And the psychopath's POV.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said President Donald Trump is willing to take action in Syria again but hopes he won't have to. It comes as the US prepares to withdraw troops, which Pompeo says will go ahead despite criticism.
Speaking in Cairo as part of a Middle East tour to reassure leaders that the US will maintain some sort of presence in the region, Pompeo declared that the US is still open to intervention in Syria, but he hoped that Trump “won’t have to.”
“When America retreats, chaos follows,” Pompeo said. “America will not retreat until the terror fight is over.”
Iran's foreign minister commented on the recent statement voiced by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo when he claimed that Iran "will never enjoy security, achieve economic stability, or advance the dreams of its peoples if Iran's revolutionary regime persists on its current course."
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has responded to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying that "when America retreats, chaos follows."
"Whenever/wherever US interferes, chaos, repression and resentment follow," Zarif wrote on Twitter.
Russia has warned that members of the White Helmets volunteer organization are still in Jordan after their withdrawal from Syria as their Western sponsors are reluctant to resettle the so-called aid workers.
Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a media briefing on Friday that the White Helmets had been promised shelter in European countries, but "the matter has not been resolved so far."
"Clearly, the West is not ready to welcome those who were involved in serious crimes," she added.
The outgoing IDF chief of staff has spilled the beans on a poorly guarded secret of the Israeli military, that it has supplied Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar Assad’s government with weapons “for self-defense.”
Gadi Eisenkot, who was the Israeli Defense Forces’ Chief of Staff for the last three years, told the Sunday Times in a farewell interview that Israel had been directly involved in the Syrian conflict on the side of the Syrian rebels, something that Tel Aviv has been reluctant to acknowledge before.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the IDF will continue to attack Iranians in Syria. Earlier, an Israeli commander said it conducted attacks in the country on nearly a daily basis and supplied arms to Syrian rebels.
“I'm telling you, get out of there fast. We won’t stop attacking,” the prime minister said on Tuesday morning during a ceremony, in which he appointed Aviv Kochavi as the new chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
A suicide bombing in Manbij, Syria has reportedly killed 19 people including four Americans, two of whom were US soldiers and two of whom worked with the US military. ISIS, which has an extensive history of falsely claiming responsibility for attacks it had nothing to do with, has claimed responsibilityfor the attack. Despite the fact that ISIS would claim responsibility for a housewife stepping on a Lego block, and despite the complete absence of evidence that it had anything to do with the deadly explosion, all the usual cheerleaders of endless war are pointing to the Manbij suicide bombing and shrieking “See?? Trump said ISIS is defeated and it’s not!”
“ISIS is still a very real threat here,” CNN international corespondent Clarissa Ward told Jake Tapper from northern Syria. “And the real concern that we are hearing over and over again on the ground, Jake, is that when US troops withdraw, a power vacuum is created, and that only gives them more strength.”
BEIRUT, LEBANON (12:00 P.M.) – The Syrian military has lost over 110 warplanes during the nearly eight-year-long conflict inside Syria, Statista Charts (Twitter: @StatistaCharts) reported this week.
According to Statista Charts, the Syrian military lost a total of 111 warplanes during the wars, including their reconnaissance and attack drones.
Syrian air-defense systems have repelled an attack in the skies over Damascus, state news agency SANA has reported. The Israeli Army said it was attacking "Iranian Quds" forces and warned the Syrian military not to retaliate.
A military source cited by SANA said that Syrian air-defenses intercepted most of the Israeli missiles before they hit targets. The source added that Israel launched guided missiles from ground and air in several rounds.
Israeli attacks killed four Syrian soldiers and wounded six others, and "partially damaged the infrastructure of the Damascus international airport," the Russian Defense Ministry has said.
Israel says that its attacks are targeting Iranian forces stationed in Syria, and has warned Damascus not to retaliate. Syrian state media has claimed that two waves of attacks have been repelled by Syrian air defenses over the last 48 hours.
BEIRUT, LEBANON (11:00 P.M.) – Minutes ago, several Israeli warplanes were spotted near the Lebanese-Syrian border, prompting the Syrian military to raise their alert levels.
According to a source in Damascus, the Syrian military spotted at least eight Israeli warplanes in the Jabal Sheikh (Mount Hermon) region of southeast Lebanon.
The United States and Israel dually tested the new Arrow 3 missile defense system on Tuesday morning, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced.
According to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, the test launch began shortly before 6:45 A.M. (local time) as a dummy missile was launched off the coast of Israel.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli media reported citing Israel's Defence Ministry that the state military together with the US National Missile Defence Agency had conducted an Arrow 3 missile defence system test.
The Russian military has detected the launch of a missile drone by Israel over the Mediterranean Sea as part of missile defence tests, the Russian Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday.
BEIRUT, LEBANON (12:00 A.M.) – The Syrian military has been placed on high alert this evening after Israeli warplanes were spotted along the Lebanon-Syria border.
According to a military source in Damascus, Israeli warplanes were once again spotted along the Lebanon-Syria border at night, prompting the Syrian military to prepare their air defenses for a possible breach.
MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/. Israel’s practice of spontaneous strikes on Syria must be brought to an end, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Wednesday.
"The practice of spontaneous strikes on the territory of a sovereign state, in this case Syria, must end," the diplomat said, commenting on Israel’s recent strikes on the Arab Republic.
The Israeli Air Force is currently conducting low altitude flights along the Lebanese-Syrian border, a military source in Damascus told Al-Masdar News this evening.
According to the source, there is a heavy presence of Israeli warplanes flying over the Jabal Sheikh (Mount Hermon) region.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that Moscow is concerned over the fact that terrorists have not abandoned their attempts to stage chemical attacks against Syrian civilians.
The White Helmets have deployed equipment in several hospitals in the Syrian province of Idlib to film false flag chemical attacks and blame it on Damascus, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated on Thursday.