Russian airstrikes: the Saudi - Arab response

Saudi Arabia increasing weapon supplies to Syrian rebels following Russian airstrikes – report

RT,

9 October, 2015

Saudi Arabia has stepped up its weapon supplies to three different rebel groups in Syria following Russian airstrikes, a government official told the BBC. It comes after Moscow launched its Air Force anti-terror operation at the request of Assad’s government.

Rebel groups fighting the Syrian Army will receive an increase in modern, high-powered weaponry, including guided anti-tank weapons, a "well-placed" Saudi official told the BBC on condition of anonymity.

He said the recipients include Jaish al-Fatah (Army of Conquest), the Free Syrian Army (FSA), and the Southern Front. The official stressed that Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL) and the al-Nusra Front would not be receiving any weapons

The official did not rule out the possibility of supplying surface-to-air missiles to the rebels, which many in the West fear would fall into the hands of ISIS militants and be used to shoot down warplanes of the US-led coalition or civilian aircraft.

Meanwhile, a separate Gulf Arab official has expressed fear that Russia's military intervention in Syria will prompt a new jihad, or holy war.

The official told journalists that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was warned by Arab diplomats during last week's UN General Assembly that Moscow's actions in Syria were creating “Frankenstein's monster,” which will draw in jihadists aiming to “liberate” Syria of Russians, Iranians, and Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon.

However, the official admitted that neither the West nor Gulf Arab states have a strategy for resolving the bloody conflict, which has been taking place for more than four years and has led to the deaths of over 250,000 people

He went on to stress the need for stronger US leadership, adding that the worst scenario would be for the West to accept a compromise which allows Assad to remain in power. The official added that Sunni Arabs in the region will not accept such a deal.

The statements come after Russia launched its airstrike campaign in Syria on September 30, targeting military equipment, communication centers, vehicles, and arms and fuel depots belonging to ISIS terrorists. In just over a week, Russia made 120 combat sorties that hit 110 targets, the Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. 

The head of the Main Operation Directorate of the General Staff of Russia's Armed Forces, Andrey Kartapolov, said on Thursday that troops are using precision-guided munitions in the airstrikes, which have a “maximum deviation from the target of less than five meters.”

"All the targets are being thoroughly studied, using the data from space and radio-electronic intelligence, drone footages, the information received from radio intercepts. We are also using data from Syrian, Iranian and Iraqi intelligence, including undercover sources," Kartapolov said, adding that each bombing is carried out after a review of all available information and a “computer simulation of the future attack.”

Since the military campaign was launched, mainstream media has “launched a powerful anti-Russian campaign,”Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday. She added that the ministry is “open to contacts of military experts” and is ready to look into any potential concerns.

Meanwhile, the White House has called the Russian airstrikes "indiscriminate military operations against the Syrian opposition,” adding that the campaign will prolong Syria's conflict. Moscow offered on Tuesday to resume talks with Washington to avoid any misunderstandings concerning its airstrike operations, as well as ways to avoid conflicts between US and Russian warplanes over Syria.

Note the Qatari source

Putin's Syrian bombing 'will spark jihad against Moscow': Qatar source

Qatari source tells MEE Syrian rebels are thirsting for fight with Russian forces, West must not compromise with Moscow

David Hearst

Middle East Eye,

8 October, 2015

Russia is creating “a Frankenstein's monster" in its bombing campaign in Syria which will create a "jihad" against Moscow, a senior Qatari source said yesterday.

Already, the source noted, 52 Muslim scholars in Saudi Arabia had announced a "jihad," the effect of which would be to turn a revolution against Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship into a Syrian “war of liberation” against Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.

The Qatari source said that after meeting Sergei Lavrov at the UN in New York, he had the impression that the Russian foreign minister was not “100 percent” happy with what his president Vladimir Putin had done.

“We are anticipating a Grozny-style approach,” he said referring to the two bloody wars Russia fought against separatists in Chechnya in the Northern Caucasus. "When Russia wants to embark on a struggle, they always show their power and this is what worries us.”

“We told him (Lavrov). Your attack was not against ISIS," he said, referring to the Islamic State group (IS). "You can join this alliance and we can all attack ISIS. But you attacked Idlib where there was no Daesh (IS), in Aleppo you attacked the moderates, in Homs you did the same thing.”

Qatar feels that the Russian strategy was to keep Assad in power but as to why they put troops on the ground at this stage in the war, the senior source suggested Moscow had acted out of “jealousy” of Iran, emboldened by its nuclear deal with the P5 plus 1 countries.

“If Russia shared the same goals as Iran, they would not have needed to put their own troops on the ground in Syria. They would have simply provided the air cover for Iranian troops and Hezbollah. But Russia insisted on going in on the ground, and that is what convinces us there is rivalry there.”

Pressed about whether Qatar would supply surface-to-air missiles to the rebel Syrian forces it supports, the source said he did not have access to the sophisticated systems needed to protect ground forces from Russian jets. Only the US could do that.

“The US has to take the driving seat," he said.

Qatar thinks the US-led alliance does not have a proper strategy and that attempts by the US to train a force loyal to it ended in fiasco, when the newly trained recruits handed their weapons over to Nusra Front, the group affiliated to al-Qaeda, “They were training the wrong people. We told them we can take care of Daesh. You take care of Bashar."

However, he claimed that the US had started covert talks with Jaish al-Fatah, the Army of Conquest, which is an umbrella group for Ahrar al-Sham, the Free People of the Levant and other forces.

The diplomatic melee caused by the start of the Russian campaign is set to continue in the UN Security Council, where the Russians tabled a motion on Wednesday that would give it free rein to hit any target in Syria. The French are due to table a counter motion.

Get in, get out

“What matters is how far Russia gets involved. If Russia strikes and leaves, fine. But if Russia engages and gets losses, then the snowball will develop. The worst thing that could happen is for the West to compromise with Russia, by accepting a political process where Bashar Assad should stay. Because they would be deleting the lives of the 300,000 Syrians who have died and it will not work. The Syrian rebel fighters are thirsting for a (face to face) conflict with Russian troops on the ground,” the source said.

The Emir of Qatar is due to visit Russia on 18 and 19 October and there were now two schools of thought in Doha as to whether this was advisable. The source said: "We cannot put the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on a collision course with Russia. We have a duty to keep this so-called friendship role with Russia.”

He said that if Russia continued on its present course, it will be begging Qatar in 10 years time to negotiate a ceasefire with the “Syrian Taliban”.

“No Syrian, no Sunni will accept seeing Iranian or Russian troops in their country,” he said