Foreign-backed militants in Aleppo, northwestern Syria (file photo)

Fri Apr 12, 2013 7:14AM GMT

While al-Qaeda-linked groups have been listed as terrorist entities under sanctions by the United Nations, militants in Syria, including those belonging to the al-Nusra Front, have been receiving all forms of support from the West.

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Russia has expressed concern that al-Qaeda is attempting to transform Syria into its Middle East stronghold.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that attempts by al-Qaeda to transform Syria into its stronghold in the region worried Moscow.

“Russia strongly and unequivocally condemns terrorism in any of its forms and manifestations,” according to the statement.

Russia’s statement came after Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, the head of the terrorist al-Nusra Front in Syria, pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in an audio message on April 10.

Jawlani’s remarks came a day after the leader of al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq network, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced merger with the al-Nusra Front to play an even greater role in the crisis in Syria.

Baghdadi said in a recording, “It is time to declare to the Levant and to the world that the al-Nusra Front is simply a branch of the Islamic State of Iraq.”

The Russian statement also added that Moscow was worried about a potential spillover of the crisis in Syria to Lebanon.

On April 4, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said the ongoing turmoil in Syria was turning the country into a center of attraction for ‘international terrorists.’

“Syria’s transformation into the center of gravity for international terrorists is becoming a reality,” Lukashevich said.

The al-Nusra Front has been behind many of the deadly bombings targeting both civilians and government institutions across Syria since the beginning of violence in March 2011.

While al-Qaeda-linked groups have been listed as terrorist entities under sanctions by the United Nations, militants in Syria, including those belonging to the al-Nusra Front, have been receiving all forms of support from the West.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/04/12/297810/alqaeda-presence-in-syria-worries-russia/

French soldiers are seen at an airbase near Bamako, Mali. (File photo)

Sun Feb 24, 2013 6:36AM GMT

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France has devised a scenario to station a rapid reaction force in West Africa after its war on Mali ends, UN-based diplomats privy to the plan say.

French diplomats have started briefing the UN, the US and other major powers on a plan for a so-called “beyond the horizon” force which will purportedly be tasked with conducting necessary future operations against the fighters in Mali.

France has not informed its allies of the exact location of the force, but diplomats say it will probably be stationed in Senegal, Niger, or Chad, where France has military bases.

On January 11, France launched a war in Mali under the pretext of halting the advance of fighters who had taken control of the north of the West African country. The United States, Canada, Britain, Belgium, Germany, and Denmark have aided France in its war on the African country.

Meanwhile, French Ambassador to the UN Gerard Araud has been in contact with his counterparts to inform them that France does not intend to abruptly end its military presence in Mali over the coming weeks but plans a gradual withdrawal.

The French-led war in Mali has caused a serious humanitarian crisis in northern areas of the country and has displaced thousands of people, who now live in deplorable conditions.

The people of northern Mali say the French war and the ruling junta are blocking the flow of humanitarian assistance to the war-affected areas.

The northern Malians say the blockade of the area has undermined the activities of healthcare workers in several refugee camps. Most of the camps have dire shortages of necessities such as food and medicine.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/02/24/290520/france-to-overstay-in-africa-after-mali-war/

Posted: Nov 21, 2012 9:42 PM Updated: Nov 21, 2012 9:42 PM

(CNN) – Senior U.S. military officials are considering increasing the American military presence in the Mediterranean because of what they see as growing instability in recent months, CNN has learned.

“This is post-Benghazi,” one military official told CNN. “We’re looking at instability in Libya, Egypt, Syria and now Israel and Gaza.”

The official who has direct knowledge of the discussions declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the information.

The Pentagon is looking at a number of options, according to military officials. The easiest would be to extend deployments of Navy ships passing through the region.

The Navy just extended by at least 10 days the tour of three amphibious ships carrying more than 2,000 Marines, Harrier jets, V-22 tilt rotor aircraft and a variety of helicopters, as CNN first reported last week.

Those tours were extended as a result of the conflict in Gaza as a precautionary measure should there have been a need to evacuate Americans from Israel. A cease-fire was reached on Wednesday after a week of violence.

The Pentagon is focusing on the eastern Mediterranean, where the ships will stay, the military official told CNN.

“From there, you can get to a lot of places in a short period of time,” he said. “What we are looking at is what is our presence in the region and what should it be.”

The Navy also previously announced that four warships capable of providing ballistic missile defense will now be based at Rota, Spain, putting them closer to potential threats from Syria and Iran. They are the USS Ross, the USS Donald Cook, the USS Carney and the USS Porter. Four other ships are stationed off the coast of Israel as a hedge against any ballistic missile launch from Iran.

Short of being ordered into combat, the Navy is looking to beef up its presence in order to conduct humanitarian assistance missions and training exercises with other nations in the region, the sources said.

But clearly more ships and aircraft also give the military an increased capability to evacuate Americans from a hotspot or put forces on the ground to conduct security operations to protect embassies.

The developments come amid increasing concern about weapons being smuggled into Gaza. U.S. and Israeli officials say some of those weapons are coming from Libya where arms stashes have been ransacked after the fall of Moammar Gadhafi.

A U.S. official told CNN that the current assessment by the intelligence community is that surface to air missiles from Libya have made their way into Gaza after being smuggled through Egypt.

http://www.kiiitv.com/story/20160265/us-considers-increasing-military-presence-in-mediterranean

ANKARA (AFP) — The United States has not deployed any military personnel or units in Turkey in connection with the crisis in Syria, the Turkish army said in a statement Saturday.

The headquarters of the Turkish armed forces denied press reports that US military personnel had been sent to the country following increasing tension along its border with Syria.

“There are neither military personnel nor units deployed in Turkey beyond those at the base at Incirlik (in the southern province of Adana) and those at Kurecik (in the southeastern province of Malatya, home to a NATO radar installation)and those at the American embassy in Ankara,” the statement said.

In recent days Turkish media have reported remarks attributed to US Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, commander of the US army in Europe, referring to the dispatch of an American contingent to Turkey as part of a strategy of sharing and pooling information between the two countries, both NATO members.

Turkey is backing the insurgents in Syria.

At the start of October, a Syrian mortar bomb killed five Turkish nationals at a village in the southeast of the country near the border. Since then the Turkish forces have riposted each time a mortar bomb or shell has been from Syrian soil.

ISTANBUL (VOA) — Turkish political opposition members are claiming that Turkish authorities are turning a blind eye to Islamic militants based in Turkey who are crossing over the border to join the opposition fighting the Assad government in Syria.

Mehmet Ali Edipoglu is parliamentary deputy for the main opposition Peoples Republic Party, for Hatay — the main city in the Antakya province that borders Syria.

While he says he has no complaints about the Syrian rebels operating from the region, the past few months there has been a worrying change in the influx of new fighters.

Edipoglu says militants who are coming from Libya, Chechnya, Afghanistan, and from various countries in Africa are placed in Hatay and they say they are here to fight for Syria, to make a Jihad and bring Sharia, he says. He says they all openly say that they are al-Qaida and there have been incidents of small fights between these people and Hatay locals. Edipoglu says many are now getting to guns to protect themselves and he says he spoke to the governor and police many times and they tell him they are keeping these people under control.

The population of the Antakya region is a complex mix of Sunnis , Christians and Alawites. The region also has a strong secular population.

During a visit to Istanbul earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced concern over the presence of radical islamic elements amongst the Syrian rebels. and in particular potential links to al-Qaida.

“We worry about terrorists, PKK and Al-Qaida and others taking advantage of the legitimate fight of the Syrian people,” Clinton said.

Despite that concern being discussed during meetings this week between Turkish and U.S. officials in Ankara, Edipoglu says Turkish authorities are turning a blind eye to radical Islamic groups within the Syrian rebels who are basing themselves in Turkey.

Edipoglu says the recent big clashes are taking place around the Turkish border with Syria and he says every day, what he calls al-Qaida militants are picked up from their homes and put on the buses in Antakya. He says every day and night, 40 or 50 mini buses leave for Syria and they fight there and come back and this happens every day and he says state authorities are providing the buses, even escorting them.

But the Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal denies that any such support is being given to any of the Syrian rebel groups. He says there is concern about the threat of al-Qaida elements entering Syria, but says there is not too much Turkey can do.

“We don’t have any hard evidence about any kind of passage from Turkey or any other countries, otherwise we would of course be willing to take the necessary steps to avoid any kind of escalation. But its a 900 kilometer border, of course our border authorities are doing their best,” Unal said.

Turkey has had a bitter experience with al-Qaida in the past.

In 2003, an al-Qaida faction set off four van bombs across the city of Istanbul targeting synagogues, the British consulate and the headquarters of a bank. 67 people were killed and more than 700 injured.

Experts point out that many of these al-Qaida members had fled to Turkish border cities after being defeated in battle against U.S.-led forces in !raq.

International relations expert Soli Ozel of Kadir Has University fears a repeat of the events in Iraq, for both Syria and Turkey.

“We don’t know if we are going to have a repeat of Iraq in terms of al-Qaida involvement in Syria. But given the fact that things are reverting back to a civil war conditions again in Iraq between Sunni and Shia and al-Qaida appears to be back. To have this radical elements on two of our southern borders, I don’t think it bodes well for Turkey — a country which has a serious ethnic problem and a sectarian one,” Ozel said.

For now observers say Ankara’s priority appears to be the growing Syrian refugee crisis its facing in the east and the bringing down of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. But over the past few years, with Turkish security forces having detained scores of al-Qaida suspects, concerns are growing in Turkey that another crisis is brewing that will cause even bigger problems.

By Dorian Jones

Following the forced withdrawal of troops from Iraq, Washington is trying desperately to maintain regional hegemony

by John Glaser, June 19, 2012

The United States is planning to maintain significant military presence in the Middle East going forward, including 13,500 US troops in Kuwait, to help maintain hegemony over the region, according to a new congressional report released Tuesday.

The study by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee examined the US relationship with the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman – and followed up on earlier stated plans to surge the US presence in the region after Washington was forced out of a remaining military force in Iraq in December of last year.

The failure to agree with the Iraqi government on the legal grounds for a contingent military force in Iraq was a huge blow to Washington, which desperately wants to maintain control over the region amid fast-paced change.

As the New York Times reported in October, the Pentagon has long been planning “to bolster the American military presence,” including “sending more naval warships through international waters in the region.” To counter Iran – the one country left in US Central Command without U.S. military bases and a subservient client state, “the administration is also seeking to expand military ties with the six nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council.”

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said he envisions about 40,000 troops stationed in the Middle East region following the reluctant withdrawal from Iraq. The US is also cutting the military presence in Europe, leaving about 68,000 going forward. Obama is also in the process of surging US military presence in Asia-Pacific.

The Senate report explores ways the US can leverage its financial and military aid to control events in the region for its own interests. One country that stands out is Bahrain, which Washington views as a strategic asset and a counter to Iran. Bahrain has been committing serious human rights abuses against its citizens, as US money and weapons continue to flow to the dictatorship there.

The report says the US “should not be quick to rescind security assurances or assistance in response to human rights abuses but should evaluate each case on its own merits.”

The US approach toward the Middle East has not changed since the end of WWII, and maintaining a presence and propping up obedient dictatorships is essential to Washington’s enduring aim of hegemony. As a Top Secret National Security Council briefing put it in 1954, “the Near East is of great strategic, political, and economic importance,” as it “contains the greatest petroleum resources in the world” as well as “essential locations for strategic military bases in any world conflict.”

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/06/19/us-plans-to-surge-military-presence-across-middle-east/