[Centraal] Crisis in Syrië en Irak #472

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Syria is ready to court investors, but Europe wants to prevent that

BEIRUT -- As Syria courts investors to rebuild its war-shattered cities, it may find a fresh round of European sanctions standing in its way.

The European Union said Monday that it was adding 11 business executives, as well as five entities, to a growing list of Syrians whose material support for President Bashar al-Assad's war effort has resulted in travel bans, asset freezes and an end of business activities in Europe.

The types of penalties may not be new, but the logic is, and European diplomats said this week that they hope the sanctions will send a chilling effect through a business community that the Syrian government is now relying on to redevelop the country.

The targeted men are magnates. As investors and developers, they have business interests that span industries ranging from soap operas to sugar and steel. But for the most part, they are linked through their involvement in a new economic frontier with significant implications for Syria's future: luxury real estate on expropriated land. Insecurities relating to housing, land and property rights were key among the concerns that spurred Syria's 2011 uprising.

Eight years later, World Bank estimates suggest that a third of the country's housing stock has been destroyed, leaving many refugees without homes to return to. "These business figures are making lucrative profits through their ties with the regime and are helping finance the regime in return," one European diplomat said Tuesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to reporters.

"The hope is that this will send a message to people who might consider getting involved in the future," the diplomat added. The sanctions come as Syria declares itself open for business. State media outlets regularly herald the arrival of foreign commercial delegations. Arab states of the Persian Gulf, which once backed Assad's rebel opposition, are restoring relations so as not to lose footing to regional rivals Iran and Turkey. Although Western countries, including the United States, say they will not fund reconstruction without progress on a political settlement, Syrian officials are encouraging the return of European diplomatic missions nonetheless.

Syrian officials are even trying to engineer the return of the European states that cut relations in response to the repression of mass protests in 2011. Three European diplomats, all speaking on the condition of anonymity, said colleagues traveling regularly between Syria and neighboring Lebanon had their visas canceled at the start of the year. "You [should] come back, war is over," was how one described the message behind the decision.

Eight people and five entities on the new E.U. sanctions list have links to a flagship project that could form the blueprint for Syria's ambitions to reconstruct. Marota City, built on the razed land of a southwest Damascus suburb known as Basateen al-Razi, has a cost of $170 million in private investment. Most prominent is Samer Foz, 45, a businessman whose meteoric rise through Syria's war years has allowed him to cast himself as an intermediary for foreign investors. Business partners Anas Talas and Mazin al-Tarazi are also named, alongside two men working on a high-end tourist development in Damascus.

Government supporters describe the projects as part of a long-term vision to develop areas where urban migration had caused illegal construction to mushroom and unsafe structures to flourish. But critics see a different story, describing the redevelopments as a new -- and intentional -- obstacle to the return of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.

Areas slated for rezoning, both now and in future developments, are almost exclusively those where anti-government protesters turned out in droves. Residents were displaced in the vicious battles that followed, and many have now lost their homes. Senior Syrian officials have suggested that critics of the government should stay away.

"We lost the best of our youth, infrastructure, but we did win a more healthy and harmonious society," Assad said in a speech in August 2017 describing the toll of the war. The following year, Jamil Hassan, head of Air Force intelligence, was reported to have told a closed-door meeting that Syria's government would prefer 10 million compliant citizens to the return of all the refugees.

Basateen al-Razi was a lower-income area before Syria's uprising, and a hotbed of resistance after. Under a law known as Decree 66, it became one of the first zones designated for redevelopment, and six years later, it's the fledgling Marota City. YouTube videos show an artist's impression of the lush trees and high-rises that will one day fill the area. "In the next phase of the conflict, laws passed by [the] Syrian government are going to have a huge effect," said Sara Kayyali, a researcher in Human Rights Watch's Middle East division. "They're laws being used to formalize the ways in which civilians' rights have been abused through the war. These sanctions send the message that we are onto them."

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Op dinsdag 12 februari 2019 19:29 schreef Slayage het volgende:
Gaan ze weer die enorme Öcalan poster weer gebruiken als in raqqa

twitter:

leloveluck twitterde op dinsdag 12-02-2019 om 15:43:20 SDF commander says the ISIS caliphate - once close to the size of Britain - is down to its last two square kilometres. Battle expected to last several days yet, a stage is being built at the al-Omar oil field military base for the formal announcement. reageer retweet

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Op dinsdag 12 februari 2019 20:39 schreef intellectuele_user het volgende:
Of Trump "we vertrekken uit Syrië, ISIS is verslagen"

kaboem, meerdere US soldiers dead

WTF

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Op dinsdag 12 februari 2019 20:41 schreef _--_ het volgende:

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Waarom denk je.

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Op dinsdag 12 februari 2019 20:50 schreef intellectuele_user het volgende:

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Jij denkt dat de Amerikanen hun eigen soldaten doden zodat ze langer in Syrië en Irak kunnen blijven?

Ik zie het meer als lokale actoren (Syriërs en Irakezen) die niet zitten te wachten op buitenlandse bezetters en hen doden.

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Op dinsdag 12 februari 2019 20:51 schreef _--_ het volgende:

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"Hun eigen soldaten"

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Op zondag 17 februari 2019 09:59 schreef Slayage het volgende:
Trump bedreigt de Europeanen met dezelfde retoriek als de PKK hebben de Amerikanen overigens al die gevangenen op Guantanamo berecht of anders vrijgelaten?

twitter:

realDonaldTrump twitterde op zondag 17-02-2019 om 04:51:24 The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial. The Caliphate is ready to fall. The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them........ reageer retweet

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Op zondag 17 februari 2019 10:10 schreef Slayage het volgende:

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Ze moeten. Een deal sluiten met de irakis. De berechting uitbesteden aan hen. En aangezien een gemiddelde Isis proces daar 5 minuten duurt en bijna altijd eindigt met de galg weet je dat de kans dat ze vrijkomen nihil is. ITT rechtszaken hier in het westen waar we een eerlijk proces willen ook voor mensen die monsterlijke daden hebben gepleegd. Probleem van onomstotelijk bewijs vinden daar gelaten.

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Op zondag 17 februari 2019 10:48 schreef Slayage het volgende:

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Daarom willen al die Isis leden terug naar het westen, omdat ze weten dat ze goede kans maken om er mee weg komen met een relatief milde straf of zelfs vrijgesproken worden of niet eens een rechtszaak volgt. Een duivelse dilemma als je het zo bekijkt

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Op zondag 17 februari 2019 11:17 schreef Slayage het volgende:

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Wie gaat deze executies uitvoeren?

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Op zondag 17 februari 2019 11:18 schreef Slayage het volgende:

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Kijken hoe het Nederlandse volk reageert als straks 1 van hen een aanslag pleegt. Zou Rutte dan zeggen "Dat is nu eenmaal het risico dat je loopt binnen een rechtsstaat."?

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Op zondag 17 februari 2019 15:01 schreef polderturk het volgende:
In Turkije zijn er drie Nederlandse IS'ers gearresteerd. Worden ze aan Nederland uitgeleverd? Kan Turkije ze naar Nederland uitzetten als Nederland ze niet wil opnemen?

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Op zondag 17 februari 2019 17:18 schreef Aloulu het volgende:

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Links of rechtsom die jongens zijn hier opgegroeid en dus gewoon het probleem van ons in NL. Sowieso niet van Syriers of Irakezen, en eventueel ook niet van hun vakantielandje waar ze vanaf hun jeugd niet meer dan 3 weekjes per jaar doorbrachten omdat papa en mama er vandaan komen. Hoewel het wel makkelijk is bij dubbele nationaliteit om hen de Nederlandse te ontnemen. Ben je effectief in een keer van het hele gezeik af.

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Op zondag 17 februari 2019 17:18 schreef Aloulu het volgende:

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Links of rechtsom die jongens zijn hier opgegroeid en dus gewoon het probleem van ons in NL. Sowieso niet van Syriers of Irakezen, en eventueel ook niet van hun vakantielandje waar ze vanaf hun jeugd niet meer dan 3 weekjes per jaar doorbrachten omdat papa en mama er vandaan komen. Hoewel het wel makkelijk is bij dubbele nationaliteit om hen de Nederlandse te ontnemen. Ben je effectief in een keer van het hele gezeik af.

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Op zondag 17 februari 2019 17:31 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Ik vraag me af hoe het Juridisch zit.
Als Nederland illegale Marokkanen wil uitzetten, dan moet Marokko wel meewerken. Abders lukt het niet.

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Op zondag 17 februari 2019 17:49 schreef Richestorags het volgende:
Maar ze hebben in Syrië en Irak misdaden gepleegd. Die oberschoppers worden ook in Tsjechië berecht. Ik ben van mening dat de galg voor de mensheid nog niet zo'n slechte oplossing is. Zij hebben de NL maatschappij overigens ook al volledig verworpen in woord en daad. Stank voor dank.

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Op zondag 17 februari 2019 11:20 schreef Slayage het volgende:

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Ah de Russische doctrine, maar dat impliceert wel dat we geen rechtsstaat zijn.

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Op zondag 17 februari 2019 18:06 schreef Slayage het volgende:

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Niet helemaal. Ze willen lekker warm in een Nederlandse cel zitten

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Op zondag 17 februari 2019 17:53 schreef Aloulu het volgende:

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Dan moet je ze uitleveren aan Syrie of Irak. Maar willen die dat uberhaupt? (met Syrie wordt dat een politiek spel). En juridisch gezien komt dan de vraag of of NL dat wel kan doen; uitleveren aan regimes die het niet op mensenrechten hebben. Laten we er realistisch naar kijken. Dit gaat niet gebeuren.

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Dus of ze worden hier berecht. Of je neemt ze niet terug. Met het risico dat ze zelf proberen hier te komen. In het geval dat ze de Nederlandse nationaliteit nog steeds hebben (bekeerlingen sowieso of enkelpaspoorthouders) heb je dan als ze hier zijn weer het probleem: wat doe je ermee?

Het zijn Nederlanders, juridisch gezien. Dus ontkomen we hier niet aan om het op te lossen. Even de groep buiten gelaten die je hun hun NLse nationaliteit kan ontnemen omdat ze een tweede bezitten.

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Op zondag 17 februari 2019 19:49 schreef Richestorags het volgende:

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Ook alleen maar omdat de ogen van de wereld erop gericht zijn. Je wil niet weten wat voor shit er in Afghanistan is gebeurd, onder Nederlandse supervisie.

Feit blijft wel dat zij daar misdaden hebben begaan. Peru staat bijvoorbeeld ook niet bekend als een baken van de mensenrechten en volgens mij doet Nederland ook vrij weinig moeite om good old van der Sloot terug te halen. Maar ik acht de kans vrij klein helaas.

Wellicht is het beste idee nog wel om zoals ik zei gezamenlijk met alle landen een gevangenis te huren en ze te berechten in een soort van Joegoslavië tribunaal setting.

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Op zondag 17 februari 2019 19:49 schreef Richestorags het volgende:
Ook alleen maar omdat de ogen van de wereld erop gericht zijn. Je wil niet weten wat voor shit er in Afghanistan is gebeurd, onder Nederlandse supervisie.

Feit blijft wel dat zij daar misdaden hebben begaan. Peru staat bijvoorbeeld ook niet bekend als een baken van de mensenrechten en volgens mij doet Nederland ook vrij weinig moeite om good old van der Sloot terug te halen. Maar ik acht de kans vrij klein helaas.

Wellicht is het beste idee nog wel om zoals ik zei gezamenlijk met alle landen een gevangenis te huren en ze te berechten in een soort van Joegoslavië tribunaal setting.

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Undefeated, ISIS Is Back in Iraq

Now, more than four years after the black-clad men conquered Mosul, a major city in northern Iraq, a third of the country remains pulverized, both physically and socially. Overlaid across territory that has been reclaimed from the Islamic State is a patchwork of various sectarian militias that now claim fiefdom. Thousands of families with alleged links to ISIS are exiled, their birthrights reduced to being names on militias’ wanted lists, their dignity violated in irreversible ways. Rather than address this deep residue of fears and feelings of injustice felt by many, Iraq has foolishly declared the Islamic State defeated, as though its threat were now confined to the country’s past. But the signs of the ISIS’ resurgence are troubling, and the sense of grievance that fired it in the first place remains just as palpable—and just as unresolved.

The intelligence that my colleagues and I in the Kurdistan Region Security Council have collected is disturbing. Over the past fifteen months, hundreds of attacks linked to the group took place in areas that were supposed to have been freed from ISIS. Pushed out of Mosul, Islamic State fighters have regrouped in the provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala, Salahaddin, and parts of Anbar—territory they know well. From the city of Hawija to the westernmost town of Tal Afar, these guerrillas are mounting ambushes against Iraqi security forces in attacks the scale of which has not been seen in years.

What makes these fighters so much more of a threat now is their ability to make good on their promise to hunt down those they accuse of betraying them. In a night raid last October, after security forces had retreated to nearby bases, Islamic State assassins dragged a village chief from his home, and summoned locals to a public place, where they executed him. Even in parts of Mosul itself, reconquered in 2017 by government forces after a long and costly campaign, the ominous black-and-white ISIS flag has flown again in recent months, causing panic and fear in village after village. Credible threats have also forced the Iraqi authorities to relocate prisoners to prevent their escape in the event of a brazen attack like the prison breakouts the group has pulled off in the past.

The reasons for the return of ISIS are obvious. For years, the conventional approach to stopping the group has depended on airstrikes and local proxy forces; stripping away territory and revenues from ISIS has been the marker of success. But this is a gross misunderstanding of the group. The original synergy between former Iraqi officers and jihadists that created al-Qaeda in Iraq led to a calculating organization capable of learning from its mistakes and adjusting accordingly. To the group’s ex-military echelons, men whose expertise was repeatedly tested during the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s and sharpened during the Sunni insurgency of the early 2000s, holding territory was understood as a temporary, tactical objective. Instead, thousands were trained to blend in, emerging only when they needed to.

Today, the group has evolved further. It has adapted to the antipathy found among the millions forced to flee their homes or chafing under the yoke of Shia militia rule, certain of the Islamic State’s inevitable return. Mosul, for instance, is exactly where ISIS wants it to be, filled with popular resentment that will gradually push locals back into the group’s orbit without its active intervention. ISIS has instead put its resources into a campaign at the village level, in rural areas where security is nonexistent at night—and that has paid off. Through 2018, dozens of village chiefs have been killed across northern Iraq in assassinations, bombings, and kidnappings. At least thirteen have been killed since December, including four in Mosul. The assassins travel in small groups under the cover of darkness and know exactly which houses to target. They enter villages with names in hand, sometimes dressed in military uniform; the lucky ones are the locals who get a warning to cut their links with the government.

In the rugged Hamrin mountain ranges that straddle several provinces—territory even US forces once struggled to control—new recruits now undergo training in fieldcraft. Around Kirkuk and in Hawija, some 700 fighters have regrouped to abduct Kurds and Arabs for ransom and target power lines and oil trucks, as well as police units defending critical infrastructure. Dozens of fighters have also trickled back into Badush heights, Zummar, and Rabia to the northwest of Mosul to resume guerrilla warfare from their former redoubts. In recent months, scores of houses belonging to military and militia officers and locals who connect villages to state authorities have been burned or reduced to rubble. Improvised bomb attacks, the militants’ signature tactic, are also back as a daily feature across the north of the country, with hundreds recorded last year. And as the militants increase their bomb-making capacity, major roads littered with explosive devices have already become “no go” zones for many international organizations.

The American-led military effort to reconquer the last patch of land held by ISIS in Syria last summer forced a reckoning among the Iraqis in the group’s ranks. With the demise of the caliphate, these returning fighters now plan to reclaim Mosul and Salahaddin, and are adept at infiltrating the porous border. This is part of a clear blueprint to reestablish the northern supply routes used during the original insurgency era to smuggle fighters, weapons, and chaos into the rest of Iraq.