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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Welcome to the Neno's Place!

Neno's Place Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality


Neno

I can be reached by phone or text 8am-7pm cst 972-768-9772 or, once joining the board I can be reached by a (PM) Private Message.

Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

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    U.S. senator John McCain made secret trip to Syria Kurdistan: WSJ

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    U.S. senator John McCain made secret trip to Syria Kurdistan: WSJ Empty U.S. senator John McCain made secret trip to Syria Kurdistan: WSJ

    Post by Rocky Thu 23 Feb 2017, 4:15 am

    U.S. senator John McCain made secret trip to Syria Kurdistan: WSJ
    Posted on February 23, 2017 by Editorial Staff in Kurdistan
    U.S. senator John McCain made secret trip to Syria Kurdistan: WSJ Chairman-of-Senate-Foreign-Relations-Senator-John-McCain-2015-Photo-Courtesy-aspeninstitute-internal-flickr
    U.S. Senator John McCain, chairman of Senate Foreign Relations. Photo Courtesy/Aspen Institute
    WASHINGTON,— Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) secretly visited Syrian Kurdistan, the Kurdish-held region of Syria, during a trip to the Middle East last weekend to meet with United States military officials, The Wall Street Journal reported.
    A spokeswoman for McCain later confirmed the trip in a statement, as reported by NBC News.
    “Senator McCain traveled to northern Syria last week to visit U.S. forces deployed there and to discuss the counter-IS campaign and ongoing operations to retake Raqqa,” the spokeswoman said, using an alternate acronym for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (IS).

    “Senator McCain’s visit was a valuable opportunity to assess dynamic conditions on the ground in Syria and Iraq. President Trump has rightly ordered a review of the U.S. strategy and plans to defeat ISIL.”
    McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee and was an outspoken critic of the Obama administration’s Syria policy, traveled to the Kurdish town of Kobani in Syrian Kurdistan which sits on the Syrian side of the Turkish-Syrian border.
    The town in 2014 was under siege by IS forces, which were successfully pushed out of the city by the Syrian Kurds, also know as the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
    McCain’s trip comes as the U.S. military analyzes various options to oust IS from its Syrian stronghold in Raqqa, which it has held since January of 2014.
    Earlier this month, The Washington Post reported that the Obama administration had devised a plan to oust IS from Raqqa, which included arming Syrian Kurdish forces. Trump’s administration, when it came into power, believed the plan had “huge gaps in it,” according to a senior Trump official who spoke to the newspaper.
    The Pentagon on Tuesday said that next week it would send the White House a strategy to defeat IS.
    “It will address IS globally, and it is not just a [Department of Defense] plan,” said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, the Pentagon spokesman. “We’re charged with leading the development of the plan, but it absolutely calls upon the capabilities of other departments.”
    McCain, who supported arming moderate opposition groups in the early days of the Syrian civil war, previously visited Syria in 2013 to meet with members of the Free Syrian Army.
    Lawmakers do not travel to Syria often, as the country has been embroiled in a civil war since 2011, with various rebel groups and Islamist groups fighting both the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and each other.
    Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), who was critical of United States policy to arm moderate opposition groups fighting in the civil war, said last month that she met with Assad during her own secret trip to the war-torn country.
    Following his stop in Syria, McCain met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been pushing Trump not to arm the Syrian Kurdish forces. Sources in Erdogan’s circle told Reuters earlier this month that the president in a phone call told Trump not to arm the YPG.
    Turkey has been embroiled in a years-long battle with Kurdish groups that it views as terrorists who are seeking independence from the Turkish state.
    U.S regards the Kurdish PYD and its powerful military wing YPG of Syrian Kurdistan as key ally against Islamic State and the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria and has provided them with arms, air support as well as the military advisers. The Kurdish militia has seized swathes of Syria from IS.
    Syrian Kurdistan’s ruling PYD has established three autonomous zones, or Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan in 2013. On March 17, 2016 Syria’s Kurds declared a federal region in Syrian Kurdistan.
    Syrian Kurds on Dec. 30, 2016 have approved a blueprint for a system of federal government in Syrian Kurdistan, reaffirming their plans for autonomy in areas they have controlled during the civil war.

    http://ekurd.net/john-mccain-syria-kurdistan-2017-02-23
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