Authored by Kyle Anzalone via The Libertarian Institute,

Ukrainian soldiers refusing to report for duty or walking away from their front-line positions are becoming an increasing problem for Kiev. One Ukrainian lawmaker said that there have been as many as 200,000 desertions. 

Ukrainian officials and soldiers told the AP that “Facing every imaginable shortage, tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops, tired and bereft, have walked away from combat and front-line positions to slide into anonymity.”

The report adds, “Entire units have abandoned their posts, leaving defensive lines vulnerable and accelerating territorial losses, according to military commanders and soldiers.”

“Some take medical leave and never return, haunted by the traumas of war and demoralized by bleak prospects for victory,” writes The Associated Press. 

“Others clash with commanders and refuse to carry out orders, sometimes in the middle of firefights.”

Soldiers failing to report to their posts are a rapidly worsening problem for Kiev. In 2022, only 9,000 Ukrainians were prosecuted for desertion.

That number increased to 24,000 in 2023. Ukrainian government data showed prosecutions skyrocketed to 50,000 during the first nine months of 2024. 

The prosecutions do not capture the whole picture as one Ukrainian lawmaker told AP the number “could be as high as 200,000.”

The growing problem is likely a result of war fatigue.

“It is clear that now, frankly speaking, we have already squeezed the maximum out of our people,” said one military officer. 

Between casualties and desertions, Kiev is facing a massive manpower shortage. The AP noted Kiev lost a net 4,000 soldiers along the front lines in September. The White House is pushing Ukraine to lower its consumption age to 18 to help fill shortages.

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

With Oreshnik now entering the picture, everywhere the Hegemon will try to harass China they will also have to face Russia…

When it comes to state of the art Russian weaponry, what the inestimable Ray McGovern defines as the MICIMATT – the whole Hegemonic complex – seems to dwell in perpetual stupor.

They had no clue about Kalibr, Sarmat, Khinzal, Zircon or Avangard before they were introduced. They had no clue about Oreshnik (‘Hazel”) before the 30-minute protocolar warning by the Russians, stating a missile test was coming, and it was not nuclear. The Americans assumed that would be just another ballistic missile test, as they happen routinely close to the Arctic.

Even President Putin didn’t know Oreshnik was ready for its close-up until the last minute. And Kremlin spokesman Peskov confirmed that only an ultra-rarefied circle knew Oreshnik even existed.

In a nutshell: the MICIMATT only sees what Russia shows off – and when it happens. Call it a leak-proof vow of secrecy permeating the Russian military complex – which, by the way, is a massive state, nationalized company, with a few private components.

And that offers the Russian government, in practice, better engineering, better physics, better mathematics and better practical, final results than anything across the self-important collective West.

Oreshnik – a kinetic weapons system – is a certified game-changer when it comes to military technology and warfare in more ways than one: actually several. Simple physics tells us that by combining enough kinetic force and mass, utter devastation is guaranteed, comparable to a low-to-medium yield nuclear weapon. With the added benefit of no radiation.

Oreshnik is an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), under development by Russia (along with other systems) even before Trump 1.0 pulled the U.S. out of the INF treaty in 2019.

A few concise analyses have pointed out how Oreshnik can be fitted into intercontinental (italics mine) non-nuclear missiles. The Russians are being very diplomatic, not stressing that if Oreshnik is launched from the Russian Far East, it can easily reach most latitudes across the USA.

Moreover, applying Oreshnik tech to tactical missiles – Putin late last week said this is already happening – also changes the whole tactical domain.

The new game in town is Russia being capable of unleashing ultra-high-velocity kinetic weapons literally anywhere around the world – after warning civilians to abandon the area around the targets. And there’s absolutely no defense against it, anywhere.

Nowhere to run, baby, nowhere to hide

It’s quite predictable that the woke, arrogant/ignorant MICIMATT, as well as NATO and the whole, brainwashed collective West simply have no idea what just hit them, seemingly out of the blue.

To be concise: a system with the destructive power of a tactical nuclear weapon but carrying the precision of a top sniper’s bullet.

Ergo, sitting duck billion-dollar aircraft carriers; the whole, 800-plus Empire of Bases; assorted underground bunkers; ICBM launch platforms; naval shipyards; not to mention NATO’s HQ in Brussels, the Aegis Ashore base in Redzikowo (Poland), the NATO joint force center in the Netherlands, southern NATO command in Naples – all these immensely expensive assets are fair game for non-nuclear Oreshniks capable of reducing them to dust in a flash after flying for mere minutes at over Mach 10.

By now multitudes around the world are aware that Oreshnik may reach Berlin in 11 minutes and London in 19 minutes. Also that launched from southern Russia, Oreshnik may reach the U.S. air base in Qatar in 13 minutes; launched from Kamchatka in the Far East, it may reach Guam in 22 minutes; and launched from Chukotka, it may reach Minuteman III silos in Montana in 23 minutes.

To quote the epic 1960s Motown hit: “Nowhere to run, baby, nowhere to hide.”

Graphic proof that the MICIMATT and NATO have absolutely no clue what hit them – and will hit them again – is the escalation dementia in effect even after Oreshnik’s warheads reduced a missile factory in Dnipropetrovsk to smithereens. And even after Moscow made it quite clear that they don’t need nuclear weapons to hit anything they want anywhere on Earth.

The MICIMATT plus NATO, in tandem, fired ATACMS twice against Kursk; released a P.R. trial balloon related to the suicidal possibility of sending nuclear weapons to Kiev; NATO warned businesses to enter a “wartime scenario”; NATO’s armchair admiral Rob Bauer, a Dutch non-entity, advocated pre-emptive bombings of Russia; Le Petit Roi in France and the ghastly British PM re-started the gambit of “troop deployments” to Ukraine (Starmer later backed off); and last but not least, the Liver Sausage government in Germany started to draw plans to use metro stations as air raid shelters.

All this escalation paranoia sounds like a bunch of screaming kids playing in their dirty sandbox. Because for all practical purposes it is Russia which is now ruling the escalation game.

Breaking up Russia-China is hard to do

And that brings us to Trump 2.0.

The Deep State has already targeted Trump with a vicious war – a de facto pre-emptive counter-insurgency, even before he attempts to do anything practical regarding NATO’s collapsing Project Ukraine.

His ideal off-ramp might be an Afghanistan-style exit, leaving all the burdens ahead to a basket of NATO chihuahuas. Still, that’s not gonna happen.

Andrey Sushentsov is a program director of the Valdai Club and dean of MGIMO’s school of International Relations. He’s one of Russia’s top analysts. Sushentsov released this pearl to TASS, among other things:

“Trump is considering ending the Ukrainian crisis, not out of any sympathy for Russia, but because he acknowledges that Ukraine has no realistic chance of winning. His goal is to preserve Ukraine as a tool for U.S. interests, focusing on freezing the conflict rather than resolving it. Consequently, under Trump, the long-term strategy of countering Russia will persist. The U.S. continues to benefit from the Ukrainian crisis, regardless of which administration is in power.”

Sushentsov fully recognizes how “the U.S. state system is an inertial structure that resists decisions it deems contrary to American interests, so not all of Trump’s ideas will come to fruition.”

That’s just one graphic illustration, among many, that Moscow harbors no illusions whatsoever about Trump 2.0. Putin’s conditions for an attempt to solve the Ukraine riddle have been known at least since June: total Kiev withdrawal from Donbass and Novorossiya; no Ukraine in NATO; end of all 15,000+ Western sanctions; and a non-aligned, nuclear-free Ukraine.

That’s it. Everything non-negotiable; otherwise the war will continue on the battlefields, the way Russia sees fit, until Ukraine’s total surrender.

Evidently the Five Eyes – actually only 2 (U.S.-UK) – plus minion France, side by side with the most powerful silos inside the Deep State will continue to force Trump to double down on Project Ukraine, which is an essential part of the Forever Wars ethos.

The best he might be able to do is to divert attention from Project Ukraine by accommodating the Old Testament psychopathological genocidals in Tel Aviv, plus the Zio-con armada in D.C., in their obsession of forcing Washington to fight their war on Iran. Talk about a slight change of focus of the Forever Wars.

Tehran not only exports most of its energy to China but is an absolutely essential node of the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC) as well as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI); that is, north-south and east-west crisscrossing Eurasia.

That would be the real war of choice – simultaneously against three BRICS (Russia, China, Iran). After all the American ruling class is already invested on a do-or-die Hybrid War against BRICS.

Still, the Trump 2.0/China face-off will be the fulcrum of the Hegemon’s foreign policy starting January 20. Virtually all of Trump’s appointments – as misguided as they may be – believe it is possible to break apart the Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership and prevent China from buying energy from Iran.

There will be attempts to disrupt shipping lanes and supply lines – from the Maritime Silk Roads in the Indian Ocean rimland to the Northern Sea Route by the Arctic, including possible false flags along the INSTC.

But with Oreshnik now entering the picture, everywhere the Hegemon will try to harass China they will also have to face Russia. So the temptation to end Project Ukraine and NATO’s encroachment on Russia’s western borders will always be there in the back of Trump’s mind, part of a “seduce Russia to undermine China” syndrome.

The problem for the Hegemon is that the interlocking BRICS/SCO-wide Russia-China-Iran strategic partnerships do have other – kinetic – ideas.

There was a lot of chatter on Monday morning about defunct Enron rising from the ashes after an X account named “Enron” posted, “We’re back. Can we talk?”

We’re back. Can we talk? pic.twitter.com/9kt4g0Q84Z

— Enron (@Enron) December 2, 2024

On its website, “Enron.com,” the company, supposedly operating as “Enron Corporation,” published what could be described as one of the laziest press releases imaginable, with formatting that resembles something generated by ChatGPT… 

Buried in the “Terms of Use and Conditions of Sale” section of the website, Enron states: “THE INFORMATION ON THE WEBSITE IS FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTED PARODY, REPRESENTS PERFORMANCE ART, AND IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY.”

Public records forensic analysis via the platform Sayari shows “Enron Corporation” has been “Inactive” for years. In other words, the website has nothing to do with defunct Enron.

“No @Enron is not back… Original IP is DEAD and some clever people registered it earlier this year… Caveat emptor,” one X user said. 

No @Enron is not back… Original IP is DEAD and some clever people registered it earlier this year… Caveat emptor pic.twitter.com/D7Qu9dvrBh

— Mike Periu (@mikeperiu) December 2, 2024

Exactly. 

The domain has expired and someone just grabbed it to launch the scam pic.twitter.com/KQwjZEK2Rt

— Ekim Kaya (@ekimnazimkaya) December 2, 2024

And trademarks?

Enron – saw a gaggle of trademarks filed on this one recently. Before you get excited, pretty obvious that someone bought/licensed the brand and is about to start selling lame t-shirts and crypto tokens https://t.co/tuSPCGDrxM pic.twitter.com/Smzy9P70FK

— Odd Diligence (@OddDiligence) December 2, 2024

Take a look at the alleged Enron team. Whoever built the website just used iStock models with a focus on diversity.

Not believable. 

Pictured: models https://t.co/kWH5g1MuGT pic.twitter.com/VgMfiaFFc1

— laurence (@functi0nZer0) December 2, 2024

More LoL from the website. 

Love this. 10/10 grift content. It’s got everything. Sand ballet. Old guy eyeballs stapled to an Apple Vision Pro. Farm man. Black guy boxing. Even AI couldn’t fart out something this generic. Top class, boys. https://t.co/GumEUev4Jb pic.twitter.com/lKJ253Jb3E

— Dan Toomey (@dhtoomey) December 2, 2024

Selling merchandise is the goal? 

Enron is selling $118 hoodies

Are we cooked? pic.twitter.com/7CwagVrm4e

— Jeremy (@jeremywaitforit) December 2, 2024

Possibly, but this might be tied to a crypto pump-and-dump scheme.

Not sure if this coin is related.

Funny this Enron coin started trading 30 hours ago https://t.co/X4O32cKSWN pic.twitter.com/4tnyeImalj

— TheLastBearStanding (@LastBearStandng) December 2, 2024

Caveat emptor. 

Stellantis NV Chief Executive Officer Carlos Tavares has abruptly resigned from the automaker, citing ‘different views’ with the board of directors, according to an overnight press release. This development comes as auto demand in key markets, including North America, Europe, and China, continues to deteriorate, plunging the entire industry into a vicious downturn. 

“The process to appoint the new permanent Chief Executive Officer is well under way, managed by a Special Committee of the Board, and will be concluded within the first half of 2025,” Stellantis stated, adding, “Until then, a new Interim Executive Committee, chaired by John Elkann, will be established.” 

Stellantis’ Senior Independent Director, Henri de Castries, commented on Tavares’ departure: “However, in recent weeks different views have emerged which have resulted in the Board and the CEO coming to today’s decision.”

The world’s fourth-largest carmaker has recently warned about sliding sales and bloated inventory in North America, which led to the profit warning announced in September. By early October, Stellantis CFO Natalie Knight informed her team about the need to take “drastic measures” to shore up the Jeep and Ram parent’s finances. Then, in recent weeks, after a nightmare of a year, the automaker began pausing production of certain models. 

Goldman’s George Galliers commented on Tavares’s departure to clients this AM:

CEO resignation confirmed – Yesterday evening, Stellantis confirmed that it had accepted the resignation of its CEO, effective immediately, citing different views on future direction. Previously, the CEO was due to retire in early 2026, hence, yesterday’s departure is just over 12 months earlier than expected. Stellantis confirmed its FY24 guidance for an adj. operating income margin of 5.5-7.0% (GSe 6.2%, company compiled consensus 6.2%) and ind. free cash flow of -€5 to -€10bn (GSe -€7.3bn, cons -€6.9bn). While the outgoing CEO has a long-standing reputation and this announcement is earlier than expected, in light of recent tensions with stakeholders and the step-down in 2024’s financial performance, we expect the market to focus on the likely successor. The CFO is due to attend our 16th Annual Industrials and Autos Conference this week.

Press reports of tensions with key stakeholders – Stellantis’ financial performance this year has fallen short of expectations, with the company suffering from excess inventory in North America and late to market product launches in Europe. At our 15th Annual Industrials and Autos Conference, the departing CEO spoke about the industry facing a Darwinian race and, therefore, the need to drive efficiencies and cost savings. However, over the course of 2024, press reports suggest this has created tensions with stakeholders including Stellantis’ US dealers, US workforce, and politicians in Italy and the UK. In addition, the industry continues to undergo significant pressure as a result of the ongoing transition to BEVs, necessitated by regulation in the UK and Europe, and the potential risk from Chinese competition.

Successful historical performance under the outgoing CEO – The outgoing CEO oversaw the creation of Stellantis through the merger of PSA and FCA, with STLA going on to report a strong 13.4% adj. operating margin in FY22 and 12.8% in FY23 as well as combined ind. FCF >€23bn during the period. Previously, as CEO of PSA, he oversaw a turnaround that led PSA to increase adj. op. margins from 1.5% in 2014 to 8.5% in 2019 with adj. op. income seeing an 8x increase. Even in 2024, we believe the levels of profitability achieved by STLA in emerging markets is notably stronger than peers. Past financial turnarounds, and industry-leading margins were achieved through rigorous pricing and a tough stance on cost. Despite the downturn in STLA’s N.American and European performance, in 2024, as a producer of 5 to 6mn units operating in multiple different jurisdictions, the stewardship of Stellantis will be a substantial role for the outgoing CEO’s successor.

Galliers reaffirmed a “Buy” rating on Stellantis shares trading in Europe, noting, “We apply a P/E target multiple of 5.0x to our 2025 EPS to derive a 12-month price target of €16/$17.” 

Shares in Milan plunged 8.5% on the news, the lowest intraday print since July 2022. On the year, shares have fallen 45%. 

Here’s what other Wall Street analysts had to say (list courtesy of Bloomberg):

Bernstein (market-perform)

• Analysts led by Daniel Roeska struggle to “identify any scenario under which these events can be positively spun as far as the stock price is concerned”
• Say investors will now likely have to wait until the arrival of the next CEO for more reliable answers
• Think the market will be wondering why the board “considered that not having a permanent CEO for some months was preferable to keeping the current CEO”

RBC (sector perform)

• Analyst Tom Narayan says this announcement is a surprise, but wonders if it was related to the CEO’s already planning to retire in early 2026
• Management changes made in early October did seem “odd” and this could also have played a role
• “Entirely possible that Stellantis can get through this rough patch,” but a bunch of potential headwinds such as CO2 compliance in Europe, Chinese competition, risk of US tariffs leave RBC on the sidelines

Morgan Stanley (overweight)

• Think overall investor opinions of the CEO were favorable, despite the company’s “considerable underperformance” this year, analyst Javier Martinez de Olcoz Cerdan writes
• Tavares was overall recognized for role in delivering merger, efforts on cost-cutting, commitment to execution and “agile” Chinese OEM strategy
• Wonders if exit may herald a new strategic direction, creating uncertainty for investors until a new CEO is appointed

JPMorgan (overweight)

• Analyst Jose Asumendi says exit of a CEO and a CFO in such a short period seems unprecedented, creating “challenge” for investors
• Chairman John Elkann, who will lead the interim leadership committee, does have good track record across differing industrial groups which provides “solid base” for now
• However, there is unlikely to be any significant major earnings improvement priced in by investors for FY25 until the management team is reset

Jefferies (hold)

• Not entirely surprising news, but leaves the company without a CEO at a time when a number of “critical decisions” need to be made, analyst Philippe Houchois writes
• Understands that Tavares wanted to actively contribute to turning around performance before his previously planned 2026 exit, but that the board likely sanctioned his proposals or management style

European automakers have been struggling as a whole.

The collapse in profitability under Tavares’ watch has been disastrous. 

Authored by Nathan Worcester via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

America’s nuclear energy industry has something special going for it.

“Nuclear energy is one of the few issues that receives bipartisan support across the country,” Maria Korsnick, the president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, told The Epoch Times in a statement.

Democrat-aligned billionaires like Bill Gates have invested heavily in advanced nuclear, as have Republican-aligned billionaires like John Catsimatidis. Meanwhile, sustained, large-scale opposition to nuclear power from the left has mostly dissipated, at least in the United States. Environmentalists increasingly see it as an attractive source of carbon-free baseload power.

Physicist James Walker, CEO of the microreactor firm Nano Nuclear Energy Inc., pointed out that the ADVANCE Act of 2024, key legislation for the deployment of new reactor technologies, was backed by Republicans and Democrats alike. As part of the Fire Grants and Safety Act, it gained overwhelming support from both parties in the House of Representatives, where it passed 393 to 13, and in the Senate, where it passed 88 to 2.

A Nov. 12 policy blueprint from the Biden White House outlines a plan to triple the country’s nuclear energy capacity over the next quarter century.

It certainly appears that the outgoing administration and Democrat-led Senate are pro-nuclear. Yet, with Donald Trump’s reelection, “there also might be additional benefit,” Walker told The Epoch Times.

He hopes the new administration will spur domestic production of a fuel used by advanced nuclear reactors. Russia and China dominate the supply chain for that fuel, which is called high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU).

Earlier this year, the U.S. banned the importation of Russian uranium, with any waivers set to expire by 2028. In October, the Department of Energy awarded six companies contracts for HALEU production.

“I can’t see, even under the new administration, that relationship being remedied enough that we can go back to sourcing Russian weapons-grade material,” Walker said.

At a Nov. 21 Heritage Foundation roundtable on nuclear energy, Constellation Energy’s David Brown said that American firms involved in producing low-enriched uranium, also supplied by Russia and other countries, have generally set the end of this decade as their launch date, but progress has been slow.

Even amid the bipartisan push for advanced reactors, some scientists and activists worry HALEU is far more easily weaponized than low-enriched uranium, which has become more of a concern recently as the possibility of nuclear war lurches back into public discourse.

“The risk of nuclear war is currently higher than it has been since the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Matthew Bunn, a nuclear and energy policy analyst at the Harvard Kennedy School, told The Epoch Times via email.

“The acute issue is Iran, which is now closer to the edge of a nuclear weapons capability than ever before.”

‘We Need to Revolutionize How We Think’

Trump’s vision includes a new National Energy Council that, in his words, will cover “all forms of American energy” and blaze a trail to American energy dominance. Its prospective members include his pick for energy secretary, fracking innovator Chris Wright. Wright sits on the board of directors of a fission reactor company, Oklo Inc.

The council’s chair, likely Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, would also be part of the National Security Council.

Trump’s planned Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, will be led in part by businessman Vivek Ramaswamy. During his own presidential run, Ramaswamy called to eradicate the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or NRC.

He described the agency as “the damper on the revival of nuclear energy in the United States of America.”

Some other insiders have shared similar frustrations with the regulatory status quo.

“We need to revolutionize how we think, how we regulate,” said Jack Spencer, an energy and environmental policy researcher at the Heritage Foundation, during the Nov. 21 nuclear energy roundtable.

Doug Bernauer, the CEO of microreactor startup Radiant Nuclear, objected to the pace of reactor licensing in a Nov. 20 post on X.

“No new nuclear reactor design has been licensed in over 50 years in the US. … Will DOGE fix nuclear?” Bernauer wrote.

Mixed Reactions From Industry to DOGE

Some in the nuclear industry have reservations about DOGE.

John Kutsch, the leader of the Thorium Energy Alliance, hopes the administration makes its cuts carefully.

“There’s actual useful things the Department of Energy does,” he told The Epoch Times, citing the agency’s role in nuclear weapons management.

Kutsch believes the closure of the Bureau of Mines during the 1990s was a mistake that ultimately hampered American mining. He said he doesn’t want to see something similar happen again.

“We don’t have critical materials readily available in this country because we can’t open up a mine to save our lives,” he said.

Walker also sounded a note of caution about possible cuts.

“Downsizing something like the NRC might not inherently make it better, because they still will need a lot of people to do a lot of work,” the nuclear industry entrepreneur said.

Walker was cheerier about the prospect of using artificial intelligence to speed up licensing of new reactor designs, at least if such an approach proves technologically feasible.

“You could probably reduce the number of people by an order of magnitude,” he said.

Walker hopes that the administration can develop a better approach to regulating advanced reactors. The current framework, he said, is adapted to the large, light-water reactors currently operating on the U.S. grid.

DoE Destruction of Uranium-233 Worries Thorium Advocates

While Kutsch defended some aspects of the Department of Energy, he’s not happy with its approach to uranium-233, a uranium isotope that can be used in thorium-based nuclear energy production.

“This is what gets me mad about bureaucracies,” said Kutsch, whose organization in 2023 signed a memorandum of understanding with El Salvador.

Kirk Sorensen of Flibe Energy, a molten salt reactor company exploring thorium in one of its designs, described uranium-233 as “a marvelous pre-fuel” during the Heritage roundtable with Spencer and Brown.

The Department of Energy has started eliminating the U-233 stored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

“Originally created in the 1950s and 1960s for potential use in reactors, U-233 proved to be an unviable fuel source,” the Department of Energy stated in a June post on its disposition project webpage.

Sorensen said the department’s U-233 disposition “should be stopped immediately.”

Kutsch said much of that stored U-233 could be used in thorium-based molten salt reactors or in nuclear medicine.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) proposed bill, the Thorium Energy Security Act of 2022, aimed to facilitate U-233 storage and mandate reports on China’s thorium-based reactor research. It never moved out of committee.

President Bashar al-Assad has reportedly sent large reinforcements to the southern Aleppo area after Al-Qaeda linked insurgents’ shock offensive which captured the city. Assad said he will defend Syria’s stability and territorial integrity.

The London-based political opposition group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday that the total death toll from the fighting is over 400 people on both sides. The tally includes the deaths of 214 members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied factions which launched the assault.

And at least 137 pro-government forces and 61 civilians have been killed. The AFP has described that the military campaign launched out of Idlib is being coordinated from an operations room in Turkey.

AFP wrote on Friday that “Opposition sources in touch with Turkish intelligence said Turkey had given a green light to the offensive.” AFPs correspondent in HTS/AQ-held Idlib additionally reported that “The jihadists and their Turkey-backed allies took orders from a joint operations command.”

A fresh report in Israeli media has acknowledged that this is all about weakening the ‘Iran axis’:

But the primary reason for the success of the rebel offensive and the collapse of the regime forces is the effectiveness of Israel’s military operations against Hezbollah and Iran since October 8, 2023.

HTS had been building up its military capabilities for years in preparation for such an offensive.

“The group operates a professionally staffed military academy run by defectors from the Syrian military, and it has restructured its armed wing into a conventional armed force structure,” wrote Charles Lister, Syria expert at the Middle East Institute. “In recent years, it has also developed ‘special forces’ units dedicated to covert operations, lightning raids behind enemy lines, and nighttime operations.”

In prior years, any time an air and artillery campaign against Al-Qaeda held Idlib would ramp up, there would be an outcry from the West, and more condemnation of Damascus and Moscow, urging their militaries to halt efforts to take back Idlib.

Central Damascus. No “coup”. Calm and peaceful.#Syria will never fall pic.twitter.com/takewXzlG3

— Vanessa Beeley (@VanessaBeeley) December 1, 2024

According to more on the Israeli and Sunni Islamists’ efforts to roll back the pro-Tehran axis:

“The timing is not coincidental,” Carmit Valensi, head of the Northern Arena Program at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, told The Times of Israel.

“They identify well the critical, even historical, weakness that the ‘Resistance Axis,’ primarily Hezbollah and Iran, find themselves in,” she continued.

As for Iran, it says that it firmly supports Assad in a new statement. Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi said Sunday he will soon arrive in Damascus to deliver a strong message of support for Syria’s government and military, Iranian state media has said.

“I am going to Damascus to convey the message of the Islamic Republic to the Syrian government,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said. He pledged that Iran will “firmly support the Syrian government and army,” IRNA news agency said.

Iran is pointing the finger at Washington and Tel Aviv for this new jihadist offensive:

Araghchi again called the surprise rebel offensive a plot by the United States and Israel.

“The Syrian army will once again beat these terrorist groups as in the past,” the foreign minister added.

In the past couple days of Aleppo fighting, not only has the Islamic Republic’s consulate in the major northern city come under attack, but there have been reports that an Iranian general may have been killed.

“B-but we’re not ISIS or Al Nusra”… pic.twitter.com/TWdkYVjovN

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) December 1, 2024

The HTS-led coalition is attacking Kurdish groups in the environs of northern Aleppo as well. Currently there are reports the militants are reinforcing their positions near Hama, possibly poised to attack the central city next.

After years and years of crippling sanctions, the Syrian Army remains in a precarious position in terms of resources and logistics. “Outside the city of Hama, Syrian government military vehicles could be seen all over the roads, apparently abandoned by fleeing government troops after they ran out of fuel,” The New York Times writes Sunday.

* * *

As a reminder, amid this renewed conflict the United States still occupied large portions of Syria, and curiously the HTS/AQ militant groups are not attacking these US-occupied areas…

Why does the Western mainstream media never mention the American-occupied territories in Syria pic.twitter.com/4o6EZLiu55

— Richard (@ricwe123) October 5, 2024