Thread by @TimInHonolulu

1. Not clear if it's just election window dressing for Trump to look tough on Al-Qaeda and ISIS after surrendering parts of Syria to them and their Turkish enablers but there are signs of something changing in the relationship. First the @StateDept issued a terrorist threat

2. warning for Americans in Istanbul. This came after the Turkish forces withdrew from an area of western Syria held by the Assad regime. In what appears to have been either a re-deployment of that force or possibly another force the Assad regime has engaged in an artillery

3. barrage that is preventing the Turkish Army from establishing a base in rebel held Kansafra in southern Idlib that is north of the area from which the Turkish forces withdrew. In that attack, Russian forces appear to be directing fire in an apparent attempt to avoid hitting

4. the Turks while making it impossible for them to deploy. The obvious import of that is they appear to want the Turks to move somewhere else and I would presume that may be out of Syria. We'll have to wait and see.

5. In the mean time, in the area to the NE of Syria there have been artillery engagement by the Turkish jihadist forces on civilian areas that were formerly in the US area of responsibility that Trump ceded to the Jihadists and Turky last October. The Assad forces and SDF

6. combined Kurdish, Arab and Christian forces are standing their ground and today there were no reports of continued engagements in the Ayn Isa area. Turkey's continued maligned activities in Libya, Cyprus, Nagorno Karabakh remain the subject of concern by it neighbors

7. includig Egypt and the testing of the Russian S-400 system right before our election appears IMO to be a slap in Trump's face by a foreign leader who has financial leverage against him. It remains to be seen if this will impact the US presidential race or the race for the US

8. Senate where the @SenateGOP appear to be willing participants in the genocide of Christians, Ezidis and Kurds in Syria and Iraq.