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Our translation from Russian of an article in EADaily.
RF General Staff: "the international coalition" of the USA colluded with the Daesh Sergey Rudskoy, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation confirmed that the US-led "international coalition" contributed, with its operations, to strengthening the terrorist organization of Daesh [ISIS] in the vicinity of Palmyra and Deir ez Zor. Head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Sergei Rudskaya at a briefing for media representatives said "we do not see the results of the struggle against the coalition" of the coalition led by the US. Declaring as its goal the fight against international terrorism, the "coalition" ends up with strikes against Syrian troops, unhindered release of the ISIS terrorists from surrounding areas, strengthening of terrorist groups in the areas of Palmyra and Deir ez Zor." He wondered: "Why do they do this and what are the real goals pursued"? He says "the situation changed dramatically for the better after the signing on 4 May 2017 in Astana of a memorandum on the establishment of zones of de-escalation in the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic." "The implementtion of the memorandum made it possible to start work on restoring the settlements destroyed by the war, not occupied by terrorist organizations. The civilian population began returning to liberated cities and towns. The households of ordinary citizens, energy supply facilities, transport hubs and roads are being actively restored, the irrigation channels of agricultural lands are being filled with water, "Rudskoy pointed out. So how close are Rudskoy's statements to the facts? Quora.com provides informative comments by Middle Easterners who are close to the war in Syria showing why Deir Ezzor is important strategically. On the Palmyra-Deir Ezzor road: An article at Voltairenet.org from May 2015 just after the fall of Palmyra, shows us the importance of Palmyra and Deir Ezzor, both hotly contested between the SAA and ISIS -- and, in the background, the US. “The situation has considerably worsened in the Levant since the Islamic Emirate cut the ancient Silk Road, the route which links Iran to the Mediterranean. There remain only two possible options: either via Deir ez-Zor and Aleppo, or else via Palmyra and Damascus. The first route has been disabled since the beginning of 2013, the second has just been cut. The fall of Palmyra will therefore have considerable consequences for the balance of the whole region.” [Palmyra has since been retaken by the SAA, twice – nss] From The Guradian of Jan 2017: “Observers believe the aim of the Isis assault on Deir ez-Zor is to preempt any Syrian government offensive on its territory while the group [SAA] is distracted by battles elsewhere. The area under Isis control in the city has an estimated 10,000 civilians and is hemmed in by government forces to the south and the Euphrates river to the north.” Here is South Font on Deir Ezzor: “The city is the seventh largest in Syria by population, according to 2012 data, when some 240 thousand people lived there. The Syrians themselves call it the “pearl of the desert.” It’s a large tourist and cultural center of the country. It’s also the center of an agricultural region with well developed cattle herding, cotton cultivation, and other plant cultures. But it is first and foremost Syria’s oil extraction center. The Deir Ezzor province is home to Syria’s largest oil deposit, the Al-Omar. For ISIS, the city and the province are of particular value since the deposits there contain the highly valuable light sweet crude usable in the production of gasoline and diesel fuel, even using homebrew methods.” … “In addition, Deir Ezzor is a junction for roads which connect Syria’s cities to neighboring Iraq. Deir Ezzor airport, located south of the city, is a joint-basing airfield as it is home not only to civil aviation but also Syria’s air force.” … And this quote shows why Rudskoy said the US Coalition actually helps ISIS: “An event astounding in its cynicism took place on September 16, 2016 [Obama was president then – nss]. US-led coalition aircraft struck Syrian troops near the airport and the al-Tardah mountain. 62 SAA troops were killed instantly, and eventually reached 106, when counting those who died of their wounds by the end of the month, according to Al-Masdar News. The strike was carried out by two A-10 attack aircraft supported by two F-16 fighters. Tellingly, 7 minutes after the airstrike, IS attacked SAA positions on Al-Tardah and seized them. This temporal synchronization clearly indicates coordination between US airpower and IS militants.” … “Concerning the SAA, in the short-term perspective it cannot cut the blockade. Its main operations are around Aleppo [no longer true. Aleppo has been won and SAA is now making progress in Deir Ezzor -- nss]. All reserve forces will be sent there. Therefore Deir Ezzor defenders can only count on aerial resupply.” “If IS is able to break resistance, it will slaughter the population [thanks to US assistance! This is the nation that lamented the deaths of babies when Assad was blamed for a chemical attack -- nss]. It will give the “international community” in the form of the US-led coalition an additional reason to get involved. The US will be able to occupy eastern Syria using the opposition it trained under the pretext of fighting IS. For that purpose, there exists a base 60 km north-west of Riyadh in order to train terrorists of Syrian nationality who arrived through Jordan. The unit is called the New Syrian Army. NSA commander Muhhamadat-Tallya is a defector from SAA. That’s who will play a key role in the event of Deir Ezzor’s capture. [in our article “Our response to Centcom excuses,” we wrote about this group of “moderates”: A report in an Arabic language news site said that your last hit near Tanf was at the request of the Revolutionary Commandos, a rebranding of the New Syrian Army, which was discredited when it became known that it had been beheading people.” So not only was the US enabling ISIS as described above, but it was also supporting at least one other terror group that was not really moderate in any meaningful sense.-- nss] “In the event of a de-facto partition of Syria which is often mentioned in Western media, US and its allies will get a strategically important region. It is through Deir Ezzor that the proposed gas pipeline from Qatar is supposed to run. Its approximate route takes it from Iraq through al-Kemal toward Deir Ezzor, then toward Raqqa and then to the Turkish border.” “These US and allied operations show that Washington and its Persian Gulf allies and Istanbul have never been interested in combating international terrorism. Their interest is only money and power, and they are indifferent to human suffering and casualties.” Global Research, in an article titled “How US enabled ISIS to take Deir Ezzor,” assesses: “The U.S. has condoned and/or even actively supported the imminent ISIS taking of Deir Ezzor by (at least) three measures: a massive U.S. air attack on SAA forces in September 2016 enabled ISIS to take a controlling position and to cut off SAA resupplies a U.S. attack against a power station in January disabled the last electricity supplies to the city U.S. non-intervention enabled ISIS reinforcements from Mosul and west Iraq to Deir Ezzor in east-Syria” … In Iraq: “Despite a fast advance by the PMU [Popular Mobilization Forces, Iraq] from the south against Tal Afar to cut off the escape road many ISIS fighters in west Iraq were able to flee across the border and towards Deir Ezzor with their equipment intact. They reinforced the ISIS troops now attacking Deir Ezzor. The U.S. has uncontested air superiority over west Iraq and east Syria but did not once intervene against the large scale move.” … “The U.S. official rhetoric about fighting ISIS is not supported by observable facts on the battle field. One can only conclude that the U.S. military does not only condone but supports ISIS in gaining control over Deir Ezzor despite the extreme high risk for anyone left in the city.” “This likely to further the larger long term plan of installing a “Salafist principality” in western Iraq and eastern Syria that creates a justification for the U.S. military to stay in the area to “fight ISIS” and which can be activated against the Syrian and Iraqi government whenever convenient. U.S. President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry have both admitted that they earlier allowed ISIS to grow.” It is clear from this that the US allowed the creation and growth of ISIS in order to have an excuse to intervene in areas where its US-trained and supported “moderate” terrorists were fighting Assad’s forces. Thus what Sergey Rudskoy said about the US-ISIS relationship was true but very mild and watered down. He obviously was hesitant to let his people know that Russia is partnering with a country whose actions are not only deceitful and cynical but in fact, even by conservative assessments, criminal.
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