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How Turkey Benefited from Assad's Collapse in Syria

(Telegraph-UK) Col. Richard Kemp - Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei blames the U.S. and Israel for overthrowing Bashar al-Assad, but that's far from the truth. In reality, Biden tried to obstruct Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decisive campaign against Iran and its proxies - especially Hizbullah - which was directly responsible for the fall of Assad. Instead of the U.S., it was Turkish President Erdogan that unleashed Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) to spearhead the drive on Damascus. Until Netanyahu ordered the shattering of Syria's military hardware, the country had for decades represented the greatest direct conventional threat to Israel. Syria was also the principal supply route from Iran to Hizbullah in Lebanon. Unlike Netanyahu, Erdogan has broader designs on the Middle East, including the resurrection of the Ottoman caliphate. He has close ties with Qatar and Sunni jihadist groups in the region, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The rise of Erdogan, with his own Islamist agenda, could develop into the next major challenge for the region. The writer, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, was chairman of the UK's national crisis management committee, COBRA.
2024-12-24 00:00:00
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