser to the leaders of al-Qaeda and Isis, then commanded al-Nusra, the name adopted by al-Qaeda in Syria and then changed to Tharir al-Sham. This semantic mobility was articulated in such a way as to try to make the world believe that the organization operating in the Syrian scenario had divorced itself from the gang founded by the CIA and bin-Laden and thus justify its place in the nucleus of the “moderate” terrorists financed by the West. The names changed but the murderous essence remained and al-Qaeda continued to be the hat covering the entire “moderate” community. Nothing to stand in the way. The then French Prime Minister, the Zionist Laurent Fabius, acknowledged at a meeting of the international coalition of support for the “moderates” that “al-Qaeda is doing a good job” in Syria.

Al-Jolani, a criminal and mercenary who led some of the most savage attacks on civilians during the war imposed on Syria, replicated the look of his idol bin-Laden: tribal robes, dishevelled hair under his turban and a long, unkempt beard of the “Islamic fundamentalist”. In a word, Mr. Hyde.

Ahmed al-Sharaa is visibly someone else. He began to present himself to the world during an interview offered to him by the CIA’s unofficial station, Radio Voice of America, and for which he was equated with the “Western”, a little hastily, it must be said. On that occasion, the butcher now known as the “interim president” of Syria clumsily composed the figure of a “statesman” ready for “peace”, ready to defend a democratic society in which the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, millennial communities that represent the very multifaceted national essence of the country, would be guaranteed. It is in the role of al-Sharaa that al-Jolani now walks outside his country’s borders to receive the tributes, thanks and promises of generous support from the main world leaders, always obsessively committed to the “war on terror”. In the recent meeting he had with French President Emmanuel Macron, at the Elysee Palace, al-Sharaa even established with his host a platform for “coordination in the fight against terrorism”. In other words, Dr. Jekyll.

“Young, attractive and virile”

Dressed as al-Sharaa, while the “Islamic” mercenaries commanded by al-Jolani continue their slaughter operations against the Alawite, Druze and Christian civilian communities — abandoned by “Christian and Western civilization” — the Syrian “interim” president travelled to Saudi Arabia, his cradle in the art of terrorism, to meet Donald Trump. “A young, attractive and virile guy,” this is how the U.S. president portrayed him, perhaps embezzled by the Armani suit he wore, in contrast to the expensive T-shirt, with a fascist brand and signature but with a shallow appearance that another terrorist, Zelensky, presented at the White House.

Tutor and protégé exchanged a warm handshake in Riyadh in the presence of the real head of the ever-democratic Saudi regime, Mohammed bin-Salman, the organizer of the meeting. Left behind, as you can see, are the minor quarrels that Washington raised when bin Salman had the American citizen and journalist Jamal Khashoggi, also a CIA agent, kidnapped in Turkey and dismembered into easily dispersed pieces. Everything was forgotten and buried in the past, with the remains of the poor creature.

Trump promised al-Sharaa and his coup regime to lift all the economic sanctions that the United States imposed on the government of Bashar Assad, an executive that was legitimately in office according to constitutional mechanisms and according to mass participatory elections — but tainted with the original sin of having produced results contrary to Western “wishes”. Therefore, by definition, the elections were a swindle; on the contrary, the “interim” government resulting from a terrorist war imposed on Syria from the outside in is the guarantor of the restoration of democracy and stability in the country, according to the most influential Western leaders. This government should be exempt from sanctions so that “a new beginning” is possible, Trump declared in Saudi Arabia. A “beginning” that, however, should not disturb the continuity of some productive activities, as is the case with the theft of oil from the Syrian people by the United States of America.

“He’s a true leader, he led an offensive and he’s incredible,” the U.S. president testified, surrendered. “He has the possibility to do a good job and to remain calm” in Syria. Calmness is certainly al-Jolani’s most commendable attribute.

A few weeks ago, Washington lifted the accusation of “terrorist” that officially hung over the Syrian coup president, although the decision is silent on the validity or not of the reward of 10 million dollars promised to whoever captures him. It is understandable that, despite this, Trump has sealed with a handshake the recognition of the political functions of his “attractive” interlocutor. The arrest warrant was issued against al-Jolani and not al-Sharaa, let there be no misunderstandings or any malicious insinuations.

Premiere at the Elysée Palace

It became known a few days ago that al-Sharaa had sent a letter to Trump asking him to exercise his good offices so that a “normalization” of relations between Syria and Israel is possible.

The subject is music to the ears of the American president: it removes another major obstacle to the realization of the extermination of the Palestinian people — starting with the cleansing of the Gaza “Riviera” — opens the way for the transformation of Syria into a platform of constant threat, or even war, against Iran and expands the Zionist power, that is, imperial and of the “free world”. about Western Asia. A step that thus facilitates the much desired and strategic understanding between not one but the “two democracies” of the Middle East: Israel and Saudi Arabia. This demonstrates how useful and civilizing the so-called “Islamic” terrorist organizations, namely al-Qaeda and Isis, have been as instruments of Western interests and armed wings of NATO.

Al-Sharaa had earlier raised the subject of the “normalization” of relations with Israel during the meeting that the French president granted him at the Elysee Palace, an event that seems to have embarrassed the situationist propaganda apparatus, since it did not benefit from the deserved publicity. Now with the endorsement of the head of the empire, even if it is Trump, everything will be cleared and frank. Al-Sharaa became one of “ours”.

The visit to the Elysée was a premiere, a real test of fire for the occasional transfiguration of the terrorist al-Jolani into the statesman and diplomat al-Sharaa.

Wearing the Armani suit and after a visit to Jean Louis David to trim his beard and hair in the most famous male coiffeur in Paris, the “interim” Syrian president landed in the heart of the Fifth French Republic where he was received by the little cabin boy of the Rothschilds. Macron presented himself in a suit of the same shade of blue and did not disguise a certain admiration when looking at the Arab man he had in front of him. He avoided verbalizing the adjective “attractive” that Trump was unable to contain; However, adding the welcoming style to the fruits of the conversation, it is clear that the French president stayed there with a friend for life. It would seem that al-Sharaa and al-Jolani, apart from the difference in uniforms, could be one and the same person.

Emmanuel Macron expressed to the visitor a certain fear for what he thought was Trump’s restraint in the face of the situation in Syria, since he had not yet recognized the new regime. Unfounded concerns, as was realized shortly afterwards through the events in Riyadh. The French president promised al-Sharaa to make efforts with not only the European Union but also the United States to achieve a “gradual lifting” of sanctions and to stop any intention by Washington to withdraw the occupation troops it is illegally maintaining in Syria. After all, it turns out that there is complete harmony between the two sides of the Atlantic, sanctions will be lifted and troops will stay.

Formalists may argue that Macron does not represent the European Union because perhaps the bewildered group of 27 has not yet fully internalized the very favourable cost-benefit ratio of the coup, terrorist and segregationist strategy set up to destroy powerful states, such as the Syrian one.

Formalistic reservations, however, would have no reason to exist because liberal democracy continues to strengthen itself and strategically expand its capacities to exercise ever more firm and discretionary power by integrating the concepts of terrorism, racism and genocide into its heritage of values. The result may be increasingly authoritarian, but nothing that blurs the glow of the democracy in which we are struggling.

Moreover, Brussels had already shown signs of having accepted the new situation in Syria without embarrassment. As early as January 2025, a month after the terrorist mercenaries’ assault on Damascus was consummated, the foreign ministers of France and Germany, then Jean-Noel Barrot and Annalena Baerbock, travelled to the Syrian capital on behalf of the European Union to meet with the brand-new “interim” president.

At the Elysée, al-Sharaa called on France to “guarantee support for the fragile Syrian stability” and “help restore order and rebuild a country devastated by 14 years of war”, a situation for which al-Jolani was largely responsible but which has also been left behind, buried in the rubble and in the past, like hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings.

The Syrian visitor agreed with Macron on “anti-terrorist coordination”, and it is expected that the targets of this operational convergence will continue to be the defenceless Alawite, Druze and Christian civilian communities, victims of massacres committed under the pretext of fighting the remnants of the Syrian National Army.

Al-Sharaa also addressed in Paris what seems to be his priority objective: the “normalization of relations” with Israel. It is true that the Zionist military apparatus bombs Syrian territory on a daily basis, including Damascus, and occupies vast areas of the south, far beyond the Golan Heights. And we know what happens when the Zionist state occupies neighbouring territories. In a first phase, according to official statements, Tel Aviv demands that these territories “be demilitarized”.

None of this, however, discourages the “interim” president of Syria: “there are indirect negotiations with Israel through mediators to reduce tensions and avoid losing control”. By continuing the daily war of attrition, Israel is only raising the price of a forthcoming deal, but it could well save ammunition and human lives, even if this is no hindrance: the al-Sharaa/al-Jolani “government” will not be able to surrender to Zionism any more than it has already surrendered.

Following the thread of recent history, one understands the rather somewhat obsessive attitude of the lord of Damascus towards the Zionist state. Deep down, after all, he is grateful to him and does not forget those who have always helped him. At the peak of the terrorist operations against Syria, Israel said it was present when it became necessary to evacuate wounded “Islamist” mercenaries to field hospitals set up in the occupied Golan Heights or even to hospitals inside Israel.

Al-Jolani/al-Sharaa certainly has in his memory, like many of us, the images recorded during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s sympathetic and affectionate hospital visits to the wounded al-Qaeda and Isis terrorists. The behaviour aroused some timid reservations in the United States. The Wall Street Journal contacted an “Israeli military source” on the subject, who explained himself as follows: “We do not ask who the wounded are or research their origins; As soon as they are discharged, we send them to the border to go on their way.” Less pragmatic was another “senior Israeli political leader” quoted by the US press and according to which “a defeat of al-Qaïda” in Syria would be “a disaster” for Israel. Fortunately for Zionism and “Western civilization,” al-Qaida has not been defeated.

From a democratic, Western and civilising perspective, it can be said, in relation to Syria, that all is well that ends well. The same must be remembered with regard to Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, without forgetting Palestine. The use of terrorist groups and regimes has proved to be a Columbus’ egg, a winning strategy in the unquestionable purposes of consolidating liberal democracy. The slaughter of millions of human beings, whether in Syria, Palestine, Ukraine and other countries completely devastated by war, is a price worth paying, as the very human Madeleine Albright said about the slaughter of innocents — 500,000 children — as a result of the economic sanctions against Iraq. After all, it is the defence of “our civilisation” and “our values” that is at stake. As is customary for those who are always right, the ends justify the means, undoubtedly a founding principle of liberal democracy.