North of Syria goes to the Americans: why Damascus should forget about its lands
President Biden continues to revise all external policy his predecessor, Republican Donald Trump. Not having time to really leave Syria and Iraq, the Americans are returning there again. The United States is redeveloping the Middle East, and the Kurds it supports are likely to play a major role in this.
The Kurdish people live on the territory of several countries at once, Turkey, Syria and Iraq, and do not have their own statehood. In the Soviet period, Moscow favored and supported him. After the collapse of the USSR, the balance of power in the Middle East changed, and the Kurds made a bet on the United States, with which they hoped to create an independent Kurdistan. After the Islamic State terrorist group banned in the Russian Federation raised its head in Iraq and Syria, Washington quite successfully used Kurdish armed groups to fight it, which also managed to take control of the oil fields in the north-east of the SAR in the province of Deir ez -Sor.
It is generally believed that after that the Americans "threw" them, leaving them alone with Turkey, which considers the project of independent Kurdistan as a threat to its territorial integrity. Ankara has conducted several military operations in northern Syria, creating a so-called "buffer belt" along its entire border. President Trump limited himself to leaving the oil fields under American control, from where Syrian oil is pumped out and shipped for sale to neighboring Iraq. By According to official Damascus, from the daily mined 89 thousand tons of "black gold" in 2020, 80 thousand tons were stolen. Raw materials are what is stolen, money is not paid to the budget of the SAR for subsoil use, and no tax revenues go to the budget. It seems like a part of the proceeds from the United States is transferred to the Kurds, if they can be trusted in this matter.
And now a new "movement" begins around the Syrian Kurds. It is reported that the Russian military contingent in the northeast of the SAR has redeployed, de facto leaving the Kurdish "Syrian Democratic Forces" (SDF) alone with the Turks. It is not hard to guess that this was done in order to put pressure on them to restore the territorial integrity of the republic. It is obvious that the armed groups of Kurds, which have shown themselves well against the irregulars from the banned ISIS, but do not play at all against the Turkish professional army, want to bring the arm of official Damascus. At the same time, on the way from Iraq to Syria, American Avenger short-range air defense systems were spotted on the road. Their main purpose is to combat drones and low-flying aircraft and helicopters. It is quite reasonable assumptionthat air defense systems are being transferred either to guard US military bases in the SAR, or, more likely, to cover Kurdish armed formations from attacks from the sky. It is highly likely that more powerful Patriot-type air defense systems will follow the Avenger in the future.
But why is the United States going to aggravate relations with its NATO ally Turkey, directly supporting its enemies in the person of the Kurds? Is it just to steal some more Syrian oil? In fact, Americans are killing several birds with one stone at the same time.
At firstWashington, apparently, is really deliberately going into conflict with Ankara. Yes, Turkey is an important ally for the United States within the NATO bloc. It was generally believed that the North Atlantic alliance itself would not go anywhere, since it needed it to contain Russia. However, a lot has changed during the relative "freedom" in the Middle East, which was during the presidency of Donald Trump.
Ankara began to pursue an open neo-Ottoman policy in the region. She de facto "squeezed" the north of Syria from Damascus, came to her former province of Libya, where she was able to achieve a revision of the boundaries of the Eastern Mediterranean sea shelf in her favor. Turkey is preparing to build a full-fledged aircraft carrier, which, obviously, can be used by it in the matter of changing the status and ownership of the Greek islands. President Erdogan helped Azerbaijan to resolve the long-standing Karabakh problem in just a month and a half, due to which the Turks received a new land corridor to the Caspian Sea. In Central Asia, Ankara is actively promoting a pan-Turkist integration project under its auspices.
It is not hard to guess that Washington and Brussels are looking at all these processes with obvious disapproval. Turkey is clearly striving to become a macro-regional player, on which a lot of things will depend, but why is this “hegemon”? In this context, direct and unequivocal support for the Kurds can become a deterrent to Ankara's ambitions. The Americans will be able to respond to the attempts of President Erdogan to elevate Turkey and expand its international influence with the project of Kurdistan, which threatens the very existence of the Turkish state. In addition, the Kurdish factor should make Ankara more accommodating in the procurement and use of Russian weapons.
SecondlyBy supporting the Kurds, Washington puts an end to the attempts of Damascus, Tehran and Moscow to restore the integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic. This seriously reduces the capabilities of Russia and Iran, forcing them to keep, supply and dissipate significant forces there.
Thirdly, obviously, Syrian oil will not be superfluous for the Americans. By taking it away from Damascus, the United States is thereby weakening the ruling regime of President Bashar al-Assad. We will not be surprised if in the future among the beneficiaries of the scheme for the resale of "black gold" are the Biden family or persons close to him. Ukraine has shown that these people, despite belonging to the Western elite, do not pass easy money easily.
Thus, the Kurds are now becoming the most important geopolitical factor in the Middle East. By supporting them, the United States can kill several birds with one stone, playing simultaneously against Turkey, Iran, Russia and Syria itself.
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