The situation on the ground in Syria for the Assad regime had been deteriorating for some time as rebel forces advanced and inflicted significant losses on Syrian government forces, threatening Russia’s naval base in Tartus and Iran’s influence in the region. Iranian Quds Force Commander, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, traveled to Moscow while officially still under sanctions by the United Nations to plan the Syrian counter-offensive in coordination with Russian air and ground forces to prop up the Assad regime and push the rebels back from Shia territory. This meeting was conducted only days after the Iran nuclear deal negotiations had been completed, according to reports by Reuters. Obviously, Iran and Russia had been planning this operation during the Iran nuclear negotiations.
All of this coordination had been happening while Western officials were publicly stating that Russia could be open to Bashar Assad being removed from power, a key demand by the United States and Europe. Again, according to Reuters, Syria’s foreign minister said on Monday that the Russian air strikes had been planned for months.
The deception by Iran and Russia to be publicly playing nice in Syria seems to have been a facade to get to the finish line with the Obama administration in order to put Iran on the path to nuclear weapons capability. Once that had been obtained, the gloves came off in Syria. Now we have a situation where Iran has thousands of troops in theater (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon) while Russia supplies air cover and spetsnaz forces of their own.
The incompetence or indifference of the Obama administration is simply astounding.
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