Prime minister David Cameron’s argument in the Commons for permission to bomb Syria was not based on any new or coherent strategy. As he himself pointed out, it merely follows the logic of a previous vote to bomb Iraq. Even so, like Tony Blair before the Iraq invasion of 2003, he had to rely on abusing his opponents, scaring the public and disseminating dubious intelligence. [...]

Russian aviation has conducted 431 sorties and hit 1,458 terrorist targets in seven Syrian provinces over the past week, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday. "Over the past week (from November 26 to December 4), Russian aviation has carried out 431 sorties from the Hmeymim airbase and conducted pinpoint strikes on 1,458 terrorist targets in the provinces of Aleppo, Idlib, Latakia, Hama, Ho [...]

The Syrian army liberated a number of key areas in the coastal northwestern Syrian province of Latakia, with Russia's aerial assistance, military sources told Iranian media on Friday. The Russian Aerospace Forces have been carrying out airstrikes against terrorist targets across eight Syrian provinces, including Latakia, at the request of Syrian President Bashar Assad, since September 30. [...]

A new war will not increase the prospects of peace in Syria, nor will the British people be safer from terrorism.' Amid warnings that "new war will not increase the prospects of peace," the UK carried out its first airstrikes in Syria on Thursday, just hours after members of Parliament voted to expand the use of military force in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS). [...]

So why did Washington take virtually forever to not really acknowledge ISIS/ISIL/Daesh is selling stolen Syrian oil that will eventually find is way to Turkey? Because the priority all along was to allow the CIA – in the shadows – to run a “rat line” weaponizing a gaggle of invisible “moderate rebels”. [...]

In the wake of Turkey’s shoot down of the Russian Su-24, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the attack a planned provocation. He went further on to suggest the US had given Turkey permission to shoot down the Jet. He explained that countries using US manufactured weapons must ask the US for permission before using them in operations. [...]

President Erdogan's mistake in shooting down the Russian Su-24 bomber 'has waived the green light' for Russia to initiate a 'no-fly zone' by deploying additional fighter power and air defense systems in Syria, US columnist Jim W. Dean notes. The US-led coalition's recent provocation against the Russo-Syrian counter terrorism campaign has "put nothing but torpedoes into its own sinking internati [...]

Recep Erdogan is an international outlaw, US author Stephen Lendman deems, referring to the Turkish president's alleged involvement in Daesh's illicit oil smuggling, refining and sales on the black market. There is no trace of doubt in Ankara's full involvement and knowledge of the ongoing illicit trade between Turkey and Daesh (IS/ISIL), US author and syndicated columnist Stephen Lendman stres [...]

Terrorism is increasing worldwide because of the US-led Western interventionism, former Republican congressman Ron Paul said, adding that US warhawks are using events such as the killings in Paris to terrify Americans into agreeing to more occupation, more bombing. The United States has dragged itself into a vicious circle of interventionism, according to former US Republican congressman Dr. Ro [...]

A Pentagon spokesman rejected Russia’s evidence of Turkey’s involvement in oil deals with Islamic State militants, calling Turkey a “great partner” just a day after his boss complained to Congress that Ankara was not fighting ISIS enough. “Let me be very clear that we flatly reject any notion that the Turks are somehow working with ISIL,” said Colonel Steve Warren, spokesman for th [...]

The deputy minister pointed out that Russia had warned about “the danger of flirting with terrorists” on numerous occasions, saying Ankara’s actions were “adding fuel to the fire.” “A united team of criminals and Turkish elites, involved in stealing oil from its neighbors, is acting in the region. This oil in being supplied to Turkey on a large industrial scale via improvised pipeli [...]

Turkey’s leadership, including President Erdogan and his family, is involved in illegal oil trade with Islamic State militants, says the Russian Defense Ministry, stressing that Turkey is the final destination for oil smuggled from Syria and Iraq. The Russian Defense Ministry held a major briefing on new findings concerning IS funding in Moscow on Wednesday. [...]

The first time a NATO member has downed a Russian plane in a half-century. Turkey has shot down a Russia jet, and the two pilots were reportedly killed. What will be the fallout of this, coming at this sensitive time on the war on Syria? In this edition of the debate, we’ll discuss what possible motives Turkey would have by this act, and how this would impact the Vienna talks held over Syria [...]

While Britain's Prince Charles has recently blamed the Syrian crisis on global climate change, the ongoing strife prompts many questions; what lies at the root of the Syrian war and what information was contained in secret dossiers which Putin handed Western leaders at the G20, political analyst Phil Butler asks. [...]

Turkey playing dirty in Syria is no secret. The true goal Ankara is pursuing in Syria is becoming a regional power and the country that rules the Sunni Muslim world, journalist Riccardo Peliliccetti wrote for his article in Il Giornale. Over the course of his 20 years of ruling Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has Islamized the country and launched a policy of expansionism. [...]

A Syrian rebel commander who boasted of killing a Russian pilot after Turkey downed Russian jet on Tuesday appeared to be Turkish ultranationalist and a son of former mayor in one of Turkish provinces. Alparslan Celik, deputy commander of a Syrian Turkmen brigade turned out to be the son of a mayor of a Keban municipality in Turkey’s Elazig province. [...]

Turkey's aggressive strike on the Russian Su-24 has clearly demonstrated the impotent rage of those who planned to redraw the map of the Middle East, British political writer and journalist Dan Glazebrook emphasizes. Syria appears to be a hard nut to crack for the "regime change camp," British political writer and journalist Dan Glazebrook notes, adding that Turkey's shooting down of the Russia [...]

It all started with French President Francois Hollande, after the Paris attacks, having the temerity to advance the idea of France working together with Russia in the same coalition against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh in Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip “no excuse” Erdogan thought NATO and Russia by this time would be at each other’s – Cold War 2.0 – nuclear throats, while Washington had bru [...]

NATO member state Turkey seems strangely committed to keeping Islamic State going strong in Syria, thus willing to take dangerous risks in confronting Russia in the region. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, a group of experts told RT. “I don’t think the Turkish government would have undertaken such an action against a military superpower like Russia without the consent of the US. It’s [...]