L. TODD WOOD: Turkey warns ‘major escalation’ is coming as it shells Aleppo

OPINION:

With Secretary of State John Kerry in Munich closing another peace deal, it seems combatants on the ground want to keep fighting in the Syrian civil war. Assad regime forces along with Iranian-backed Hezbollah, supported by Russian air power, are closing in on Aleppo to destroy remaining anti-Assad opposition forces. Turkey and Saudi Arabia it seems have had enough.

Turkish armed forces shelled Kurdish YPG guerrilla forces today in Aleppo while claiming Saudi Arabia is sending jet aircraft to Turkey’s Incirlik air base with the intention of supporting Sunni rebels on the ground in northern Syria.

“The main battle is about cutting the road between Aleppo and Turkey, for Turkey is the main conduit of supplies for the terrorists,” Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview with AFP on Friday.

Zero Hedge reports, as we documented extensively this week, the Saudis and the Turks are now set to invade. Mr. Assad has promised to “confront them,” which of course means that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hassan Nasrallah’s army are set to come into direct contact with Turkish and Saudi troops, setting the stage for an all-out sectarian war that will almost invariably end up pitting NATO against the Russians.

Note that this is different from Yemen, where Tehran fights via proxies rather than directly against the Saudi military.

Turkish officials also claimed a “major escalation” was coming in the next 24 hours. Turkey and Saudi Arabia have long warned of a ground invasion to halt Sunni losses. I guess this is what Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev meant when he warned of a new World War.

One has to wonder, what is the Obama administration’s position in this huge conflagration? Initially the White House attempted to train anti-Assad “moderate” rebels. Now, all you hear from the White House is crickets. Turkey is part of NATO, if you didn’t remember. So NATO aircraft will be set against Russian fighters in the region, and Putin has a score to settle. Did Kerry make a deal to allow Iran and Russian to run the table in the war and cement Iranian control across the Levant? As real estate mogul and GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump has said, “There is something going on with him that we don’t know about.”