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Charles Lister Profile picture
Charles Lister
@Charles_Lister
Director of @MEI_Syria & @MEI_CTE at @MiddleEastInst. Founder https://t.co/QX1KDP0vBO. Sanctioned by Russia, PNG’d by Syria & Iran & wanted by ISIS & AQ.
Sep 21, 2018 • 10 tweets • 15 min read
My goodness: here's a prime example of policy advocacy on #Syria based either on ignorance, or [hopefully not] malign intent.

This is *riddled* with inaccuracy & misinformation.

@steelejourno says the West should force an opposition surrender in #Syria:

theguardian.com/commentisfree/… @steelejourno #pt: @steelejourno says the US, UK & #France are “less honorable” in seeking to delay #Syria & #Russia’s “success” in regaining territory.

- They seek to enable a meaningful political process, in which there’s an opposition entity to sit at the table. I’d say that is honorable.
Sep 20, 2018 • 5 tweets • 7 min read
Absolutely extraordinary.

#Syria’s air defense systems have no way to determine “friend” from “foe.” #Russia doesn’t export that tech.

Within a complex & unpredictable environment, that raises the risk to civilian aircraft
significantly. #Israel says #Syria’s air defense fired “dozens” of anti-aircraft missiles from several batteries across the country over the space of 40-mins… *after* #IAF planes had returned to #Israel.

One took down #Russia’s IL-20.

timesofisrael.com/syria-fired-mi…
Sep 17, 2018 • 7 tweets • 10 min read
BREAKING - Likely #Israel airstrikes just hit a scientific research center - reportedly linked to the SSRC - in #Latakia.

#Assad regime air defenses were allegedly activated in multiple provinces: #Latakia, #Tartus, #Homs & #Hama. Mabrouk #Assad - your invincible air defenses shot down an aircraft!

... a #Russia IL-20 reconnaissance plane was shot down over #Syria tonight - amid #Israel airstrikes in #Latakia.

#OwnGoal

Aug 22, 2018 • 4 tweets • 7 min read
Fascinating work by @HaidHaid22 - looking at initiatives (or a lack, thereof) by the #SDF & the #FSA to reconcile/rehabilitate/reintegrate #ISIS detainees in northern #Syria.

Really important backgrounder:

icsr.info/2018/08/20/rei… @HaidHaid22 #pt: According to @HaidHaid22’s work for @ICSR_Centre, one’s decision to join #ISIS in #Syria was driven primarily by x4 factors:

1. Financial benefits
2. Protection
3. Military capacity
4. Ideology

Less than 20% of recruits joined for ideological reasons.
Aug 20, 2018 • 4 tweets • 7 min read
Here, a @UKLabour MP praises a notorious conspiracist who says meeting Bashar al-#Assad was her "proudest" moment.

She's justified incendiary weapons & barrel bombs on civilian targets; suggested 9/11 was a false flag; Zionists rule #France & the #CharlieHebdo attack was fake. @UKLabour Extraordinary.

@UU_University invited notorious conspiracist Vanessa Beeley to lecture on “War Reporting.”

Her claims were so outlandish, the students walked out & boycotted the course, calling it “a propaganda camp.”

news.postimees.ee/4511277/top-un…

(PS - Look at the pictured slide)
Aug 17, 2018 • 5 tweets • 5 min read
Images of White Helmets weeding and cleaning the exterior of a Church in #Idlib appear to have terrified the pro-#Assad community.

Nothing short of hysteria coming from the regime loyalist crowd over the last 12hrs. #Syria This “veteran correspondent” is losing it.

#Syria #Idlib
Aug 10, 2018 • 83 tweets • 145 min read
Preparations appear to be underway for a pro-#Assad offensive on #Idlib.

12hrs of on/off air & artillery strikes vs. southeastern & western #Idlib & northern #Hama - see marks on map (original by @ETANA_Syria + my additions).

+ multiple large pro-regime convoys moving north. @ETANA_Syria #pt: If/when any major military campaign gets underway, expect the #Assad regime (+ #Russia & #Iran-backed militias) to focus on these 2 fronts:

1) West #Idlib (Jisr al-Shughour)
2) N. #Hama/#SE #Idlib (Latamineh, Khan Sheikhoun, Kafrazita)

-> a gradual push ‘inland’ & north.
Aug 1, 2018 • 4 tweets • 5 min read
What is happening to some parts of #America? I mean seriously…

An online conspiracy theory known as “QAnon”, which is pushing dangerous disinformation on internet messaging boards, is gripping #Trump supporters.

These people are worse than clueless.

washingtonpost.com/news/morning-m… #pt: Read this explainer on the @washingtonpost - it’s truly bizarre.

And people are believing this -- swallowing it hook, line & sinker.
Jul 30, 2018 • 4 tweets • 5 min read
This, ladies & gentlemen, is what happens when one writes about something one knows literally nothing about.

Complete nonsense, interspersed with lies & conspiracy theories made popular by far-left #Assad supporters & #Russia.

How utterly shameful. #Syria Civil Defense = volunteer rescue service, whose members also provide medical care, de-mining, infrastructure repair & children’s safety education.

They've operated anywhere they can in opposition areas - to save lives & keep people safe.

= 114,000+ people saved till now.
Jul 27, 2018 • 5 tweets • 7 min read
Robert Fisk’s latest “EXCLUSIVE” reveals just how little he knows about #Syria's opposition, its foreign relations & support networks.

Gloss over inaccuracies & he’s “revealed” what we've known for yrs - #Saudi backed the multilateral MOC, arming #FSA.
independent.co.uk/voices/syria-w… #pt: #Saudi was a principle backer of the MOC; a multilateral structure created to centrally coordinate armed support to [extensively] pre-vetted #FSA groups in northern #Syria.

120mm M75 mortars were one of many systems provided through MOC channels - inc. to units in #Aleppo.
Jul 27, 2018 • 4 tweets • 7 min read
Extraordinary report on #ISIS’s attack on Suweida by @kshaheen - the details are chilling.

- 12hr attack from x3 axes
- Bedouin acted as #ISIS guides
- #ISIS knocked on doors, often calling out people by name
- #ISIS left single survivors as witnesses

theguardian.com/world/2018/jul… @kshaheen #ISIS is thought to have taken many prisoners - male, female & allegedly also children - during its attack in #Suwaida.

Hostage demands have reportedly been made, involving female prisoners.

Some local #Druze militiamen were beheaded already:
Jul 23, 2018 • 8 tweets • 16 min read
Extraordinary.

Acc. to @BarakRavid sources, #Russia has told #Israel that it'll seek to force #Iran 100km away from #Israeli-held 1974 #Golan line.

That means all territory west of the red line on map (L).

= A truly wild fantasy.

Look where #Iran is now (R); per @ETANA_Syria: @BarakRavid @ETANA_Syria #Israel has shot down an #Assad regime Sukhoi fighter jet, which took off from T4 Airbase & flew 2km into Israeli airspace.

x2 Patriot SAM missiles were used & multiple messages sent in multiple languages prior to shoot-down.

Another example of #Russia’s value in de-escalation.
Jul 16, 2018 • 5 tweets • 11 min read
Amb. Fred Hof (@FredericHof) says #Trump enters into the #Helsinki summit with #Putin with some real leverage on #Syria -- he can increase the chances of a genuine ceasefire & real peace "only if he realizes…”

atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atla… @FredericHof Ahead of the planned #Trump-#Putin summit in #Helsinki, I spoke with @fordrs58 & @j_feierstein about #Syria -- Are we at the end of the conflict?

The latest @MiddleEastInst podcast, here:
Jul 5, 2018 • 26 tweets • 34 min read
Amid #Assad regime offensive in south #Syria, worth bearing in mind its continued bombing of areas in #Idlib - also under a so-called “de-escalation zone.”

Having watched the southern zone dissolved w/o response from #Jordan or #Israel, #Turkey’s now warning #Idlib = “red line." #Turkey has deployed its own armed forces to x12 “observation posts” fencing in opposition areas & enforcing de-escalation.

#Russia seems invested in stability in #Idlib - but for how long?

After #Deraa, will #Assad & #Iran destroy the last remaining “de-escalation zone”?
Jun 29, 2018 • 5 tweets • 9 min read
Make no mistake - the #ISIS problem is a long, long way from going away, in both #Syria & #Iraq.

Raids, ambushes, assassinations, IEDs, kidnappings, extortion/intimidation etc. It’s all continuing, while everyone proclaims “victory” and the fight [near] “over." #ISIS is back to bombings, assassinations, kidnappings across #Diyala, #Kirkuk & Salah ad Din - in scenes eerily reminiscent of 2011-2014.

This has been building for weeks, but thanks @LizSly for bringing more attention - the fight is **far** from over.

wapo.st/2mrXJPQ?tid=ss…
Jun 27, 2018 • 4 tweets • 7 min read
Absolutely superb work by @nytimes, @bellingcat & @ForensicArchi - exposing clear evidence that #Assad regime was responsible for the April 7 chemical attack in #Douma.

The munition used matched many previous CW attacks.

Watch this.
Bookmark it.

nytimes.com/interactive/20… NEW - @OPCW report confirms that #Chlorine was found at the site of the April 7 attack in #Douma, aligning closely with previous investigations.

Note: #Russia said no chemicals were used & it was a false flag attack (mutually contradictory, but hey...)

opcw.org/news/article/o…
Jun 27, 2018 • 23 tweets • 52 min read
As expected, the #Assad regime - supported by #Russia & yes, #Iran-backed militias - is well into a pre-planned offensive vs. opposition-held areas in S/SW #Syria.

= Violating de-escalation zone agreement & with little/no word/response from the opposition’s foreign backers. #pt: At least one pro-#Assad Shia militia group overtly backed by #Iran/#IRGC -- Liwa Zulfiqar -- has publicly proclaimed its ongoing role in the offensive in south #Syria.

No word or response from #Israel, as yet.

[via @hadialbahra]
Jun 8, 2018 • 7 tweets • 9 min read
It’s extraordinary just how much BS gets created in people’s minds.

I never once expressed “support” for #Turkey’s #Afrin operation.

- Did I say it was inevitable? Yes.
- Did I observe it & comment on its advance vis-a-vis broader #Syria dynamics (i.e. my job)? Yes. My critique has always been about the imbalance/s created in northern #Syria by U.S. counter-#ISIS policy.

The #YPG was/is the #PKK - all U.S. officials admit that in private. That didn’t necessarily have to preclude working with them, but ignoring it caused big, big problems.
Jun 8, 2018 • 5 tweets • 6 min read
U.S. counter-#ISIS strategy & its insistence on ignoring/denying the #YPG’s roots helped give birth to problems like #Afrin today.

Everything was driven by short-term objectives, with their long-term implications constantly swept aside as inconvenient distractions.

Now look. Was the U.S. right [at the time] to partner with the #YPG? Absolutely.

Were sufficient, honest efforts put in place to balance the consequences of working with the #YPG? No.

The result = a profound imbalance & a security challenge that #Turkey was always going to hit back at.
Jun 5, 2018 • 5 tweets • 8 min read
“War of Annihiliation”

- @amnesty says there’s prima facie evidence that the U.S.-led campaign on #ISIS-held #Raqqa killed 100s of civilians & violated international humanitarian law.

Grim reading.

amnesty.org/download/Docum… @amnesty * @CJTFOIR’s Lt. Gen. Townsend - “There's never been a more precise air campaign in the history of armed conflict.”

* Sgt. Maj. John Troxell - "In 5 months [we] fired 30,000 artillery rounds on #ISIS targets”

= 200 rounds/day

A U.S. M777 howitzer has 100 meter margin of error.
Apr 9, 2018 • 21 tweets • 19 min read
#Russia's really going for it at UNSC today: Amb. Nebenzia going all-out tinfoil hat, contradicting himself in rapid time.

- In the space of seconds, he says (1) the #Douma incident was a false-flag chemical attack by rebels & then says (2) there was no chemical attack at all. U.S. Amb. to UN @nikkihaley:

- I could hold up pictures of babies lying dead next to their mothers, in their diapers, all lying together, dead, ashen blue, open eyes & lifeless, white foam bubbling from their mouths & noses… the very definition of innocent, hiding in basements.