Sorry, I'm late.
I had to stop by the Whites Museum again and get the fingered at FDR.
We know Al-Qaeda, Zawahiri is supporting the opposition in Syria.
Are we supporting Al-Qaeda in Syria?
It's a proud day for America, and by God, we've kicked Vietnam syndrome once and for all.
Thank you very, very much.
I say it, I say it again, you've been hacked.
You've been took.
You've been hoodwinked.
These witnesses are trying to simply deny things that just about everybody else accepts as fact.
He came, he saw us, he died.
We ain't killing their army, but we killing them.
We be on CNN, like, say our names, been saying, saying three times.
The meeting of the largest armies in the history of the world.
Then there's going to be an invasion.
All right, you guys, introducing Elijah Magnier.
He writes at EJ Magnier, spelled like Magnier, right?
EJMagnier.com, and you can follow him on Twitter as well.
And I'm sorry I don't have the rest of your bio in front of me here, but welcome back to the show, Elijah.
How you doing?
Hello, Scott.
Thank you for having me again.
Really appreciate you joining us.
And I believe I saw from your Twitter this morning that the U.S. has attacked a Syrian Arab army position in where?
It's in Rura, Deir ez-Zor in the north, northeast of Syria.
And basically they've attacked not only the Syrian army, but also a position where there are civilians.
And there were at least 30 civilians killed in the bombardment.
And the number of casualty is around 45 now.
And this is, you say near Deir ez-Zor.
And so this is a place where it's a shared border, a conflict zone between the SAA and who?
Well, it is basically what's happening is the Americans and the Russian, they have divided their area of influence during the war against ISIS.
And to just avoid any incident in the sky, so they have decided to not only inform each other on the schedule of the flight and attacks, but also the Americans would operate east of the Euphrates River and the Russian will operate west of the Euphrates River.
And on the on the river you have on one side is the Syrian army and its allies and the other side at the more or less at the beginning of Deir ez-Zor, you have the Kurds who are the American proxy protecting the American forces and operating under the American command.
And then also in Deir ez-Zor along the river toward the Abu Kamal, you have ISIS that is sitting there harassing the Syrian army all the time and preventing the kind of stability in the area.
And what the Americans are doing is every time the Syrian army and the allies try to cross the river to attack ISIS, the Americans bomb them because they say you are coming into our area.
Regardless, if you are attacking ISIS, you're not allowed to cross the river.
So from time to time without any logic, really, because the Syrian war, you don't need to look for logic in the Syrian war.
And so whenever the Syrian army try to attack the ISIS that is based along the river and also on the Syrian Iraqi borders, then you have the Americans responding by attacking the Syrian army.
Because the Kurds and Damascus are already involved in negotiation.
They are already talking to each other.
They've reached several agreements.
They've agreed on many points.
They still disagree on other points.
They agreed on the gas and oil.
They are more concerned.
The Kurds are more concerned because they are aware the Americans might leave in the very near future, and they will be left on their own to their own destiny.
So therefore, the only way for the Kurds is to negotiate with Damascus.
But the Americans are still protecting the area that was allocated to them during the war on terror between them and the Russians.
I see.
So just to be perfectly clear here, what sounds like on the face of it might be an excuse for this would be protecting our friends, the Kurds, from the Syrian government there.
That's not the issue.
It's actually the ISIS forces, what's left of the Islamic State forces that are being protected here, at least in a de facto way.
But you're saying, well, they have this line and the SAA better not cross it.
But if the Americans and their Kurdish proxies are not taking on these ISIS forces, why are they not allow the SAA to go ahead and hit them?
And then, you know, maybe as long as they promise to withdraw back behind the Euphrates again once they're done.
That's a very good question.
I'll explain that very quickly.
Because if the Syrian army crosses the river and eliminate ISIS along the Euphrates River, where it is based under the U.S. control area, it means the border between Iraq and Syria will be safe and accessible.
Therefore, the Syrian army will clear the road and will open the land road between Syria and Iraq because the Americans have occupied the main crossing border at Al-Tanf in the east and the Middle East, Middle East of Syria, and prevented the exchange of economy that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars yearly for both Iraq and Syria, money that is extremely needed, particularly due to the war against ISIS that caused devastating destruction for both countries and the destruction also of the economy that is really on the bottom floor.
So, therefore, because the crossing between Syria and Iraq is closed by the U.S. forces on Al-Tanf, the only one that the Syrian army and the Iraqis are trying to establish is Al-Tanf in the north.
And if the Americans eliminate ISIS along the river, it means that this crossing will be safe.
And the Americans don't want this crossing to be safe.
And so, in other words, this is not a matter of de facto protecting what's left of the Islamic State because of these other interests.
They're outright deliberately protecting these last groups, failing to go after these last groups in order to prevent the Syrian army and their Iranian allies from consolidating that territory.
Well, at the end of the day, the Iranians have pulled out from that line, and they are situated 20 kilometers away from the Syrian position to really avoid giving any excuse for any force, particularly the Americans, to bomb that road by saying this is the objective of the Iranians to clear the road, to use it to transport weapons.
From Iran, through Iraq, through Syria, and to Lebanon, because they're trying to fool people who don't understand really what's happening in the Middle East.
And they don't know that since 1982, weapons are arriving to Lebanon through the Damascus airport and via sea.
You have Latakia Harbor that has always been the way for Hezbollah to receive their weapons and arms.
And Israel itself, before 2011, said Hezbollah has today about 150,000 rockets and missiles.
And that was before the Tanaf and before the Albu Kamal, Deir ez-Zor, and that area that is constantly attacked by ISIS.
Now, there is a second point.
The second point is the unknown jet, but I was told they were Israelis, bombed the Iraqi forces on the other side of the border.
And the Iraqi have established a headquarter to control the crushing of ISIS from Syria to Iraq, because the Americans are not only protecting ISIS along the river, but they're also protecting a very big pocket of ISIS in the northeast, situated along the border between Syria and Iraq.
And what's happening is Iraq is constantly attacked and harassed by insurgency, by ISIS crushing from Syria and Iraq.
So what the Iraqis have done is they've established position, a static position, to monitor and to use drones to control the border and to attack ISIS before ISIS walks into the country.
And then they attack the Iraqi civilian, as it has been done in the last couple of weeks.
So what the Americans and the Israelis have done is they bombed the Iraqi headquarters situated on the border, which that make it much easier for ISIS to crush from Syria to Iraq.
Okay, so it's so important, all of these things, just to review real quick here, you're saying that it sounds like the policy is based on the propaganda, at least almost in a reverse fashion.
It's not just propaganda, it's the basis for the policy is the pretension that somehow there's this land bridge, otherwise known as a road, between Tehran, Baghdad, Damascus, and southern Lebanon there.
I don't know what, this is Beirut counter, what you call it, where Hezbollah reigns there in the south of Lebanon.
And what a joke that is, since, as you point out, the airplane was invented a long time ago and ocean shipping long before that.
And so, and as you say, Iran has been helping to arm Hezbollah all this time without this land bridge.
But then that's the excuse that they have to stay.
Of course, it goes without saying, but it shouldn't that it was America that put Baghdad in the hands of people who are at least friendly with Iran.
I know we talked before about the independence of the Iraqis from the Iranians, but at least it is now the country is ruled by the supermajority Shiites, because of America's Iraq War II.
And then now, to bring us back up to the other point, in Iraq War III, after support for the jihadists in Syria, beginning in 2011, led to the rise of the Islamic State in 2013, 14 through 17, well then that caused Iraq War III in 2014 through 17 to end the Islamic State, which put America back on the side of those Shiite militias in Iraq.
So we just fought Iraq War II and Iraq War III for these very Shiite militias that you're saying the Israelis are bombing, because when these Iraqi Shiite militias that America backs in Iraq cross that border, they become Iranian backed Hezbollah terrorists, and we got to stop them.
I think, did you say that they were still on the Iraqi side of the border when the Israelis bombed them?
Yes, exactly.
Boy, isn't that something else?
Well, look, it's very simple.
Yesterday the United Nations said the Iraqi Kata'ib Hezbollah that are part of the Popular Mobilization Forces are not a terrorist organization, because they are working within the Iraqi security forces.
And this is particularly the group that was bombed by the Israelis and the Americans many times, and they are the same group that are supported by the Americans in the election.
They are the same group that are armed by the Americans and trained by the Americans because they are part of the Iraqi security forces.
So you have them in Baghdad, they are trained by the Americans.
On the border between Iraq and Syria, they are killed by the Americans.
So please don't look for logic here.
Well, it's the same thing that we used to joke about.
Jason Ditz on the show from Antiwar.com yesterday, the news editor there.
And we were reminiscing about back in 2011 and 2012.
We were joking about American support for Maliki and using drones, even as they're pulling the troops out, using drones to help target what was left of al-Qaeda in Iraq there.
And we were joking about, yeah, just chase them across the border into Syria where they're the moderate rebel heroes.
Yes, well, America is supporting al-Qaeda in the south of Syria.
Israel is receiving al-Qaeda in its hospitals.
And this is the policy that led to the rise of the Islamic State in the first place.
And we're deep into the future now, 2018, with the mopping up of Islamic State.
But then you're reporting that after the U.S. and their Kurdish allies finished kicking ISIS out of Raqqa, that they decided to preserve what remains of their forces in order to obstruct the Shia still.
Yes, of course, because they need them to justify the continuous presence of the American forces in the north of the country, in the north of Syria.
Now, nobody can explain why the Americans are on Tanaf.
The only excuse they say, we are preventing the crossing of weapons from Iran to Lebanon.
Now, I'm going to add one thing for you here.
In 2006, the second war in Lebanon between Israel and Lebanon, Hezbollah did not have the 9M133 Kornet anti-tank guided missiles.
They were brought, offered from Syria.
The most sophisticated missiles, the very accurate M600, they are manufactured in Syria.
This is what Hezbollah has.
They don't come from Tehran.
So, I mean, the Americans are very much aware of this, also the Israelis, but it's all politics.
Yeah.
And now, so you have this article, ejmagnier.com, U.S. forces leaving al-Tanf and Syria, Russia remains in the Levant.
And so this is addressing the prospects of a peace deal between Putin and Trump upcoming at Helsinki, where America would pull out of Syria if the Russians promised to ensure that the Iranians would leave as well.
And then, but that would essentially turn the country.
And you already said the Kurds are in talks with Assad, as was pretty much they were destined to go back under the central state in one form or another.
And so it sounds like possibly this policy is going to come to an end.
Then there's a chance that America is just going to turn Syria back over to the Syrian government.
Yes, there is.
Now, just one question.
When are you going to share this interview?
Oh, well, as soon as I can.
That's a good question.
Hopefully tonight or tomorrow.
Okay.
If it is tomorrow, then I can say that.
Now, the Americans have sent a letter to Bashar al-Assad.
And this letter is saying we are ready to pull out from Tanf and pull out from the north of Syria.
And in exchange of the Iranian withdrawal from Syria.
Wow.
And you're breaking that news on the show, but I got to hold it till tomorrow.
Okay.
Yes.
Correct.
I'm going to put out a teaser tweet saying tune in for the breaking news.
So really, you know that, huh?
They signed a letter saying basically previewing the upcoming deal with Putin in Helsinki.
Over.
Well, this is what they're going to continue discussing because the Russians have already the answer.
And the answer that Putin is going to communicate to Trump is going to be this.
There is no need for the Iranians and Hezbollah to remain in Syria.
Only when the last U.S. soldier will leave Syria.
And when every single jihadist, Al-Qaeda or ISIS are killed in Syria.
And that can guarantee the pullout of Iran and Hezbollah from Syria.
Well, I mean, at this point, do they really need Iran and Hezbollah anymore?
Exactly.
So this is why Assad is saying the Americans are saying to Assad, we will recognize your authority.
We will accept your dominance over the country.
But you have to ensure that Iran and Hezbollah are no longer in the country.
And Assad said specifically in his response.
First of all, the Americans came as an occupation forces.
They were not invited.
Iran.
And I asked for Iran to come to help me to defeat the jihadists and the Takfiri, Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
Secondly, the Iranians are committed to pull out as soon as I asked them to pull out.
And when all the terrorists will be eliminated.
Now we still have terrorists in the country.
This is Assad's response.
They are in the ISIS in the U.S. occupied area.
And in the Turkish occupied area, there is Al-Qaeda and the Levant and other jihadists under different names, Nusra, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Haras al-Din, whatever.
So until these are eliminated, the Iranians will stay.
And once these will be eliminated, there will be no reason for Iran and Hezbollah to stay in Syria.
All right.
So can you tell us about what's going on in Daraa province now in the southwest of the country?
OK, so in the south of Syria, what's happening is most of these villages have decided to reconcile with the Syrian government in Damascus.
And before they started the reconciliation, the Americans came out and they said, and you can't attack in this area because there is an agreement with the Russian.
And if you attack, we will bomb you.
Then what Assad did is he just went with his ally forces to the south and they've started to attack.
So basically what they have attacked, they have attacked one single city at the beginning as an example to what's going to happen to the others.
And like a domino, they all fall one after the other.
They don't want to fight.
They have experienced the jihadists and the Free Syrian Army for seven years.
They want the government to return because they can talk to one side, one entity.
They can talk to a government, one force, one army.
While in Syria, there are over 100 to 200 different groups, which means 200 different responsible leaders, and they have all different kind of support from completely different countries who can fight on their interest.
So what happened now is the east of Daraa province and Suwayda have been completely liberated.
And now they are liberating the entire area that is bordering the enclave where ISIS, under the name of Jaysh Khaled bin al-Waleed, but it is ISIS, Huran, Walaya, that's province.
And there, there are between 1,500 to 2,000 militants, and they are in that pocket bordering Israel occupied Golan Heights.
And so what they are, what the Syrian army and the Russian are doing, they are clearing the entire area surrounding this enclave to start attacking it from all different sides because ISIS is not going to surrender and therefore is going to fight.
And so what they have reached now is they're very close to the city of Nawa, because I am, I've been in Quneitra yesterday, today I'm in Daraa.
And they are very close to strike a deal with Nawa.
Now, the only problem that I'm going to also break now to you is there are the jihadists of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, aka Jabhat al-Nusra, they want to leave.
But the Syrian army is preventing them from leaving because there are negotiations ongoing between these jihadists in this part and Idlib.
And what the Syrian army wants, they don't want an exchange, they want an exchange between Jabhat al-Nusra only.
All these, all those that belong to the Al-Qaeda, the ex-Al-Qaeda in Idlib, or Jabhat al-Nusra or Hayat Tahrir al-Sham will be exchanged with others in Foua and Khafreya.
Once this deal is striked, then these can leave on green buses waiting for them in the city of Daraa.
In the meantime, the whole area, the whole province of Quneitra that is bordering Israel is going to be cleared and leave ISIS to the end, where this pocket is going to be attacked massively by all the forces, the Syrian army, Hezbollah, Iranian advisers and allies, and the Russians will attack this enclave and will destroy it.
All right, hang on just one second.
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Just to make sure I understand, you're saying that they're willing to negotiate and let Jabhat al-Nusra, Jolani's men, and the rest of the FSA guy get on buses to the Idlib province, but the Islamic State guys will be excluded from that?
That is correct.
But al-Qaeda still counts as the moderates, so we can negotiate with those guys.
I see.
That's a good one, yeah.
Exactly.
Al-Qaeda is the moderate in Syria.
And then, so, I guess, how many, do you have a handle on actual manpower of Jabhat al-Nusra and assuming these negotiations go smoothly, how many guys we're talking about will be on buses to Idlib, and how many al-Qaeda fighters are left in Idlib, for that matter?
So far, in Idlib, we're talking about around 20,000.
In the south of Syria, we're talking about between 1,000 and 1,200, depending.
So far, the names that were given to the Syrian government are around 1,200.
So, therefore, the Syrian government is asking for an equivalent of civilians to leave the two besieged cities of Fouag, Kefraya, and the province of Idlib that were surrounded, and still, until today, surrounded by the jihadists.
And they have been surrounded for the last three, four years without any mention in mainstream media.
So, what the Syrian government is saying, you want your jihadists of al-Qaeda, or whatever their name is, out of the province of Quneitra in Idlib, and I want civilians in exchange to be free.
Well, now, I mean, if they can negotiate with the al-Qaeda guys, why can't they negotiate with the Islamic State guys, too?
And just tell them, look, drop your weapons and come on in from the cold.
Lots of the different rebel groups and different fighters for different groups have given up the fight over the time, right?
Well, first, because ISIS in the south are determined to fight.
They want to fight.
Jabhat al-Nusra, they have tasted the freedom and the exchange, and they are negotiating because they are led by a very clever, pragmatic ex-ISIS officer who changed to convert to al-Qaeda, and now he is converted to pro-Turkey.
And he adapts to the situation.
You're talking about Al-Jolani?
Yes, Abu Muhammad Jolani is a real chameleon.
So, he changes color and loyalty whenever it suits him.
Therefore, the Jabhat al-Nusra people are, it's possible to negotiate with them.
They don't want to, they're not very keen of having the 70 women in paradise, and they are willing to have them on earth, but ISIS, they want them in paradise.
So, let them go and have them there.
All right, well now, so I talked with Sharmin Narwani, and she was, I think, yeah, she was in Syria, and she had been talking with these guys in the south, I think in the Daraa province, and they said that, yeah, we're still taking orders from this operations room in Jordan, which has been known all along to be a CIA operation.
And so, she said she didn't know, and they didn't say that there were American CIA there actually running the thing now.
And I guess the presumption was that it could just be Jordanians, Saudis, Turks, or Israelis, or whatever other allies there instead.
But do you know about that?
And it obviously raises the possibility that the CIA has been ignoring Trump's order given a year ago to stop backing the al-Qaeda forces there.
Yeah, the mock room, this is how they call it, MOC, the mock room in Jordan, has always been commanded by the Americans, there are also British, Saudi, Qatar was also part of it, but then it was excluded at a certain point.
And the Jordanian act in between, because they have their own people, and they have many Jordanians fighting among ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria, and they like to have information about them.
And everybody thought at that moment that the Syrian government is going to fall, it's a matter of month or one year, the most pessimistic said one year.
But then everybody wanted to share, Jordan wanted the south, Turkey wanted the north, each one wanted a little part of Syria.
So they had established this room, and this room worked until Jordan understood very recently, a couple of months ago, that the war is over, it's finished.
Nothing can change the regime, nothing can remove Assad, and he won the war.
Therefore they closed the border, Trump before that stopped all the support to what they call free Syrian army, but we had many journalists, particularly ex-US special forces, who wrote about how the US special forces in Jordan training al-Qaeda, knowing perfectly, perfectly aware they are al-Qaeda, perfectly aware, saying they hate us, they want to kill us, but we have orders to train them.
Yes, al-Qaeda was trained by the CIA, was trained by the Americans, was supported by different Arab and Western countries, and now it's over.
Well, but not quite, right, because then after, I guess it sounds like Dara is wrapped up.
Oh wait, no, no, no, before we get to Idlib, but so when you say CIA has always run that room, does that include for the last year after Trump told them not to?
No, when Trump told them not to, it stopped.
Okay, so now it's being run by the Jordanians and others.
Yeah, but even the Jordanians said we're no longer sustaining that, because they understand the war is finished.
At least in the South.
Yes, in the South, but I mean the only thing remaining now is the North, and there are no more militants in the North.
We have two countries occupying the Syria.
In the North, we have the Americans on the East and the Turks on the West.
So, in other words, the Turks, actually their military controls the Idlib province above and over al-Qaeda?
Yes, the Turkey, according to the Astana agreement with the Russian and the Iranians, and with the agreement, non-official agreement of Damascus, they have established, the Turks have established on one side 12 observation points from the Turkish borders until Tell el-Eis, or the Idlib province, to prevent the militants from crossing to the other side, where there is observation point for the Iranian and the Russian, and after this observation point, there is a Syrian army.
So, what they want, what Turkey wants, basically, is to regain the traffic between Homs, Hama, and Ghazi Antab, to regain the connection between Turkey and Syria, the commercial road, because there's a lot of money involved.
President Erdogan is in need to boost his economy, so he is in need to reopen this road.
He is in need to regain the commercial contact with the Syrian, and for that reason, he promised the Russian that he is going to control al-Qaeda and make them more domesticated.
So, what's happening now is the Russian said to the Turks, if you are not going to be able to control Jabhat al-Nusra and the Hurras al-Din, that's a new version of al-Qaeda in Syria, we are going to move in, and I can confirm that to you, that I've heard many people in high position in Syria, Russian and all their allies, saying after the south is going to be everything that Turkey is not capable of controlling, but above all, al-Qaeda must be eliminated.
But it sounds like you're saying not necessarily violently.
In other words, if the Russians, they have made their point to the Turks, that the Turks could simply, I mean, they're the Turkish army, they could simply disarm the al-Qaeda guys and put them right out of business.
Is that what you're saying the deal is, or they're meant to turn on al-Qaeda guys and eliminate them that way?
Well, I think it's a very big challenge for Turkey, because Turkey cannot disarm al-Qaeda, but Turkey can use its proxy, and Turkey has many proxies, in the north of Syria, in Idlib, and these can fight against all those who are unwilling to drop their weapons and join the Turkish flag and leave al-Qaeda.
So Turkey is not going to be involved directly in fighting al-Qaeda in Syria, but Turkey has a big challenge for two reasons.
First, disarming al-Qaeda and ideologists, jihadists, is not that easy.
Second is how Turkey is going to regain relationship with the Syrian government when they control tens of thousands of jihadists in their area, protected by Turkey.
They are against the Syrian government, against Assad, and the Turks will have to tell them, well, after seven years of war, you have to accept this, it's a fact, and then just stop your war, and it's finished.
Now, I've heard a few attempts by jihadists who are in contact with different groups, saying, we want to become like Hamas, and we want to fight the Israelis if you give us a chance.
For me, it's rubbish.
So the bottom line is all those jihadists who are in Idlib must be under the control of the Turkish army, otherwise the Russians will move in.
Now, the Turkish army has only been there since earlier this spring, when Rex Tillerson provoked them with his big speech about how the U.S. is never leaving.
Is that right?
Or they already controlled Idlib before that?
Well, Turkey has been in Syria since 2012, when they asked all their proxies in rural Aleppo to attack the city of Aleppo and involve Aleppo in the war.
But I mean their army.
Oh, yeah.
Not just their, you know.
Before that, because Turkey moved in against ISIS, they took Jarabulus, they took many areas under ISIS control in the north before they moved into Idlib.
So before that, they took Dabik and all that northern area in Al-Hasakah, and before they moved to Afrin and then took the enclave of Afrin very recently.
Right.
OK.
And now, so do you think that Erdogan wants to stay and keep this piece of Syria he's taken?
I think Erdogan would like to stay because he went to Aleppo and he's content with having Idlib now.
This is his wish.
I don't know if he can materialize his wishes because Assad is determined to take back Idlib, too.
Yeah.
So for the only reason why the Russians are standing in between, because Russia has many interests with Erdogan, but it is in Russia's interest to see two separate countries stable and talking to each other, doing business with each other, because both Syria and Turkey are essential from the energy point of view.
I'm talking about oil and gas for Russia and Iran.
Therefore, there must be a compromise where both countries will have to reconcile and Turkey will have to pull out from Idlib.
But it's not going to be very soon.
It's not going to be easy because there are tens of thousands of jihadists armed and in the area under the Turkish control.
What Assad is going to do with all this?
All right.
Well, thank you again for coming on the show to talk about this stuff with us, Elijah.
I really appreciate it a lot.
Pleasure.
All right, you guys, that's Elijah Magnier.
He is at ejmagnier.com.
And here's three articles.
U.S. forces leaving Al-Tanf.
The Kurds have lost the chance to decide their fate.
And the U.S. secret plan on Damascus foiled.
That's all at ejmagnier.com.
All right, you guys, and that's the show.
You know me, scotthorton.org, youtube.com, scotthortonshow, libertarianinstitute.org.
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