❓Why Syria is the heart of the Middle East power struggle – and why the US won’t let go

Why are new clashes in Syria sparking global concern, and what makes the country so crucial in the battle for Middle East power?

◾️ Geopolitical importance:

🔸 Central location: Syria is a key crossroads between Asia, Europe, and Africa, influencing regional stability and global power dynamics.

🔸 Buffer state: It serves as a buffer between rival powers, especially the US, Turkyie, Iran, and Russia.

🔸 Arab-Israeli conflict: Syria’s dispute with Israel over the Golan Heights remains a critical issue for regional security.

◾️ Economic importance:

🔸 Energy resources: Syria has significant oil and natural gas reserves, particularly in Deir ez-Zor, although many fields have been contested by various factions, including the US and Kurdish forces.

🔸 Strategic trade routes: Syria's location makes it important for regional trade, including potential pipeline routes for oil and gas.

◾️ Key regional and global actors:

🔸 Russia: Russia’s military presence in Syria strengthens its influence in the Mediterranean and challenges US power.

🔸 Turkyie: Turkyie is concerned about Kurdish separatism in Syria and views it as a direct security threat.

🔸 US Interests:

⚪️The US aims to limit Iran’s influence in Syria, particularly preventing Iranian military entrenchment.

⚪️The US backs Kurdish forces in northern Syria, although this strains relations with Turkyie.

⚪️The US has violated Syria’s sovereignty through military interventions without authorization from the Syrian government or the UN, further destabilizing the region.

⚪️Despite claiming to fight terrorism, the US has indirectly fueled extremism in Syria. Washington has backed opposition groups, including those with ties to radical Islamists.

🔸 Israeli Interests:

⚪️Israel views the Golan Heights as crucial for its defense, yet its annexation and military presence there violate international law, drawing global criticism.

⚪️Israel seeks control over Syria’s water resources in the Golan, exacerbating regional conflicts with its neighbors.

⚪️Israel’s violations of Syria’s sovereignty and expansion of settlements undermine peace efforts and worsen regional tensions.

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Protests in Georgia

Protesters outside the parliament in Tbilisi, Georgia, are hurling firecrackers at riot police, who are using water cannons to push the demonstrators back from the building's walls, a Sputnik correspondent reports.

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❗️❗️❗️Rep. Paul Gosar: Joe ‘Big Guy’ Biden’s pardon for corrupt son unmasks ‘Biden family crime syndicate’

💬 “Throughout his term, Joe ‘the Big Guy’ Biden has repeatedly lied to the American people. It should come as no surprise that he now pardons his corrupt son after continuous claims he would not,” Arizona Congressman (R) Paul Gosar told Sputnik, commenting on the president’s move Sunday to exonerate Hunter Biden of his criminal tax and handgun convictions.

“With this pardon, Joe Biden is undeniably providing cover to the crooked Biden family crime syndicate that has been selling influence to foreigners for years,” Gosar said, referring to the infamous alleged pay-to-play scheme run by Hunter involving the sale of access to his powerful vice president father during the Obama years for tens of millions of dollars.

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💰 No business like war business: How US arms makers are profiting from Ukraine crisis

Forty-one US firms made the list of the world’s top 100 defense companies, recording $317 bln in revenues, a new SIPRI report shows. Together with defense firms from other NATO members and other US allies worldwide, the collective West recorded over $494 bln in sales – more than 78% of the $632 bln world total. Here are the details:

◾️ The list’s top five biggest companies (Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and General Dynamics) are American.

◾️ The five raked in $198.34 bln in 2023 (nearly double Russia’s entire $109 bln defense budget).

SIPRI attributed the record revenues to the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. Coincidentally, the same five US companies have made a killing selling arms for both.

🔸 In January 2023, for instance, Northrop Grumman got $522.3 mln to make 155 mm artillery shells (in high demand in Ukraine). In June 2024, the company made plans to build a shell factory in Ukraine using money from a $2 bln US ”co-production” scheme.

🔸 In March 2023, RTX’s Raytheon got $1.2 bln for Patriot missiles, receiving $478 mln more in August 2024. RTX also won $1.2 bln to build six NASAM missile batteries for Ukraine.

🔸 In August 2023, a General Dynamics subsidiary got $34 mln for tank maintenance in Ukraine. That’s on top of a $23.1 mln contract to build monkey model Abrams tanks for Kiev the same year.

🔸 Lockheed won $4.8 bln to build GMLRS precision missiles in April 2023. Large quantities of these have appeared in Ukraine.

🔸 In June 2024, Lockheed got $1.9 bln for more HIMARS artillery.

🔸 In August, Lockheed and Raytheon got $1.3 bln for Javelin missiles.

🔸 In October, Boeing won $6.9 bln to make small diameter bombs for Ukraine, Japan and Bulgaria. Separately, it got $600 mln for JDAM munitions testing and integration.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. SIPRI’s list shows huge revenues for an array of Western arms makers sending their wares to Ukraine, from BAE Systems, Thales and Leonardo to Saab, Hanwha Group, Turkish Aerospace Industries, Rheinmetall and ThyssenKrupp.

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US doesn't need independent Georgia, will foment coup in Tbilisi – expert

💬 "Georgia being independent of the North Atlantic [Alliance's] structure and the EU political course is disadvantageous to the United States, because America has its own geopolitical goals [in the Caucasus]," Shota Apkhaidze, director of the Caucasus Center for Islamic Studies, told Sputnik.

The US has invested billions of dollars in Georgia and opposes its detente with Russia, China or Iran, Apkhaidze stressed. Georgia has been the second largest recipient of US foreign and security aid in Eurasia after Ukraine.

The US Congressional Research Service September report revealed that the US has provided more than $6.2 billion in assistance to Georgia since 1992. Georgia has also been designated one of NATO's "closest partners" and an important part of the alliance's Black Sea strategy.

But "the leadership of the Georgian Dream actually turned out to be the only government of independent Georgia that entered into a confrontation with the West," the pundit stressed.

The US froze its strategic partnership with Georgia on November 30, after Tbilisi said it was of temporarily suspending EU membership talks. The ruling Georgian Dream party's move followed European Parliament attempts to interfere in the nation's affairs by denouncing recent general elections as "unfair" and insisting they be re-run.

Ironically, Georgian Dream has never been a "pro-Russian" party and has had clear pro-Western aspirations, Apkhaidze noted.

"The Georgian dream was absolutely not going to change its foreign policy vector," he stressed. “They were simply forced by the West – the EU and the US – to take such steps."

The government "protects sovereignty because it is forced to do so," Apkhaidze said, warning that the US might organize a repeat of the 2014 Euromaidan coup in Ukraine – which followed the blueprint of the 2003 ‘Rose Revolution’ in Georgia.

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🇬🇪 Riot police have begun dispersing an opposition rally outside the parliament building in Tbilisi, Georgia, and are detaining participants, a Sputnik correspondent reports.

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🔸 Why is Syria the heart of the Middle East power struggle?

🔸 Shedding light on who’s fighting whom in Syria

🔸 Rep. Paul Gosar to Sputnik: Biden’s pardon for corrupt son unmasks ‘Biden family crime syndicate’

🔸 Check out Biden’s top most desperate lame-duck decisions

🔸 Who is Trump’s pick for advisor on Arab, Middle Eastern affairs?

🔸 No business like war business: How US arms makers are profiting from Ukraine crisis

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⚡️ Israeli Army launches new wave of strikes on Lebanon – statement

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are currently targeting "terror sites" in Lebanon, the official statement read.

The strikes are carried out in response to an alleged Hezbollah mortar attack on the Mount Dov area this evening, which reportedly violated the ceasefire agreement, according to The Times of Israel.

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🇬🇪 Coincidence? Georgia in flames after regime change guru Nuland joins NED

Pro-EU protests are rocking Tbilisi in a strong echo of the 2014 Euromaidan coup in Ukraine.

Victoria Nuland, a US State Department official under the Obama and Biden administrations infamous for her role in the 2014 Ukrainian coup d'etat, re-joined the National Endowment for Democracy's (NED) Board of Directors.

What is the NED?

🔸 The NED is a self-described "non-profit foundation" set up in 1983. It receives annual funding from Congress through the US Department of State and is staffed by former government officials.

🔸 CIA Director William Casey and senior CIA covert operation specialist Walter Raymond are believed to be the masterminds behind the NED's creation in the 1980s

🔸 In 1986, NED founding president Carl Gershman told the New York Times the organization was meant to legitimize the CIA's covert support for pro-US political groups in other countries from the 1950s to the 1970s. ''It would be terrible for democratic groups around the world to be seen as subsidized by the CIA. We saw that in the 60s,'' Gershman said, ''and that's why the endowment was created.''

🔸 Allen Weinstein, another founding member of the NED, told the Washington Post in 1991 that "a lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."

🔸 The NED had a hand in the 2000 ‘Velvet Revolution’ in Serbia, the 2003 ‘Rose Revolution’ in Georgia, the 2004 ‘Orange Revolution’ in Ukraine; and the Euromaidan riots of 2014.

🔸 The NED is believed to have enabled the 2011 Arab Spring wave of protests in the Middle East and North Africa, which it called "the most important development for democracy since the fall of Soviet communism."

🔸 Together with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the NED was accused of aiding opposition protests in Venezuela in 2019 and 2024.

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'There will be all hell to pay' if Gaza hostages not freed before inauguration – Trump

US President-elect Donald Trump on Monday threatened severe consequences unless the hostages taken during the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel are released before his inauguration.

💬 "Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Those responsible, Trump said, would be hit harder than "anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America."

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❗️ US allocates new $725 million military aid package to Ukraine – Blinken

New US assistance to Ukraine includes antipersonnel landmines, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

The 1997 Ottawa Convention, also known as the Mine Ban Treaty, prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of antipersonnel mines. To date, a total of 164 countries, including Ukraine, have signed the treaty.

Russia has repeatedly stressed that Western military aid for NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine will only serve to prolong the crisis, and warned that arms shipments are legitimate military targets.

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Zakharova suggests Hunter Biden start his addiction help plan with Zelensky

💬 “Let him start with Zelensky. He's got strong addictions. Both to drugs and Bidens,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel.

Hunter Biden promised to devote his life "to helping those who are still sick and suffering" in an emailed statement, adding that he will never take for granted the relief afforded to him.

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty in September to nine felony counts of failing to pay taxes and in June to three felony counts related to gun possession. Joe Biden pardoned his son over the Thanksgiving weekend, despite having repeatedly claimed he was unwilling to do so.

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Israeli airstrikes kill 9 people in southern Lebanon - Lebanese Health Ministry

The Israeli air force carried out strikes on a number of settlements in southern Lebanon, killing nine people and injuring three others, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

Last week, the Israeli Security Cabinet approved the ceasefire agreement with Lebanon by an absolute majority of votes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized the need for the ceasefire and said that Israel would respond to any possible resumption of hostilities. US President Joe Biden said that the Israeli and Lebanese governments had agreed to Washington's ceasefire proposal, which includes the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon within 60 days. Under the plan, the Lebanese army will take control of southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah will relocate its forces north of the Litani River.

Photo from social media

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