JERUSALEM – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday encouraged his allies' remarkable military advances after Turkish-backed Islamic extremists seized control of Syria's key city of Hama.
“I hope that this progress will continue without any problems,” Erdogan said on Friday, Reuters reported.
He added that the target was Damascus, the capital where Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad lives. “The goal is Damascus.”
“But while this resistance with terrorist organizations continues, we were calling President Assad,” Erdoğan continued, noting that he and Assad met earlier this year after more than a decade of hostilities. He mentioned President Erdoğan's approach to holding talks and normalizing relations.
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On December 2, 2024, rebel forces in northwestern Syria seized a regime military vehicle along the route to Kweris Airport in the eastern countryside of Aleppo. (Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto via APRami Alsayed/NurPhoto via AP)
“These problematic developments that are continuing across the region are not what we want and our hearts do not want them to be. Unfortunately, this region is in a bind.” mentioned, but did not elaborate.
President Erdoğan's comments about terrorist groups within the rebel group are clearly a reference to the US-designated terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former Islamist al-Qaeda affiliate that is part of the rebel group. .
Turkey is a member of the US-led NATO alliance. Turkey's reported support for terrorist organizations like Hamas and purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems has sparked outrage among many US lawmakers.
According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which tracks the conflict in the fractured Syrian Arab Republic, HTS is now just a stone's throw from the key crossroads city of Homs.
SOHR reported on Friday that HTS and its allies are only 1 kilometer apart Graduated from Homs Military Academy.
The military training facility in Homs is the largest in the war-torn country.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addresses supporters at a campaign rally for his party's Istanbul mayoral candidate Murat Krum in Istanbul on March 29, 2024. (Bulak Kara/Getty Images)
The astonishing progress of HTS and its coalition partners, which last week saw Syria's second-largest city Aleppo and now Hama quickly take control, has turned an already volatile Middle East upside down. Many countries within the Fertile Crescent region (Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq) are involved in wars and conflicts of varying levels of intensity.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Friday that it was “increasing air and ground forces in the Golan Heights region,” which borders Syria. IDF forces are deployed along the border, monitoring developments and preparing for all scenarios, both offensive and defensive. It also thwarts threats,” he added.
The IDF has announced that it will strengthen its border with Syria in the Golan Heights in response to developments in the situation in Syria. (IDF Spokesperson Corps.)
In Jordan, another neighboring country, rebel forces have reportedly closed the Jabar border with Syria.
Emad Bouzo, a Syrian-American doctor and veteran political commentator on Syria, told Fox News Digital that the images currently leaking from Homs were leaked from Hama hours before the liberation. “It is completely similar to the previous image, especially in terms of the large Syrian convoy.” It is difficult to predict what will happen because of the exodus of cars from the city, the low morale of regime forces, and the demographics of the villages and towns that separate Homs and Hama, which have a long history of opposition to the regime. It's difficult. Although the military balance is tipping in favor of the Syrian rebels in the coming hours and days. ”
An anti-government fighter covers his ears as multiple rockets fire at regime forces on the northern outskirts of the city of Hama in central-western Syria on December 4, 2024. (Bakr Al Qasem/AFP via Getty Images)
He added: “The most likely expectation seems to be that Russia will do everything it can to prevent the city from falling into rebel hands. If it cannot do so militarily. “We will do everything we can to force Turkey into a ceasefire.” This is to give the government a breather. ”
The anticipated Battle of Homs is a high-profile military operation for HTS. It would pit the Iranian regime and its ally Hezbollah, a US-designated sponsor of terrorism, against the HTS coalition.
The United States also considers the Syrian regime to be a state sponsor of terrorism.
Bouzo said Homs is a “major transportation hub for Iranian militias.” He pointed out that Hezbollah controls entire areas such as the town of Talbisem in Homs province.
“Homs is also a corridor for the Syrian regime to the Syrian coast where Russian military bases are concentrated.Also, along with the Syrian capital Damascus, it is also a treasure trove of Alawite people on which the rule of the Assad family depends. The regime, Hezbollah and Russia are expected to do everything possible to keep the city under control.
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A photo taken on December 3, 2024 at the entrance to the Kwailis military airfield in eastern Aleppo province shows a portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the national flag placed on a garbage dump after the occupation of the area. It's in the picture. By rebel forces. (Photo by RAMI AL SAYED/AFP via Getty Images)
Power politics in Syria primarily pits two Islamist Middle Eastern countries against each other: the Sunni Turkish government and the Shiite Islamic Republic of Iran. The Iranian government has supported Assad's regime since 2011, when he began a large-scale violent crackdown on Syria's growing democracy movement.
Jacob Rosen, a former Israeli ambassador to Jordan who is familiar with Syria's complex demographics, told Fox News Digital that Iran and Turkey are “former imperial strongmen who want to return to glory” after controlling vast swathes of territory. spoke. middle east. ”
“If Turkey takes control of Syria, it can surround the Kurds,” said Rosen, who speaks fluent Arabic. Turkey has been launching attacks against pro-U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in northern Syria for years.
Rosen sees Erdogan's acceptance of the HTS attack on Friday as a warning from Turkey to the Iranian regime. “Don't do anything stupid,” Rosen said, is the message Erdogan is sending to Tehran.
The big question for the United States, the European Union and Israel is: “Who will save Assad?” Rosen asked.
Russia, the Lebanese terrorist movement, Hezbollah, and Iran have previously saved Assad from defeat. However, Russia is exhausted by the long-running war in Ukraine.
Rosen said Syria's uprising against Assad has rekindled and spread to southern Syria's Daraa province, the birthplace of the 2011 uprising. He called the rapidly evolving events in Dara a “small uprising” and said some Syrian regime forces had defected.
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Combatants enter Rashidin district on the outskirts of Aleppo on a motorbike amid heavy smoke during fighting, November 29, 2024. As Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadists and their allies continue their offensive against government forces in Aleppo province. (Photo credit: BAKR ALKASEM/AFP via Getty Images)
The stakes are high for Syria and the heartland of the Middle East. Rosen mentioned the late British journalist Patrick Seal, who wrote a book on Syria. “Hegemony in the Middle East depends on who rules Syria,” Rosen said of Seal's core ideas about Syria's importance in the region.
HTS Islamist leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani, who is facing a $10 million bounty on his head from the United States, recently said: CNN interview, when he said “The seeds of the regime’s defeat were always within the regime…The Iranians tried to buy time by restoring the regime, and then Russia also tried to prop it up. But the truth remains: this regime is dead. .”
Rosen called al-Golani's interview “he wants to appeal to the West.'' The former ambassador added that al-Golani “knows that not everyone in Syria is an Islamist.” Ta. So far he's playing very calmly.”
Bouzo said that while the media “focuses on the idea that the rebels fighting the regime are Muslim, the fact remains that the other side is also an Islamic militia, but both countries under the Iranian regime The fact remains that it is a Shiite militia supported by the [Ali] Khamenei regime and Russia [Vladimir] Putin. The Syrian regime itself has been accused of committing war crimes against its own people, including the use of chemical weapons. ”
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The United States has about 900 troops stationed in Syria as part of a coalition effort to defeat the Islamic State terrorist movement. The US government has said it is not involved in the Syrian civil war.
Looking to the future of Syria, Bouzo said, “Recent events present an opportunity for the new US administration to break the impasse on the Syrian issue by putting pressure on all parties to implement a political policy.'' The truth is that we are giving them.” A solution through resolution 2254, establishing a transitional governing body to manage a country that has experienced enough hardships over the past few years. ”
Reuters contributed to this report.
