Turkey’s military plans in Syria- Jerusalem Studio 458
One of the most crucial turning points in the Syrian civil war culminated this week with Turkey’s cross-border incursion into northeastern Syria. While Ankara’s declared goal aims to implement a territorial safe-zone, as a buffer between the Kurdish militias and southern Turkey; the Kurdish forces have been forced to alternate alliances, by submitting to their arch-enemy, Syrian president Bashar Assad.
Panel:
– Jonathan Hessen, host.
– Amir Oren, analyst.
– Prof. Zeev Khanin, Expert on Russian and Middle Eastern Studies, Bar Ilan and Ariel Universities.
– Dr. Nir Boms, Research fellow, Moshe Dayan center at Tel Aviv University.
A war in their terms or ours?
By Nir Boms and Shayan Arya , Levant News
By: Nir Boms and Shayan Arya
The conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia have been escalating beyond rhetoric and is fast moving into an actual military confrontation. Following a long round of proxy moves from Yemen – as well as an attempts to stop oil tankers in the Persian gulf – Iran have crossed another escalation threshold with a recent a missile attack on the Saudi Abqaiq oil field. Condemnations and additional sanctions have already taken their course and seem to have frustrated the Islamic regime even further. Yet, these measures did not stop Iranian actions such as last week seize of another ship as well as the announcement on newusage of advanced centrifuges in violation of the 2015 nuclear agreement.
Judging from current trajectory, these last moves will again likely to result in additional rounds of sanction or “limited escalations.” However, sooner or later, a new strategy will be required as the current one is having little effect on Iran’s motivation to destabilize oil markets and continue it’s path of nuclear and proxy confrontation.
Few seek another war in the Middle East. But will that likely leave the victory in the hands of Iran’s supreme leader and its top military operator, Qasem Suleimani?
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