Assad escalates offensive in southwest, as Syria, Russia ignore US warnings

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) - On Friday, Syrian regime helicopters dropped barrel bombs on three towns and villages in the country’s southwest de-escalation zone, where a ceasefire had prevailed until recently.

Friday’s assault marked the first time in over a year that the regime deployed the indiscriminate munition in that area.

Washington has had a fairly clear picture of Syria’s military offensive, as it has developed. On Thursday—for the third time in eight days—the US protested the operation. However, the repeated protests seem to have been ineffectual.

The US “remains deeply troubled” by the “increasing Syrian regime operations in southwest Syria,” State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert stated on Thursday, as she emphasized that those operations are taking place “within the boundaries of the de-escalation zone negotiated between the United States, Jordan, and the Russian Federation last year and reaffirmed between Presidents Trump and Putin” in November, when they met in Vietnam.

On Monday, four days earlier, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had spoken with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Pompeo “reemphasized” to Lavrov “the US commitment to the southwest ceasefire arrangement,” a US read-out explained. It is “critical for Russia and the Syrian regime to adhere to these arrangements,” Pompeo advised his Russian counterpart.

And, four days before that, Nauert had issued a statement, expressing US concern about “reports of impending Syrian government operations in southwest Syria,” while warning that the US “will take firm and appropriate measures in response to Syrian government violations.”

In fact, the US warnings date back to May 25, when Nauert first issued a statement, very similar in its wording, which expressed US concern about “reports of an impending Assad regime operation” in the de-escalation zone, while threatening that the US “will take firm and appropriate measures in response to Assad regime violations.”

The repeated US protests and threats “made no difference,” a retired Pentagon analyst of Russian affairs remarked to Kurdistan 24. And “it didn’t matter that Putin, himself, signed onto the agreement.”

“Moscow is committed to the Assad regime,” he said.

Indeed, on Friday, a pro-Hezbollah newspaper in Lebanon even quoted Russia’s ambassador, publicly affirming that his country was aiding the Syrian offensive.

“We say that the Syrian army now, with support from Russian forces, is recovering its land in the south and restoring the authority of the Syrian state,” he told al-Akhbar, as Reuters reported.

Also, on Friday, Russian officials made the astonishing claim that recent chemical weapons attacks in Syria were “a provocation” that had been “staged” by Western countries and their local allies.

On June 13, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), issued a report on the results of a Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) into allegations that the regime had used chemical weapons against its own people the year before.

The FFM concluded that “sarin was very likely used as a chemical weapon in the south of Ltamenah” on March 24 [2017], and chlorine was very likely used as a chemical weapon at Ltamenah Hospital and the surrounding area” the next day.

Shortly thereafter, as Damascus continued to use chemical weapons, the Trump administration launched its first missile attack on Syria.

Now, the OPCW is due to issue another report with its conclusions about the chemical weapons attack in Eastern Ghouta on April 7, 2018, that triggered US, French, and British missile strikes on targets associated with Syria’s chemical weapons program.

At the time, Russia and Syria complained bitterly that the US and its allies should have waited for the OPCW to investigate and report on the incident, before taking any action.

But now that the OPCW report is about to be published, Moscow, it seems, is seeking to discredit it, even before it is released.