[IsraelTimes] British government sources tell London’s The Times that Asma al-Assad, the London-born wife of ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, is effectively barred from the United Kingdom as her passport is not valid.
It is unclear if the travel document expired or was actively blocked.
Sources tell the newspaper that because the exiled former Syrian first lady’s passport is not valid, and the British government will not allow her back in on compassionate grounds due to her health, Assad will be unable to seek medical treatment in the UK.
Assad is said to have a 50% chance of survival after an aggressive form of blood cancer is believed to have returned following treatment for the disease earlier this year, the UK’s Telegraph newspaper reported earlier this month.
According to the report, the exiled former first lady, who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in May of this year, is completely isolated in Moscow as she undergoes treatment for the aggressive cancer.
While her husband fled to Moscow after his brutal regime was toppled in a lightning rebel offensive earlier this month, Asma is said to have already been in Russia for some time before that as she was seeking treatment there.
According to The Times, it is thought that her treatment in Moscow is being managed by cardiologist father, who has apparently left his home in London along with his wife.
#1
Any refugee from anywhere, unless the Left doesn't like them.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
12/30/2024 8:42 Comments ||
Top||
#2
With the UK & a few other EU nations threatening Israel's President BiBi with arrest for killing and wiping out Terrorists. Using their A$$ backward logic, why not offer her free treatment since Syria also had problems with Israel?☺☻
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/30/2024 12:43 Comments ||
Top||
#6
You have practical diplomatic and national security interests on one hand and common decency on the other. I think my own tendency, in spite of the distastefulness of patient, would be to allow entry for medical treatment and tell the terrorists to go to hell.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/30/2024 12:46 Comments ||
Top||
#7
A B-2 (Medical) Visa and a firm post-op exit requirement.
[Rudaw] The main crossing between Iraq and Syria border, which was shut earlier this month following the collapse of Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... ’s regime, remains closed, Iraqi border guards spokesperson said on Sunday.
"After the recent events in Syria, al-Qaim border crossing was closed. A few days later, it was decided to allow only humanitarian movement and trucks stranded between the two countries," Hayder Karkhi told Rudaw.
A coalition of rebel groups spearheaded by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS) launched an offensive against Assad’s army late last month, toppling the regime on December 8. Thousands of Syrian soldiers sought refuge in neighboring Iraq.
The border crossing, which connects the town of Abu Kamal in Syria's Deir ez-Zor province to Iraq's al-Qaim district in Anbar province, was also temporarily opened to allow nearly 2,000 of the soldiers to return to their country on December 19.
Karkhi said that the border will open again in due time.
Over 100 Iraqis, who had fled to Syria in the face of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) attack a decade ago, were repatriated through Kurdistan Region’s main border crossing with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... on Thursday. It is not clear why Baghdad chose to return them through Turkey rather than al-Qaim border crossing.
During the escalation of the conflict between the HTS and the Syrian regime, thousands of soldiers from the Iraqi armed forces, including the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), along with border police, were deployed along the Iraqi-Syrian border in Anbar province. Iraq feared that the developments in the neighboring country could negatively affect its security.
[IsraelTimes] Israel detonated the pagers days after realizing some devices were being sent to Iran for examination; had earlier used drone to kill Hezbollah technician who suspected they were rigged
The New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... on Sunday reported that Israel detonated thousands of boobytrapped pagers, which it had covertly sold to Hezbollah, six days after learning that the terror group was sending some devices to Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... for close examination. The newspaper’s account of the years-long deep penetration of the terror group by the Mosssd ...... and Israeli military intelligence is the most detailed to be published to date.
The report cited two dozen current and former Israeli, American, and European officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss classified information. It detailed Israel’s two decades of surveillance of Hezbollah’s leadership and the decision to keep Washington in the dark about the plan to assassinate the terror group’s long-time leader, His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...> According to the report, earlier in 2024, Israel carried out a dronezap to kill a Hezbollah technician who suspected there might be explosives in the walkie-talkies that, like the pagers, Israel had covertly sold the terror group.
The September 17 pager detonation, which killed dozens of Hezbollah operatives and maimed thousands, marked the beginning of Israel’s escalation against Hezbollahs
, after almost a year of the terror group’s persistent rocket fire that displaced some 60,000 residents of the north. Israel invaded Leb ...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade.... 10 days after the targeted explosions, beginning with Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in which most of Hezbollah’s leaders, including Nasrallah, were killed. By the end of November, a battered Hezbollah signed a ceasefire agreement with Israel.
The Iran-backed terror group, unprovoked, began its near-daily rocket attacks against Israel on October 8 of last year — one day after its fellow Iran-backed terror group Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... According to the New York Times, the boobytrapped devices were not yet fully in place at the time of the Hamas invasion and Hezbollah’s entry into the war. The newspaper confirmed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided against a large-scale counteroffensive in Lebanon, preferring to focus on Gaza, over the advice of some Israeli officials, including then-defense minister Yoav Gallant.
By August 2024, Mossad chief David Barnea and military intelligence chiefs were urging a short campaign to neuter Hezbollah’s rocket capabilities and push it away from the border, said the Times, citing a senior Israeli defense official.
Then, according to several unidentified officials cited in the report, new intelligence showed the long-planned pager operation was in danger, especially in light of a September 11, 2024, discovery that some devices had been taken to Iran for inspection.
With the pager operation apparently compromised, Netanyahu met with top security chiefs on September 16 to decide whether Israel should "use it or lose it," according to four Israeli security officials.
The Times also elaborated on a report last week from CBS’s "60 Minutes" that Mossad had registered shell companies in Budapest and Sofia to handle the sale of the pagers to Hezbollah. CBS said Hezbollah had some 5,000 pagers in use at the time of the blasts.
The pagers were first delivered in the fall of 2023, the Times report noted, and it also cited Hezbollah’s purchase of some 15,000 booby-trapped walkie-talkies since 2015.
20-YEAR SURVEILLANCE OF HEZBOLLAH CULMINATED IN HIT ON NASRALLAH
The New York Times said that the foundation of Israel’s surveillance effort was laid in the 2006 war with Hezbollah. For example, according to three Israeli security officials cited by the newspaper, Israel planted tracking devices on Hezbollah’s Fajr missiles, which yielded information on the terror group’s munitions and facilities. During that war, Israel bombed the sites and destroyed the missiles.
Israel also developed near-constant tracking of the terror group’s leaders by recruiting people to bug their hideouts. In the case of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr, whom Israel killed in July, keeping track of his movements included knowledge of his multiple rendezvous with four mistresses, whom he made his wives in the months before he was killed. They married in separate phone-based ceremonies arranged by Hashem Safieddine, who was killed by Israel in October, when he emerged as Nasrallah’s heir-apparent.
Israel reportedly decided to strike Nasrallah after learning of a plan to move him to a different bunker that would have been harder to hit.
Netanyahu approved the strike that killed the terror chief immediately before the premier addressed the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... General Assembly on September 27 — when he decried Nasrallah’s grip on Lebanon.
According to the Times, confirming previous reports and comments by the prime minister, Netanyahu discussed the strike with top Israeli officials in Israel the night before taking off for New York, and gave the operation the green light after landing.
Jerusalem chose not to update the White House on the imminent elimination of Nasrallah, avoiding any opposition by Washington, trusting that the US would support Israel if Iran retaliated.
The report cited Israeli intelligence, shared with Western allies, that Nasrallah, in his very last days, seemed skeptical that Israel would try to kill him, maintaining that the country was not interested in an all-out war. After the strike that killed the long-ruling terror chief, intelligence sources determined that he died of suffocation, together with a top Iranian general based in Lebanon.
[IsraelTimes] Government document compiles grim details of abuse of hostages, including whipping, branding with heated iron, isolation, binding, starving, maltreatment and psychological torment.
Very upsetting details at the link that I am not tough-minded enough to do more than skim. We knew they are evil. My imagination did not stretch how far. PJ Media has more, linking to other sources.
[IsraelTimes] Leader of tiny Syrian community visits destroyed Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue in capital’s Jobar neighborhood, recounts years of site being off-limits during civil war
In this Damascus suburb, the handful of remaining Jews in Syria can again make pilgrimages to one of the world’s oldest synagogues where people from throughout the region once came to pray.
Syria’s 13-year civil war left the synagogue largely destroyed. Walls and roofs have collapsed. Some artifacts are missing. A marble sign in Arabic at the gate says it was first built 720 years before Christ.
Since snuffies overthrew president Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... in early December, people have been able to safely visit the widely destroyed Jobar suburb that was pounded for years by government forces while in the hands of opposition fighters.
Syria was once home to one of the world’s largest Jewish communities. Those numbers have shrunk dramatically, especially after the State of Israel was created in 1948 and following anti-Jewish riots and persecution.
Today, only nine Jews live in Syria, according to the head of the community, almost all older men and women. The community believes that no Syrian Jews will remain in the country in a few years.
One of the people visiting the Jobar Synagogue, also known as Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue, on Thursday was gray-haired Bakhour Chamntoub, the head of the community in Syria.
"This synagogue means a lot to us," the 74-year-old told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named during his first visit in 15 years.
Chamntoub had heard the synagogue was damaged, but he did not expect to see that part of it had been reduced to a pile of debris.
"I am frankly disturbed," he said.
Chamntoub said Jewish people from around the world have been calling him to say they are ready to help rebuild.
He had refused to leave Syria during the war, while all 12 of his siblings left. He said he was happy in Syria and surrounded by people who respect him.
Chamntoub said he had been one of the few Jews who openly spoke about his faith, adding that he never faced discrimination. He said other Jews preferred not to speak openly for safety reasons amid the animosity in Syria toward Israel and fears of being labeled spies or collaborators.
The Jewish community in Syria dates back to the prophet Elijah’s Damascus sojourn nearly 3,000 years ago. After 1099, when Christian armies conquered Jerusalem in the First Crusade and massacred the city’s Moslem and Jewish inhabitants, some 50,000 Jews reportedly fled to Damascus, making up nearly a third of residents. Another wave of Jews later arrived from Europe, fleeing the Spanish Inquisition that began in 1492.
The community in Syria numbered about 100,000 at the start of the 20th century. In the years surrounding Israel’s creation, Syrian Jews faced increased tensions and restrictions. Many emigrated to Israel, the United States and other countries.
Under the Assad family’s 54-year dynasty, Jews in Syria enjoyed freedom in performing religious duties, but community members were barred from traveling outside the country to prevent them from going to Israel until the early 1990s. Once travel restrictions were lifted after Arab-Israeli peace talks started, many more left.
Before Syria’s conflict began in 2011, Chamntoub and other remaining community members came on Saturdays to Jobar for prayers. He recalled Torahs written on gazelle leather, chandeliers, tapestries and carpets. All are gone, likely stolen by looters.
Barakat Hazroumi, a Moslem born and raised near the synagogue, recounted how worshipers on Saturdays asked him to turn on the lights or light a candle since Jews are not allowed to light fires or do physical labor on the Sabbath rest day.
"It was a beautiful religious place," Hazroumi said of the synagogue, which at some point during the war was protected by rebels. It and the whole destroyed suburb "needs to be reconstructed from scratch."
Assad’s forces recaptured Jobar from rebels in 2018 but imposed tight security, preventing many people from reaching the area.
The new rulers of Syria, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... , have said they will allow members of all religions to perform their religious duties freely. There have been some sectarian attacks but mostly against members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect.
After visiting the synagogue, Chamntoub returned to his home in old Damascus, close to the private Jewish school known as Maimonides that was founded in 1944 but has been closed for decades. Posters in Hebrew remain on the walls.
The area is known as the Jewish quarter. Many old homes have doors and windows closed with pieces of metal and a sign in Arabic saying: "The real estate is closed by the state’s Higher Committee for the Affairs of Jews."
As the Jewish community has shrunk, it has also struggled to find kosher food. Chamntoub receives packages of meat from siblings in the US at least once a year via people traveling to Syria. In the past, he went to the chicken market with a Jewish friend who would slaughter them, but the man now can hardly walk.
Chamntoub mostly eats vegetarian dishes. Almost every morning, he cooks for himself and a Jewish woman in the area with no remaining relatives in Syria.
The woman, 88-year-old Firdos Mallakh, sat on a couch Thursday under two blankets. When asked to greet an AP journalist with "Shabbat Shalom," she replied it was not yet time. "Today is Thursday and tomorrow is Friday," she said.
Chamntoub, who makes a living as a landlord, asked Mallakh why she had not turned on the gas heater. Mallakh said she did not want to waste gas.
Chamntoub hopes that with the fall of Assad, Syrians will enjoy more freedoms, economic and otherwise. In the past, he said, authorities prevented him from giving interviews without permission from the security agencies.
"I am a Jew and I am proud of it," he said.
But with so few remaining in Damascus, the city’s synagogues see no services. Chamntoub is marking the eight-day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which began on Wednesday, alone at home.
[Rudaw] Syrian de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammed al-Jolani) on Sunday told Saudi media that the country’s defense ministry will also include Kurdish forces.
"The Syrian Ministry of Defense will include Kurdish forces in its ranks," al-Hadath cited him as saying, in an interview set to be aired later on Sunday.
It is not clear if Sharaa elaborated on the issue.
Sharaa also called Kurds an "integral part" of Syrian society but stressed that his administration will not allow the country to become a "launchpad" for Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attacks.
"We are negotiating with the SDF [Syrian Democratic Forces] to resolve the crisis in northeast Syria," he said.
The Kurdish-led SDF, who control most of the northeast (Rojava), have expressed their readiness to be merged into Syria’s new security apparatus.
SDF chief Mazloum Abdi told Asharq al-Awsat in a recent interview that they are willing to merge the SDF into the new Syrian army if both sides agree on a "suitable formula through negotiations."
A coalition of rebel groups spearheaded by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS) overthrew Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... ’s regime on December 8. They have announced the dissolution of their affiliated gangs and formed a transitional government that is expected to expire in March.
The HTS has not clashed with the US-backed SDF, but the new officials in Damascus and Sharaa have declared that weapons should only be in the hands of the state and they will not tolerate the existence of any independent gang.
[IsraelTimes] Syria’s new Foreign Minister Assaad al-Shibani is seeking to calm an outcry sparked by comments from the country’s newly appointed head of women’s affairs, who said that women should “not go beyond the priorities of their God-given nature,” and should know “their educational role in the family.”
Posting on X, Shibani says that authorities will “stand by” women and “fully support their rights.”
“We believe in the active role of women within society, and we have confidence in their capacities,” he says, adding that “Syrian women fought long years for a free homeland that preserves their dignity and status.”
”You have the right to wear a hijab. You have the right to walk three steps behind your husband and obey him. You have the right to speak out in support of Syria’s new rulers. You have the right to speak out against the godless Assad government and against the Shiite heretics in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon. You have the right to train your sons to be jihadis and your daughters to marry and give birth to jihadis and you have the right to be thoroughly educated in the HTS interpretation of Sunna and Hadith so that you can teach your children to be rightly guided by it. Really, you are practically drowning in rights and governmental support of those rights, O Syrian women! Let us together rejoice that it is so!”
Speaking to Turkey’s state-run TRT broadcaster, Aisha al-Dibs, the only woman so far in Syria’s transitional government, said only feminist organizations that “support the model that we are going to build” would be welcome in Syria, adding “I am not going to open the path for those who don’t agree with my thinking.”
“Why adopt a lay or civil model? We want to implement a model that is right for Syrian society, and Syrian women will make it happen,” she said.
Dibs’s remarks have prompted outrage among some on social media.
Actress Aliaa Saeid says on social network X that “we were imprisoned so that we could [obtain the right] to express our opinion.”
“We have been displaced, our homes have been destroyed, so that in the end you come and tell us what’s allowed and what’s not?” she adds.
[IsraelTimes] Iran International’s Israel correspondent Babak Itzhaki: ‘I tip my hat to the security services, they’re watching over me’; IRGC tried, failed to recruit prisoner in Armenia for plot
Iran’s paramilitary forces reportedly plotted to kidnap an Iranian-Israeli journalist by luring him to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... and then smuggling him into Iran, but abandoned the plan when an intermediary they recruited to participate in the plot refused to participate.
According to the IranWire dissident news site, Babak Itzhaki, the Israeli correspondent for London-based Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... International — another opposition outlet reporting about Iran — was the target of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) plot.
The IRGC reportedly tried to recruit Mohammad Hashemzadeh, a former Iranian political prisoner who once studied with Itzhaki, to lure him and another unnamed journalist, also from Iran International, to a border city in Turkey.
Hashemzadeh, currently detained in Armenia, refused to participate in the plot. He then discussed the attempt with another Iranian journalist, who in turn told Channel 12 that the prisoner had said: "They expect me to take Babak to Turkey, and from there they’ll bring him to Iran."
Speaking to Channel 12 on Sunday, Itzhaki said he wasn’t surprised by the plot, telling the Israeli outlet, "This isn’t the first time and it won’t be the last time they plan to kidnap me. They threaten all Iran International employees around the world."
The correspondent was targeted by Iranian intelligence in an operation uncovered by the Shin Bet security agency in early 2022, which involved four Jewish Israelis who were recruited by Iranian intelligence to carry out espionage missions across the country for small payments.
So Iran was actively seeking information and attempting to acquire key hostages via this new model almost two years before Hamas exploded over the border on 10/7/2033.
Among their revealed targets were the Iran International news outlet and Itzhaki himself.
In his work for Iran International, Itzhaki has interviewed leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former president and convicted sex offender Moshe Katsav.
Speaking to the Ynet news site on Sunday, Itzhaki said, "I tip my hat to the security services, they’re watching over me, and they’re always in touch with me."
"Unfortunately, I don’t see the same from the government ministries," he said, complaining that no public officials had contacted him about the plot.
Park your ego, buddy — those closest to the issue made sure you were informed. It’s quite possible the politicians were allowed to remain ignorant.
The journalist noted previous attempts by the Islamic Theocratic Republic to harm Iran International employees and said the outlet poses a unique threat to the regime.
"We broadcast using about 15 satellites to Iran, no one can block us. Even the most remote villages, if they have a little dish they can watch us. They know that for real news they need to open Iran International. The [regime] sees this and they want to silence us," he said.
Still, he said, " "Neither threats nor acts of terror will stop our exposure of the truth. I will continue to work and to bring the truth to Iran."
Last year, Channel 12 reported that Israeli security officials gave intelligence to the United Kingdom suggesting that Iran intended to harm journalists at Iran International, leading them to move their studios from London to Washington, DC.
At the time, the dissident outlet said it was experiencing an escalation of "state-backed threats from Iran," which has declared it a terrorist organization. The station resumed operations at a new location in London last September.
Or never. Or they could choose to enjoy a farce in the mode regularly put on by Iran, where all the candidates at every level must be approved by a committee of Mad Mullahs, so elections are an exercise in choosing among insiders.
[IsraelTimes] Rebel chief who ousted Assad says drafting a new constitution could take three years, subsequent changes could take another
Holding elections in Syria could take up to four years, Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said in an interview with Al Arabiya on Sunday, the first time he has commented on a possible timetable for elections since Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... was ousted this month.
Drafting a new constitution could take up to three years, Sharaa said in excerpts from the interview with the Saudi state-owned broadcaster. He also said it would take about a year for Syrians to see drastic changes.
Sharaa leads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... group that ousted Assad on December 8, ending decades of Assad family rule and a 13-year civil war. He said HTS will be dissolved in a national dialogue conference.
On foreign ties, Sharaa said Syria has strategic interests with Russia. Russia has military bases in Syria, was a close Assad ally during the long civil war, and has granted Assad asylum.
Sharaa said earlier this month that Syria’s relations with Russia should serve common interests.
Sharaa also said he hopes the administration of US President-elect Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... will lift sanctions imposed on Syria. Senior US diplomats who visited Damascus this month said Sharaa came across as pragmatic and that Washington has decided to remove a $10 million bounty on the HTS leader’s head.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] By the end of 2024, the asymmetric conflict between Iran and Israel had entered a state of relative calm. Tehran and Tel Aviv temporarily transferred the confrontation to the diplomatic plane in order to prepare for a new round of confrontation.
The "Axis of Resistance", consisting of groups and movements loyal to Tehran, is leaving for recovery in varying states, while others are on the verge of defeat. However, despite the victorious reports of the Israelis, they have not yet managed to finally defeat any of the proxy groups.
No. But they’ve killed and maimed an awful lot of bad guys, and broken billions of dollars of their things while awaiting the replacement of the Biden Iran-lovers with the much more sensible Trump team.
HAMAS AND HEZBOLLAH: ROUND TWO
The Palestinian Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah bore the brunt of the confrontation with the Israelis in 2024. Both groups suffered heavy losses during the year: about 80% of the "old guard" (including top officials) were eliminated, and control over strategically important facilities was lost.
High-ranking Iranian military advisers who coordinated the allies' actions "on the ground" were also killed.
Nevertheless, both proxy forces retained their general outlines and core of supporters, and the reduction in the intensity of hostilities due to the conflict moving into the diplomatic realm made it possible to partially restore their previous combat effectiveness.
However, Tel Aviv is unlikely to allow Hamas and Hezbollah to fully recover. The "second round" of the struggle is approaching, during which the Israelis will seek the complete defeat of the enemy.
Preparations for the attack are underway: Israeli forces have invaded Syria and partially “cut off” the approaches to southern Lebanon from Syrian territory, effectively blocking the Iranian “transit corridor” through which weapons and volunteers were flowing to Lebanon.
A wedge has been driven between Hezbollah and like-minded Lebanese parties.
Similar work is being carried out against Hamas.
Israel continues to strengthen its hold on the occupied territory of Gaza, while simultaneously encouraging neutral Palestinian factions to join efforts to push Hamas out of the enclave.
On the other hand, Tel Aviv’s plans are being hindered by Arab countries and Türkiye, which have their own plans for the post-war structure of Gaza.
Iran is well aware of the “rat fight” around the enclave and is trying to turn it to the advantage of the “Axis of Resistance” – albeit with varying success so far.
HOUTHIS: CLOSER THAN THEY SEEM
In 2024, the role of the Yemeni Ansar Allah (Houthis) movement in Iran's proxy group system increased significantly.
It was one of the first to engage in a real fight against Israel, paralyzing shipping in the Red and (partly) Mediterranean Seas, and after neutralizing Hamas and Hezbollah, it became the main executor of attacks on the territory of the Jewish state.
At the same time, unlike the missiles and UAVs launched by Iraqi and Lebanese proxies, Ansar Allah’s products were better at penetrating the Iron Dome system and reached their targets much more often.
More often than Iran’s Iraqi Shiite sock puppets, yes, but only a few of the Houthi thingies have gotten through the gauntlet. Hezbollah had a higher percentage of success, though in the end they couldn’t close the deal.
In fact, by the end of 2024, the Houthis had moved up to first place in the ranking of Tel Aviv’s opponents.
That’s because the other parties have already been taken off the table. Winning because Israel’s attention was elsewhere for mos of the year is only lucky timing, not ability. And soon the Houthis will have lost as badly as their fellow Axis of Resistance parties.
Israel, no matter how hard it tried, has not yet succeeded in the fight against the Houthis - powerful air strikes supported by the US and Great Britain, although they damaged the infrastructure of the movement, did not reduce its combat potential. Moreover, Ansar Allah responds to each such attack proportionally, expanding the range of weapons used.
The few Houthi leaders have also failed to be caught. The Israelis have attempted to locate the flagship command posts more than once, but to no avail.
The lack of a common border with the Houthis has a negative impact on the effectiveness of Israeli operations. There are also no loyalists in Yemen on whom one could theoretically rely when conducting a combined operation. Tel Aviv's Arab allies (in particular, the UAE) are also not eager to use their own creature to solve Israeli military-political problems.
Israel has some hopes for normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia, as rapprochement with Riyadh would open up opportunities for gradually moving closer to the Yemeni borders, or at least for increasing the efficiency of identifying targets for airstrikes.
That’s formal normalization. Israel and Saudi Arabia have been informally normalized for years. But then the Biden[-Harris] administration started sabotaging the situation, and the Saudis saw an opportunity to get America to sweeten the pot. We’ll see how long that holds up with The Donald in the White House.
However, the normalization process is being deliberately delayed by the Saudis. So Tel Aviv will have to look for alternative ways to fight Ansar Allah, who are not even thinking about reducing the degree of confrontation with the Jewish state.
Tehran also sees the zeal of its protégés and is ready to use the resources they have to the fullest.
IRAQI PROXIES IN AMBUSH
Throughout 2024, Iran used its Iraqi proxy forces in a fairly limited format - numerous but still fairly disparate groups were involved either in carrying out retaliatory operations (True Promise) or conducting harassing fire on American military bases in Iraq.
However, during the time of being in the "ambush", the pro-Iranian formations have done a lot of work to build a new command structure. The disparate (and often small) groups are gradually being replaced by a "proxy confederation", in the center of which are concentrated the most numerous and combat-ready forces: "Kataib Hezbollah" and "Hashd al-Shaabi".
At the same time, the Hashd al-Shaabi, being integrated into the country’s armed forces, also act as an instrument of influence on official Baghdad.
The strengthening of Iranian proxies in Iraq is making Tel Aviv increasingly nervous. Israeli "hawks" have repeatedly hinted at their readiness to attack Iraq if the threat from it "exceeds the permissible level."
The United States, acting as one of the guarantors of stability in Iraq, does not want an open conflict between partners and is trying to put pressure on the leaders of the Shiite militias through the Iraqi government.
However, Tehran also takes advantage of the continuing divisions in Iraqi society (as well as official Baghdad’s dependence on economic relations with the Iranian side) to get its protégés out of harm’s way. By the end of 2024, the diplomatic game between Tehran and Washington had effectively reached a stalemate.
Given that there is no way out of the diplomatic impasse yet, Iraq could well become the arena of confrontation between Iran and Israel in 2025.
They trumpet their war status against Israel. It would certainly be a learning experience if Israel took it hot…
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Syria has strategic interests related to Russia. This was stated on December 29 by the leader of the new Syrian authorities, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in an interview with the Al Arabiya TV channel.
He also stressed that Damascus does not want Moscow to leave Syria to the detriment of relations between the two countries.
"Russia is the second most powerful country in the world, it is of great importance. We strive to build balanced relations with everyone," added Ahmed al-Sharaa.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Bogdanov said on December 12 that Russia expects to maintain military bases in Syria because they play an important role in the fight against international terrorism. The diplomat said that Moscow has established contacts in Syria with the political committee of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (a terrorist organization whose activities are banned in the Russian Federation).
The leader of the armed Syrian opposition, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said that the country's new authorities "give Russia the opportunity" to reconsider relations with the people of Syria. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan noted on December 21 that the fate of Russian army bases in Syria should be decided by the people of the republic.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[IsraelTimes] British government sources tell London’s The Times that 
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
......
[IsraelTimes] Government document compiles grim details of abuse of hostages, including whipping, branding with heated iron, isolation, binding, starving, maltreatment and psychological torment.
[IsraelTimes] Leader of tiny Syrian community visits destroyed Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue in capital’s Jobar neighborhood, recounts years of site being off-limits during civil war
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
by Leonid Tsukanov
