Thread: How various governments would respond to the #EVERGIVEN crisis:

Syria: deny all reports of a stuck ship. Ban media from reporting, hunt down/kill anyone providing evidence that a ship is actually stuck + call truthers terrorists, imperialists & zionists. Lebanon:

Country is divided into 2 camps

Camp 1 says Israeli agents stuck the ship, sends mercenaries to the canal to kill the ship crew.

Camp 2 complains about above camp, and does nothing about it.

Country will go into crisis for 25yrs after the crisis itself ends.

Biden’s chances of winning went from almost a zero pre-COVID to now significant.

This is great news, at least you have a normal human being in office who is respectful of gov institutions, basic tenets of decency & relatively better understanding of the world.

But as a Syrian😐 Syria surely is not looking forward to a repeat of Susan Rice, Samantha Powers, McGurk, Blinken, Sullivan..def not the Donilon brothers.

It is now obvious that the above will be running Biden’s FP and Nat Sec should he win. But with all due respect to all..that’s terrible.

Corona is out of control in #Syria.

Earlier, I was relaying on forwards on wahtsapp groups/local pgs, but now I have friends and extended family who have the virus. There is a crisis in Damascus with hospitals overfilled.

Some are speaking of 50-60 deaths a day Regime is not issuing or recognizing COVID deaths. Causes of deaths are always attributed to “lung failure”, “severe lung infection” or “pneumonia”.

Just last week, about 8 Mosque Sheikhs passed away, these have the highest risk, deal with masses, are old...etc

In my free time, I sometimes go into pro-Assad Syrian FB pgs & try 2 gauge thr mood/current state of mind. I also stir shit up by throwing a few facts that they find hard to chew.

For example, recently, Syrian FB has been lit with criticism agnst the Syrian Prime Minister... So what I do, I seek out ”influencers” with +50K followers, who have been speaking out against the corrupt PM/ Ministers within this current gov. I then calmly & respectfully argue with them, hoping that their followers read the conversation..

If I were extremely (almost unrealistically) optimistic, I'd say the average salary in Syria is about 70,000 Syrian Pounds/month.

Today: $1= 2150 Syr Pounds.

This makes the avg salary of a Syrian $32 a month.

Acc to UN standard, that's almost twice below the poverty line. Check this restaurant bill in Damascus:

Soda+mineral water+ 3 Turkish coffees+ 3 cups of tea = 9,150 Syrian Pounds (SP).

If you're lucky to have a job and make the avg salary (70k SP), you just spent 9.1k (or 13%) of your salary for an afternoon outting.

The situation inside regime controlled areas in Syria is changing significantly. Over the lst 2mnths, and given the extra time I have had due 2 self isolation: I hv been in daily contact with Syrians in Damascus, Homs, Latakia & elsewhere. The things I hear changed my thinking. Ever since Russia fully intervened in Syria in 2015 tipping the balance in fav of the regime, my thinking was as follows: Alas, no matter what happens, and unless Assad accidentally dies, he was the only strong man in Syria. He will not be given up until a stronger man is found.

#Syria: After flattening entire towns, killing residents en masse & forcing remaining survivors to flee. And after seeing that there are no humans left to kill, Assad regime soldiers are now roaming cemeteries in Idlib promising -ON CAMERA- to defile the remains of the dead. 1 As he promised, the same soldier, called Samer Halum, comes bk w his platoon & starts desecrating/digging up corpses of the civilians they previously killed.

There’s no shame shown here. Just jovial psychopaths exploiting the impunity they have faced during 9yrs of mass crimes.

What a time to be alive. The Iranians have to act rationally bcz the U.S is the one that’s not rational now.

The Iranians have maintained dialogue with friends and foes, including reaching out to Gulf states, and the U.S. is now the disrupter. GCC states used to lobby the US gov to take a tion against Iran, they are now sending emissaries to try to calm things with Iran.

After years of advocacy and immense efforts by the amazing Syrian American community: The Caesar bill is about to become a US law. This is a big turning point in #Syria's history, and a major step towards achieving justice and accountability in #Syria.

I'll explain why. When the Caesar Bill becomes law, it will make the current sanctions on the Assad regime seem like child's play.

congress.gov/bill/116th-con…

Bro In case you don’t know, De Mistura is in the final touches of writing his book. So his publishers are working on him being relevant again.

I’m usually discreet and can keep a good secret..but this revisionist shit is infuriating.

So listen up...

I got the juice of what exactly happened between Assad & Rami Makhlouf - as per a source who knowledgable of the situation.

Animousity has bn brewing 4 a while, with anti Rami camp in #Syria rallying Assad up for the last few yrs, highlighting how he is missing opportunities.. Earlier this spring, Russian Minister of Defense asked Assad for an immediate $3bln payment. Russian MoD informed Bashar directly that this money is urgently needed to repay some Russian debt, and to finance the Syrian Ministry of Defense and its operation (esp in Edlib).

I’m getting news from a very reliable source in #Syria that Rami Makhlouf and Bashar Assad have had a major fall out.

Can’t talk about the details until I get the green light, but Assad regime has taken a several actions against Rami over the last two weeks.

Watch this space. 1- I broke the news
2- LOL @ this regime stooge re-farting the "anti-corruption" line. Assad didn't just realize that his cousin used nepotism & extortion to make his mukti-bln dollar empire.
3- there is much more to the story. This is a famiky fall out.

https://twitter.com/ehsani22/status/1166172339735805952?s=21

Jamal DM’d me in 2012, inquiring about Assad’s siege of civilians in Baba Amro in Homs, #Syria. He asked me how he cd help smuggle out the kids and elderly people who were injured after the non stop shelling of the city. I know of at least 3 people who are alive because of him. Jamal has worked with several Syrian activists since 2011, offering his help and influence and doing everything he could to save human life. I and Syrians are forever indebted to his generousity, kindness, passion and humanity.

Al Nusra is a cancer affecting Syrians in Idlib, they are harassing activists, using fear and terror trying to stop mass protests. Recently they started accusing Syrians who carry revolutionary and freedom seeking signs of being PYD and Western agents. They have been threatening women, going after civilian activists and terrorizing residents. The mere fact that demonstrations are still going is a second revolution in itself. Al Nusra is a cancer that needs to be cut, their danger has surpassed Assad's.

Something is happening in Syria. They are restricting ppl from travelling outside of the country. I have been seeing reports about this since last week but family and friends have confirmed: All men between 17-42 can't leave without a new Military Conscription Office approval. 1 My friend's aunt retired frm a Municipality job 25 years ago and has been living in the UAE since then. She visited Syria for the first time in 8yrs last month, on her way out back to UAE, immigration officer asked her for an official end of service letter from the Municipality.

I dunno how 2 put and I really think this needs an army of psychiatrists..but Pro-Assadists are straight up celebrating "historic" victory aganst Israel. They're not even pretending..They have fantasy casualties, targets, scenarios...it is a whole new reality in Assadistan. Some Assadists believe Ben Gurion airport was (and still is) closed, other believe Dimona itself was struck....there's a whole rumor that the entire Israeli cabinet went into bunkers

Re: that whole Iran drone/F16 shoot down, here's what I think:

1- Now that we found out that the Israeli Air Force has carried "thousands of missions" in the last year alone, Iran/Assad had to do something to show some sort of resistance/mini deterrence. 2- Since 2012, and given that Israel didn't experience any meaningful retaliation, the IAF attacks grew exponentially in numbers, type and severity.