Tomorrow, John Kerry will meet Sergei Lavrov and several of
his other counterparts from Europe and the Mid-East in Munich in a last
ditch effort to revive Syrian peace talks, which fell apart amid an
intense Russian air assault on rebel positions in Aleppo.
For all intents and purposes, the rebels are surrounded.
Initially, it appeared that the “moderate” opposition might be able to
persist and bog down the Russians and the Iranians with the help of
supplies from the US, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. Those hopes faded over
the past two weeks when Hezbollah advanced on Aleppo and ultimately
encircled the city, cutting the rebels off from key supply lines and
triggering a mass civilian exodus.
The talks in the Bavarian capital come at what is perhaps
the most crucial point in the conflict to date. With the opposition on
the ropes, it’s do or die time for Riyadh, Ankara, Doha, and the UAE.
Either the Gulf monarchies send in ground troops to shore up the rebels
or Hezbollah and the IRGC will overrun them in a matter of weeks - or
perhaps even days.
Of course the opposition’s Sunni benefactors can’t exactly
say they’re going into Syria to fight Iran and the Russians. Any ground
incursion will be justified by the need to “fight ISIS” even though the
Islamic State presence in Aleppo is markedly less pronounced than in
other besieged urban centers like Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor. Indeed, the
effort is so transparent that even the mainstream media has been forced
to acknowledge it.
Here’s FT, for instance:
More @ Zero Hedge
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