The US is deploying military forces to surround Syria

According to the Daily Intelligence Report (US) on December 8, while public opinion is concerned about intelligence reports that the Syrian government is preparing to use chemical weapons against its own people, the US government has begun deploying the navy and other forces off the coast and around Syria.

On December 5, the US Navy decided to dispatch the USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier strike group from the Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea near the Syrian coast; an amphibious assault group to the eastern Mediterranean including the USS Iwo Jima, USS New York and USS Gunston Hall with 2,500 US Marines. Thus, after deploying the two forces, the US now has 17 warships, 70 bombers and 10,000 soldiers stationed near Syria.

US aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower

In addition, the US has deployed the 39th Air Base Group of the Air Force at Türkiye's Incirlik base, plus tens of thousands of soldiers from ground units deployed in Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to be ready to launch a military strike against Syria.

Pentagon sources say a military intervention under the pretext of stopping Syria's chemical weapons would require about 75,000 troops.

Another threat to the Syrian regime is a direct military intervention by NATO. NATO governments are currently preparing to implement the December 5 decision of the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting to deploy Patriot missile batteries on the Turkish-Syrian border. Germany has decided to deploy about 400 troops, and the United States and the Netherlands have also deployed similar numbers to the area.

Although Türkiye says it needs the Patriot missiles to counter the threat of Syrian chemical weapons missiles being fired toward its border, the Patriot batteries could also be used to enforce a no-fly zone in northern Syria, allowing U.S.-backed rebels to consolidate control of territory and facilitate the establishment of a Western-backed government in Syria.

Speaking at a NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Washington and its allies of spreading rumors about the threat of chemical weapons. He said that immediately after receiving information about chemical weapons, the Russian Foreign Ministry conducted an investigation and received assurances that such a thing would not happen, and Russia shared this information with its American colleagues.

However, according to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Washington fears that the increasingly desperate Syrian regime may turn to chemical weapons or may loosen controls to allow chemical weapons to fall into the hands of terrorist groups currently operating in Syria.

For the first time, Mrs. Clinton's statement mentioned the real threat in Syria, which is that the rebel forces that the United States and its allies support could attack Syrian military facilities and seize chemical weapons.

Meanwhile, anonymous US officials said the US State Department is preparing to add the Syrian Islamist militant group "Jabhat al-Nusra", which is currently playing a leading role in the military campaign against the Government of Bashar al-Assad, to the list of foreign terrorist organizations.

According to recent reports, the al-Nusra group - which is linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist organization - currently has about 10,000 fighters, including many foreign Muslims who have secretly infiltrated Syrian territory.

The militant group is best equipped to wage a war of regime change and has recently seized two Syrian military bases. Qatar has been shipping much of its weapons.

Clearly, designating the al-Nusra militant group as a terrorist organization means Washington is publicly disassociating itself from the al-Qaeda elements that the US relied on to wage a sectarian civil war to overthrow the Assad regime.

One of the reasons the US designated al-Nusra as a terrorist group was to pave the way for the US and its allies to intervene more directly in the Syrian armed rebels, while distinguishing between "secular-democratic" elements and Islamist militants.

Such a move would likely coincide with a Friends of Syria conference to be held in Marrakech, Morocco, next week, during which Washington could join NATO allies in recognizing a rebel front: the National Coalition of Opposition Forces, a coalition of various forces under the direction of the US State Department./.

According to (Vietnam+) - DT