Expressing his concern that hundreds of thousands of lives might be at risk during the Syrian army's looming operations to clear the Idlib province of militants, Trump on Monday afternoon cautioned Damascus, as well as Moscow and Iran, against “making a grave humanitarian mistake.”

read more:

https://www.rt.com/usa/437551-trump-assad-idlib-warning/

A bit glib from the USA who did not show such concern when Iraqi forces (helped by the US) "ravaged Mosul"... though the history shows little US involvement in the "win".

The simple solution here is for the "rebels" (al Qaeda and IS — sponsored by the Saudis and armed by the USA) to surrender with a simple white flag. This would be better advice from Trump, than threaten Assad, Russia and Iran, with whatever.

Should the "rebels" wish to fight "to the death", they should allow all the innocent civilians an escape route. But they won't.

Syria turned down an offer from the US to withdraw their forces from Al Tanf, a US base in the southeast and the East Euphrates zone in exchange for three concessions from the Assad government, according to a report from Lebanese daily Al Akhbar.

Officials of "several US intelligence and security agencies" reportedly landed in a private UAE plane at Damascus International Airport in late June. They then took off in a convoy towards the center of Damascus for a meeting with the head of Syria's national security office, Major General Ali Mamlouk.

The meeting reportedly lasted for four hours. The sides discussed multiple aspects of the seven-year war in the country before the Americans made their offer: a withdrawal of its troops from Al Tanf and the East Euphrates on three conditions, including a complete Iranian withdrawal, a share in Syria's oil spoils, and intelligence on terrorists.

"I find the report almost entirely credible," former UK Ambassador to Syria Peter Ford told Sputnik News.

The first condition was that Iran also withdraw fully from the country. Unlike the United States, Iran was invited by the Syrian government to help it fight Islamist insurrectionists and foreign proxies.

"Open sources were already reporting in June that the US was offering to put Al Tanf in the mix of a deal concerning the conditions under which Washington would acquiesce in the Syrian government's campaign to recover the South," Ford told Sputnik News. "It was also being reported that those conditions included Iran's withdrawal from the south."

Israel has been warring with fighters in the south of Syria near the country's Golan Heights, which Israel illegally occupies.

Offering up Al Tanf "reflects the weakness of the US position in Syria," Ford said. "In June the Americans knew they could not prevent the Syrian government's campaign to take back the south — what could they do, risk conflict with Russia and retaliation by Iran against Israel by large-scale sustained bombing of Syria without any pretext?" Ford wondered. Nonetheless, US President Donald Trump couldn't appear weak to critics, and "hence the idea of striking a deal and throwing Al Tanf into the mix."

"Unfortunately for the Americans, the Syrians no doubt assessed Al Tanf as low value. To some degree Al Tanf is more a liability to the US than an asset, containing as it does thousands of refugees living in pitiful conditions with hundreds of jihadis amongst them. Why should Syria pay a price to relieve the invader of a burden?" Ford posed.

"Looking forward, the lesson from this failed negotiation is that the Americans will no doubt come back at some point to suggest a similar deal with regard to the northeast, though again they will be holding a weak hand, because their position in the area is not tenable in the long term: they are already having the rug pulled from under their feet by the Kurds' negotiations with Damascus," he added. "In any case, the US devalue their own land-based assets every time they use their battle fleet to attack Syria." 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201808291067549161-Syria-US-Offer-Tro...

Read more: http://www.c6f.navy.mil/europe/news

Meanwhile:

According to an estimate published by the Pentagon, the cost of the wars initiated since 11 September 2001, under the framework of the Rumsfeld-Cebrowski strategy exceeds 1 500 billion dollars [1]. The most substantial costs were incurred during the second presidential mandate of George W. Bush and during the first mandate of Barack Obama.

Brown University challenges these statistics. This university considers that the real costs are several times the sum stated. Brown thinks that they total around 5 600 billion dollars [2].

Presented as a «global war against terrorism», all these conflicts in actual fact were aimed at implementing of the strategy of the US Admiral Arthur Cebrowski and destroying the very structures of states and societies in the countries of that part of the world not tied into the global economy.

Translation 
Anoosha Boralessa

Note: this COST OF WARS is ON TOP OF the yearly budget given to the pentagon. The COST OF WARS has mainly fattened war-oriented industries in the USA at the expense of taxpayers and budget deficits.... Read more:

http://www.voltairenet.org/article202678.html

MEANWHILE:

On 28 August 2019, the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation announced that it was beefing up its naval deployment along the coasts of Syria, increasing its presence to 10 Russian ships plus 2 submarines.

On 30 August, Bosphorus Observer’s Twitter account announced that an enormous Russian container carrier–Sparta-3, had crossed the straits in the direction of the Syrian port of Tartus. It has only military material (see photo) on board.

The Russian Ministry of Defense further announced that from 1 September an important aero-naval exercise would kick off along the coasts of Syria. 25 ships and 30 planes would take part in the operation which would last one week. This exercise has nothing to do with the Vostok 2018 manoeuvres which will mobilize 300 000 men in the East of the Russian Federation with a view to warding off a potential attack by Nato.

These military operations are beginning just when Russia is openly accusing the United Kingdom, France and the United States of preparing a chemical attack under a false flag on Syrian soil with a view to justifying bombing Syria once again.

Translation 
Anoosha Boralessa

Read more:

http://www.voltairenet.org/article202681.html

According to Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, this latest exercise will engage some 300,000 Russian troops, over 1,000 aircraft, the Pacific and Northern Fleets, the entire Airborne forces, including 30 aircraft and fixed-wing helicopters, and Mongolian and Chinese troops.

These forces will allegedly exercise in something approaching real combat conditions. Observers have naturally focused on the exercise's size and scope, and on China's participation, but there are also other dimensions.

Clearly Russia is rehearsing a large-scale war. But since Russia is not demobilising in the West against NATO and the Ukraine, Vostok-2018 will likely stress and thus test Russia's steadily developing capability for mobilising the entire panoply of reservists and multiple militaries at its disposal, along with the civil administration.

Furthermore, since all exercises invariably parallel or contain sizable nuclear exercises, and Russia's two nuclear fleets are participating, this represents another example of rehearsing conditions for nuclear operations.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-05/russia-is-rehearsing-for-a-large-s...

Please note that NATO has been at something approaching real combat conditions, for years, on Russia's border... Read from top.

"President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy," Trump tweeted on Monday. "Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don’t let that happen!"

Now, it appears that the State Department is expanding the White House's red line. While Trump cautioned against a "reckless attack," the State Department, in conjunction with the Turkish Foreign Ministry, is calling "any Assad military offensive" in Idlib "unacceptable."

Pompeo and Cavusoglu "agreed that any Assad regime military offensive in Idlib would be an unacceptable, reckless escalation of the conflict in Syria," the statement reads.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201809041067752447-US-Turkey-Syrian-I...

Read from top.

As mentioned before, the "rebels" (al Qaeda, IS, and other nasties) only have got to be told by the USA to show the wite flag, instead of the US going hot under the collar with stupidity, at Assad... Simple.

Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov was commenting on a tweet posted by US President Donald Trump on Monday, in which he urged Syrian President Bashar Assad not to “recklessly attack” Idlib, the last major city held by anti-government militants and terrorists. President Trump also issued a warning to Moscow and Tehran against making “a grave humanitarian mistake” by supporting the Syrian assault. “Don’t let that happen!” he said.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Peskov cautioned the US against “simply issuing warnings, without considering the very dangerous, negative potential for the whole situation in Syria.”

The case of Syria’s northwestern province remains an issue of“special concern” for Russia, Syria, and Turkey, Peskov said.

“A nest of terrorism has formed there. A quite large group of terrorists had entrenched there. This leads to general destabilization, and undermines the attempts to steer the situation to diplomatic and political settlement.”

Much of Idlib Province is controlled by an Al-Qaeda affiliate called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Among other issues, the presence of terrorists poses “a substantial threat” to the Russian Army’s outposts in Syria, Peskov told reporters. He said that the militants have used the province to launch numerous drone attacks on Khmeimim Air Base, which hosts Russian aircraft.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has recently said that terrorists in the area are simply holding civilians as “human shields.”

READ MORE: ‘Aid-delivering’ Syrian rebels: NYT shows warm, fuzzy side of Al-Qaeda in Idlib

Moscow has repeatedly alerted the international community to the dangers of terrorist factions operating in and around Idlib, and that they are being supplied with weapons and munitions from abroad. For the past several weeks, the Russian Defense Ministry has been warning about the militants’ plans to stage a fake chemical attack in Idlib to frame the Syrian government.

Leaders from Russia, Iran, and Turkey are scheduled to meet on Friday in Tehran. They are expected to discuss the strategy for Idlib.

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/437628-kremlin-trump-idlib-syria/

Actually a "terrorist nest” in Idlib is dangerous for the whole world.

Giving his take on President Donald Trump’s ambitious plan to scrap the historic Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), one of the “fathers” of the accord berated the current US leader.

“It’s completely unacceptable to break the old treaties on disarmament,” Gorbachev told Interfax.

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/441867-gorbachev-inf-trump-withdrawal/

Read from top.

Read also: mixing vectors with nuclear substance...