As the peace process launched by Turkey in Syria’s Idlib bears its first fruits by foiling plans trying to attack the northern Syrian province, the U.S., Russia and France alliance continue their plans as they impatiently wait for the peace efforts to fail.
The West is thus impatiently awaiting the collapse of the process brokered by Turkey in Idlib, as Russia, the U.S. and France shelf their plans “for now,” despite that, however, these countries’ preparations for the invasion of the northern Syrian province are thought to be still ongoing.
Russia is planning to use its air bases in other Syrian cities in the Idlib attack, and has, over the past weeks, summoned a large number of military specialists to Syria specifically for this purpose.
Pilots from the Assad regime are also expected to play role in the planned operation.
The U.S. will use its military ships in the Mediterranean to participate in a low-intensity attack, similar to the one it executed before, targeting the Shayrat Air Base. And since Turkey is not keen on allowing the İncirlik base to be used in any operation that targets Idlib, the U.S. will be forced to use its bases in Iraq, where its soldiers are kept on high alert.
France, which is on bad terms with the Assad regime, is impatiently awaiting being part of the planned Idlib invasion. The former colonial power is planning to restore its influence in Syria to its post-World War I levels.
Paris had even specified the location from which it will participate in the attack which, according to diplomatic sources, will be launched from the British air base of Akrotiri in southern Cyprus, after Paris and London reached an agreement over France’s use of the military facility.
The planned operation to invade Idlib by the U.S., Russia and France will not stop at massacring the province’s local opposition, it would also pave the way toward establishing a terror corridor for PKK/PYD terrorists who, for a long time, aimed to enter Idlib with U.S. backing.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States. The PKK has been conducting armed violence in the southeastern part of Turkey since 1984. More than 40,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the three-decade long conflict.
In the event that the invasion of Idlib takes place, the province will suffer the same fate of other regions in Syria’s north which had come under the vicious rule of the PKK terrorists who will attempt to ethnically purge the province’s population.
Close to two million civilians who currently reside in Idlib will flee their homes and seek refuge in neighboring Turkey in the case of an invasion, which is expected to result in a large-scale wave of refugee entrances to Turkey.
In a bid to avert these bloody plans in Idlib, Ankara reached out to the Syrian opposition over the past week and made a number of recommendations.
All of Idlib’s opposition groups are close to reaching an agreement over Turkey’s recommendations, which included the withdrawal of the armed opposition from the city center and handing control over to a police force, the establishment of a civil administration and a joint military body.
In order to not be used as a pretext for any planned attack, Idlib’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) signaled that it is prepared to dissolve itself in the case that all opposition groups united under a single leadership.
