Independent Journalist Vanessa Beeley, who was based in Damascus up until the Al Nusra coup on 8 December 2024, discusses her evacuation from Syria, and what the end of the Assad Government means for the Syrian people and the future of foreign interference in the country. She also discusses the extreme suddenness of the coup and Russia's about-face, which seemed to lead so unexpectedly to Bashar al-Assad's very uncharacteristic resignation from his presidency.

In 1980, the Swedish pop group ABBA released a hit song, “The winner takes it all”.  As of December 8, 2024, the armed coalition headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, might be singing that song. In every conflict, there are winners and losers. On a scale from 1 to 10, the various factions involved in the Syrian civil war from 2011 to 2024 are rated below.

From 26.50 minutes in you can hear a detailed account of how a Syrian mayor and the Christian town of Sadad, Syria - which is between Homs and Damascus, fought off the Isis branch Jabat al-Nusra/Al Nusra Front several years ago, at the cost of nearly 50 locals.

On December 9, Egypt accused Israel of illegally seizing a buffer zone in Syria. The area extends from the Golan Heights almost to the outskirts of Damascus. Israel troops and weaponry are now within hiking distance of the capital of Syria. Syria is now under the administration of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an armed opposition group from Idlib, which had been supported prior to 2017 by a covert CIA program.

We express our sorrow at the fall today of Damascus, Syria, - a secular democracy - to takfiri terrorists backed by Western powers. They are led by Ahmed Hussein al-Shar'a, commonly known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani.  The US listed Al-Juliani as a 'Specially Designated Global Terrorist,'  in May 2013, and four years later advertised a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture.

The latest on Syria's very tricky situation from Kevork Almassian, surely one of the greatest modern journalists we have today.

This discussion covers every important base on the push and pull factors for mass migration and the problems that ensue for the receiving populations on which it is imposed by elites. It is worth a library of books on the subject.  Also, on Tommy Robinson, a surprising analysis.

I’m writing to you as an anti-war activist, seeking your support for Petition E

On SyrianaAnalysis, marking the 13th anniversary of the CIA-engineered dirty war in Syria, two Syrian journalists - Kervork Almassian and Hekmat Aboukhater discuss the appalling machinations of the anti-Syria lobby in Washington DC and the ignorance of the US public.

This article was inspired by Israeli and western press characterisation of Hamas-tunnels in Gaza, as if they were novel and somehow shameful and outrageous defensive constructions, when Israel itself has plenty.

Syria is in significant difficulties at present with pressure on all sides from the U.S.

Hands Off Syria is calling for a rally in support of Syria. After the catastrophic earthquake, people around the world want to help Syria, however, the criminal US sanctions are impeding assistance, in particular reconstruction.

Sanctions kill, sanctions starve; sanctions stop reconstruction efforts. End the Sanctions Now. The Syrian people need our help now.

Prime Minister Albanese should take note from the young female Syrian in the embedded video below: The illegal sanctions which Australia, the US and its other allies have imposed against Syria, made life close to unbearable for Syrians, even before the earthquake. Those illegal sanctions are now causing death as those struggling to rescue earthquake survivors are deprived of life-saving equipment and medicine as consequence of the sanctions.

February 6, 2023: Latakia, Syria At least 780 are dead in Syria, with another 2,300 injured according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) after a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck at 4:17 am local time today. Rescue teams look for survivors under the rubble of a collapsed building after an earthquake in the regime-controlled northern Syrian city of Aleppo on February 6, 2023.

The theft of Syrian oil by US forces illegally occupying Syria, and the US-NATO backed destruction of infrastructure and economy, have left Syrians in extreme danger of dying from cold and starvation this winter. Before the war Syria, which is the seat of one of the earliest civilisations, had a healthy economy and was host to many refugees from neighboring states.

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and Russian warplanes shelled positions of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, on November 6 in Idlib province.  Some of the terrorists killed were: Abdul Minam Muhati, Radwan Hussain Muhayer, Abu Dawoud al-Filistini, Mohammad Ali al-Kadour, Abu Hussein al-Raddad, Abu Hajat al-Chad, Amro abu Layth al-Askandarani, and Mohammed Suliaman al-Ali.

Russian President Vladmir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan held a four-hour meeting on August 5 in Sochi which may change the course of the Middle East, and end the US occupation of Syria.

What was the importance of Putin's attendance at the Caspian Summit, beginning on  June 29, 2022 and the progress of associated alliances?  This was a subject of some interesting speculation in a July 2 edition of The Duran, which I have embedded and transcribed below this introduction. For some time now the US and Russia have had increasing proxy confrontations in Russia's backyard, in the areas around and below the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea.

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) repelled an attack by terrorists on Saraqib on Wednesday and in the early hours of Thursday.

"It is incredibly rare that the BBC ever admits that one of their reports on Douma in Syria failed to meet the Corporation's editorial standards for accuracy by reporting false claims… Blink and you’d have missed this admission, but we didn’t, and it adds to a volley of misreporting that has dogged journalism and peace in the Middle East for decades." (Ross Ashcroft, Renegade Inc.) Ross Ashcroft skilfully reviews mainstream western media attacks on journalists who tried in 2018 to properly investigate false claims that the Syrian Government launched chemical attacks on its people. He reinterviews those journalists, as he analyses the recent BBC admission of defending lies that support the western media conspiracy to justify US-NATO attempts to overthrow Assad Government. He is joined by political scientist Dr. Piers Robinson and journalist Vanessa Beeley to discuss the crumbling narrative around the alleged Douma chemical attack.

Can Palestine be liberated while the US illegally occupies Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq? Apparently Melbourne's pro-Palestine movement thinks Palestine can be liberated while Syria has much of its territory illegally occupied and US troops also illegally occupy Iraq and Afghanistan.

See also MEPs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly reject claims they spread 'fake news' about Syria attack (26/4/2021) | Irish Examiner, During EU Parliament session, MEP accused of 'fake news' for daring to question OPCW on whistleblower scandal (21/4/2021) | New Cold War.

In a recent sitting of the European Parliament two Irish members, Mick Wallace (pictured left) and Clare Daly (pictured right), attempted to effectively scrutinise a representative of the OPCW, who claimed that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons against his own people at Douma on 17 April 2018.

This report disregarded findings of OPCW inspectors who had visited the site of the alleged chemical weapons attack.

On this critical and urgent issue of the alleged gas attack by the Syrian 'regime', each member of the European Parliament was only allowed one minute to question the OPCW representative. The Speaker even interrupted Clare Daly before she had completed her one minute, claiming that she was repeating what Mick Wallace had already said.

Syria continues under attack, Western criminal sanctions are further devastating the war ravaged country. The US maintaining forces there, holding onto the northern resources rich area, stealing the much needed petrol. Syrians in Syria are suffering with high unemployment, low wages, hyper inflation, no fuel, medicines and shortages of food, electricity, water and COVID 19 increasing. Hands Off Syria, Sydney, requests short videos (30 seconds or less) or photos opposing the sanctions against Syria. Those preferring photos please add a short statement against the sanctions, something as simple "I/we oppose the sanctions against Syria." Send your material to [email protected] Tim Anderson has offered to put them together to make a video. Please send us your short videos and pics by Wednesday 21 April 2021. [Depending on the number of responses, it will take us around 2-3 days to put it together].

As Australian academic Tim Anderson has pointed out (see below), the Aramaic language, which was spoken by Jesus Christ and now spoken only in Syria, has been under threat by the war against the Syrian people that started over a decade ago on 15 March 2011. This war has been waged mainly by tens of thousands of paid terrorist proxies of the United States and its allies - Israel, Saudi Arabia, Britain, Germany, France and Turkey. This terrible war has, so far, cost over 400,000 Syrian lives, including 80,000 Syrian soldiers by one estimate and caused the internal displacement of more than half of Syria's population and has caused many others to seek refuge overseas. (Wikipedia's somewhat less terrible figures can be found here.)

In spite of the victories by the Syrian Arab Army, Lebanese Hezbollah volunteers, Iranian military advisers and Russian Army and Air Force contingents, the enemies of Syria seem to be resolved to keep their terrorist war going, to maintain crippling economic sanctions and, in the case of the United States, maintain its illegal occupation of Syria's oil fields in Eastern Syria and the theft of Syria's oil. They apparently intend to continue this war for however long it takes to break the resistance of the Syrian people - another 10 years, another 50 years or however long it takes. The longer this continues, the harder it will be for the Aramaic people to preserve their language and culture.

For this war to ever end, people in the West will have to organise protests in solidarity with the Syrian people and against their own governments' criminal conduct towards Syria.

Julian Assange and Wikileaks can help stop the war against Syria

There is not, currently, a great deal about Syria on Wikileaks. Its page on Syria is dated Thursday 5 July 2012, only one year and four months after that war had commenced. It is somewhat critical of the Syrian government as well as of the terrorist opposition, as even many defenders of Syria were back then:

"WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said: 'The material is embarrassing to Syria, but it is also embarrassing to Syria's opponents. It helps us not merely to criticise one group or another, but to understand their interests, actions and thoughts. It is only through understanding this conflict that we can hope to resolve it.'"

So far, not a lot has yet been leaked to Wikileaks about the Western nation's criminal conspiracy against Syria. Still, the Wikileaks news service remains our best hope of finding out the vital facts behind the Syrian war in addition to all the other wars about which Wikileaks has revealed so much.

It is vital that we continue our campaign against the British government's illegal imprisonment and torture of him and against the United States' attempt to kidnap extradite Julian Assange.

Following our successful protest outside the Melbourne British Consulate, Melbourne supporters of Julian Assange will be resuming our weekly Friday evening vigil from 6:30pm outside Flinders Street Station. We will be holding our vigil on this coming Good Friday public holiday of 2 April.

At that vigil, we will also be demanding as shown on our large banner that the Australian government act to end the British government's illegal imprisonment and torture of Julian Assange.

Please be there to help us hold our banner, distribute leaflets and listen to speeches.