A quick glance at a map of US military bases in the Middle East will immediately tell you that Washington's friends in the region are crowned heads. The Emirs of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and UAE. The Saudi king in Riyad and the Hashemite king of Jordan.

Meanwhile its historic chosen enemies in the Arab world have been secularist Arab nationalist regimes. Nasser in Egypt, Hussein in Iraq, Gaddafi in Libya, Assads in Syria.

That is seemingly counter-intuitive given the extreme contrast between American domestic system and those of Arab monarchies. Sectarian, clanish and highly ordered and hierarchical they couldn't be farther from the professed American ideal of opportunity, equality and liberty.

"This is the beginning of the end of jihadi presence in Aleppo. After 4 years of war and terror, people can finally see the end in sight."

— Edward Dark, Twitter, Moon of Alabama

A last ditch effort to stop a Russian-led military offensive in northern Syria ended in failure on Wednesday when the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) backed by the National Defense Forces (NDF) and heavy Russian air cover broke a 40-month siege on the villages of Nubl and al-Zahra in northwestern Aleppo province. The Obama administration had hoped that it could forestall the onslaught by cobbling together an eleventh-hour ceasefire agreement at the Geneva peace talks. But when the news that Syrian armored units had crashed through al Nusra's defenses and forced the jihadists to retreat, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura suspended the negotiations tacitly acknowledging that the mission had failed.

"I have indicated from the first day that I won't talk for the sake of talking," the envoy told reporters, saying he needed immediate help from international backers led by the United States and Russia, which are supporting opposite sides of a war that has also drawn in regional powers." (Reuters) De Mistura then announced a "temporary pause" in the stillborn negotiations which had only formally begun just hours earlier. Developments on the battlefield had convinced the Italian-Swedish diplomat that it was pointless to continue while government forces were effecting a solution through military means.

Russia Accuses Turkey of Preparing to Invade Syria

The Russian military said Thursday that it has "reasonable grounds" to suspect that Turkey is making intensive preparations for a military invasion of neighboring Syria.

Images of a checkpoint on the border between the Turkish town of Reyhanli and the town of Sarmada in Syrian taken in late October and late January show a buildup of transportation infrastructure that could be used for moving in troops, ammunition and weapons, spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in an English-language written statement.

He said these were among growing signs of "hidden preparation of the Turkish armed forces for active actions on the territory of Syria.
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A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said the ministry would have no immediate comment.

The Russian high command press briefing (vid with English subtitles) includes the pictures of the border post.

Turkey yesterday prohibited a Russian reconnaissance "Open Skies Treaty" flight over the Turkish-Syrian border zone. There are dozens such flights per year over Russia by NATO and over NATO countries by Russia. This is to my knowledge the first time such a flight, which had earlier been requested and accepted, is blocked by the guest country.

On the eve of the anniversary of a major nuclear arms reduction treaty, the United States has invited Russia to restart talks on further reductions to nuclear arsenals. Washington and Moscow finalized New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) five years ago. The treaty was signed on April 8, 2010, but entered into force on February 5, 2011.

On Friday, US National Security Advisor Susan Rice called on Russia to take the next step. "(We) continue to call on Russia to answer the president's invitation five years ago to begin talks on further reductions to our nuclear arsenals," Rice said.

Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday that Moscow plans to further implement New START. "The implementation of the provisions of the treaty is an example of Russia's strict compliance with its international obligations in the sphere of non-proliferation and arms control," the statement read. The ministry stated that the agreement "is an important factor in the strengthening of international security and stability," and provides "adequate transparency in the military-strategic relations between our countries."

Under terms of the treaty, the US and Russia each can have 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed delivery vehicles. But the treaty has not been fully implemented yet. Nearly 26 years after the end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, Washington and Moscow reportedly still have some 2,000 atomic weapons ready to fly at a moment's notice to destroy each other. And this state of alert is now causing new concerns that the lack of trust between Washington and Moscow has significantly increased the risk of a miscalculation that could lead to a nuclear disaster.

Media report that "the Geneva Conference on Syria announced that it has been postponed til February 25th".

The pro-government Russian media often explain the failure of the talks in Geneva by the success of the military intervention of Russia enabling the advance of the Syrian army.

Personally, I've paid attention to the fact that the delegation of 'opposition' forces, before coming to Geneva, spent a week in Saudi Arabia being coached on how to behave.

Since 2011 the United States has wanted to deploy ground troops to Syria to secure its position there and vanquish the sovereign government of President Bashar al-Assad. Now it is encouraging Saudi Arabia to deploy ground troops to Syria to accomplish its mission, an American political analyst says.

Dennis Etler, a professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Friday, after US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter welcomed Saudi Arabia's offer of troop deployment to Syria. On Thursday, Carter welcomed the Saudi offer to participate in any ground operations in Syria, launched by a US-led coalition claiming to be fighting against Daesh terrorists in the Middle East.

US seeks to replace Assad with a puppet

"It is becoming clearer by the day that the superpower contention in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is becoming more and more acute. Since the emergence of ISIL a couple of years ago, armed, trained and funded by the US through its proxies, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Israel, the US has banked on Takfiri terrorists to serve as stormtroopers in its campaign to oust Syrian President Bashir al-Assad and replace him with a compliant US puppet," Professor Etler said. "The so far successful military intervention by Russia, at the request of the Syrian government, into the ongoing civil war, has however turned the tide of battle in favor of the Syrian Arab Army and thrown a wild-card into the conflict that the US never anticipated," he added.

The talks on the Syrian settlement in Geneva have taken a turn that could have been easily predicted. After the start of negotiations under the authority of the UN, launched on February 4 under an extensive amount of pressure from Washington, they were suddenly disrupted. The official statement reads that the talks have been delayed for 3 weeks, but it makes little to no difference. The delegation representing the Syrian opposition announced that Russia's air strikes in Syria are undermining efforts by the international community aimed at finding a solution to the Syrian conflict. This was announced by the head of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) Salim al-Muslat, the committee which was formed in the Saudi capital. The talks that the United Nations special envoy for the Syria crisis Staffan de Mistura has been desperately trying to launch since February 1, gained no momentum whatsoever. Not a single step towards a compromise has been made so far.

Out of the two meetings that were scheduled within the framework of the negotiations, only a single one actually took place, and it was the meeting with the Syrian government representatives. The delegation of the HNC failed to arrive at the Palais des Nations. In turn, the current Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations Bashar Jaafari said that the announcement made by Staffan de Mistura at the start of negotiations was nothing but his "personal assessment", while all discussions are still in the preparatory stage. Bashar Jaafari told reporters that, just like two years ago, at the Geneva-2 negotiations which also failed, Damascus insists on the fundamental importance of the question regarding the fight against terrorism. He said that the opposition has not submitted the lists of its delegates yet.

In turn, the High Negotiations Committee representatives announced that the provisions of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254 should be fulfilled before negotiations even start. First of all, the opposition demands to address three main issues - to provide access to besieged cities, to stop attacks on civilians and to release women and children from prisons. Moreover, Salim al-Muslat accused Russia of making attempts to disrupt the negotiations by carrying on its air assault operations in Syria. According to the head of the HNC, ever since February 1 there's been massive killings in Syria "but nobody does anything about it." He said that since last Monday Russian warplanes carried out more that 270 sorties in Syria that allegedly resulted in casualties among the civilian population. However, Moscow still has not confirmed these allegations.

A Russian deputy has warned Saudi Arabia that any military operation in Syria without the Damascus government's consent amounts to a declaration of war. "Syria has to give official consent, to invite, otherwise it will be a war. The same applies to international law," Pavel Krasheninnikov, the head of the State Duma committee, told Interfax on Friday.

Krasheninnikov said that, by promising a ground operation in Syria, Riyadh now "intends to send troops to the territory of a sovereign state essentially without declaring a war." Saudi Arabia on Thursday voiced readiness to participate in any ground operations in Syria if the US-led coalition allegedly targeting terrorists decides to start such operations.

US State Department spokesman John Kirby also welcomed the Saudi decision.

Saudi Arabia is a member of the so-called US-led coalition that has been conducting air raids against what are claimed to be the Daesh terrorists inside Syria without any authorization from the Syrian government or a UN mandate since September 2014.

The US-led strikes have on many occasions targeted infrastructures and left many civilians dead. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said during an interview in March 2015 that the US-led military campaign does not aim to "do away" with the terror group.

Washington and its regional allies, including Turkey and Saudi Arabia, have been backing militants fighting against the Syrian government and people. Since the Syria conflict started in 2011, they have been providing military and financial aid to the militants who are accused of widespread war crimes and crimes against civilians.

It's a bad time to be a "moderate" in Syria: Even the Washington Post is now reporting that Al-Nusra and other freedom-loving moderate groups are losing the war. As the SAA closes in on Aleppo, Russia is paving the way for a new offensive in northern Homs. And by "paving the way", we really mean "36 hours of continuous airstrikes":

For 36 straight hours, the Russian Air Force has pulverized the Islamist rebel defenses in northern Homs, as the Syrian Arab Army's 47th Brigade of the 11th Tank Division and the National Defense Forces (NDF) prepare to strike the imperative villages of Harbinifseh and Kisseen that are located along the Orontes River.

According to a senior officer from the Syrian Arab Army, the Russian Air Force's powerful airstrikes over northern Homs are part of the largest aerial campaign launched by the Russian Federation since the advent of their participation in the Syrian Conflict.

As Turkish President Erdogan continues his five-day tour across South America, Korkut Boratav, a notable economist and foreign relations expert, told Spuntik about the political and economic goals of this voyage.

Boratav argues that by touring Chile, Peru and Ecuador, Erdogan seeks to study the concept of establishing a more powerful presidency, and hopes to eventually implement what he learns at home.