Power shift: Who gains in the battle for Syria's northeast?

ANKARA/BEIRUT - President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of Syria radically realigns the balance of power in the country’s northeast and creates a vacuum which Russia, Turkey and Iran are racing to fill.

More than 10,000 Islamic State prisoners, including many hardened foreign jihadis whose Western governments refuse to take them back, are in prisons there, and tens of thousands of their family members are in camps.WHAT IS THE AIM OF TURKEY’S OFFENSIVE? Erdogan has said Turkey will seize a border strip running hundreds of km from Kobani in the west to Hasaka in the east and 30-35 km deep inside Syria.

Assad’s army, however, has been weakened by the attrition of prolonged conflict, and now relies heavily on Russia, Iran and Iran’s Shi’ite militia allies including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.Syria’s Kurdish groups exploited the withdrawal of government forces from the northeast at the start of the Syrian conflict to build up the institutions of autonomy and teach Kurdish language in local schools.

“Damascus needs the Kurds. The Kurds and Damascus have two things in common: enmity for Turkey and a desire not to see Sunni rebel militias ruling the northeast of Syria,” said Joshua Landis, head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.WHAT WILL BECOME OF ISLAMIC STATE?

Trump was already inclined to extricate us from foreign entanglements. What isn't being reported is that he now has powerful allies in the push to end the ForeverWars that arose from Robert Kagan's 'neoconservatism' and 'liberal interventionist' ideology:

Who gains? The one’s not taking selfies !

US and allies lost, Russia,China,Turkey and allies win. from now on US can't resist in middleeast against Russia/China Block.I think new conflict zone is east europe.If Russia press there Western allies can't save Poland,Finland,West Ukraine and others...

Vlad putain?

Certainly kurds

It looks like it's the cell phone companies and social media that's benefiting from the battle for Syria's northeast. Can you believe taking selfies? Wow!

Syria 🇸🇾🇸🇾

so now we've got war selfies? really?

We know who loses - people, could be you and me and our loved ones.

Putin, ASSAD, Erdogan, Iran & Saudi Arabia

America

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