The countdown begins this week for the momentous question facing Britain: whether to exit the European Union - the so-called Brexit. While the issue seems to be primarily one for British national interests, lurking in the background is a crucial geopolitical concern for the United States. The outcome of the British referendum on Europe could severely undermine Washington's global hegemonic ambitions and in particular its adversarial agenda towards Russia.

British Prime Minister David Cameron launched a diplomatic charm offensive only days after European Council President Donald Tusk published the outline of a deal to retain Britain's membership of the 28-nation EU bloc. That provisional deal was the product of months of negotiations between the London government and the EU establishment, aimed at giving Britain more national freedom from Brussels. Cameron contends that he has won enough concessions to bolster British sovereignty, and the Conservative government leader is now openly campaigning for continued membership of the EU on that basis.

Cameron needs the backing of other EU leaders to finalize the reform package that he and Tusk have negotiated. His first stops this week were in Poland and Denmark where newly elected EU skeptical governments are inclined to sympathize with British concerns for wresting more national freedoms within the bloc. It's not certain if an EU leaders' summit slated for February 18-19 will agree to the British premier's desired reforms. Some see Britain's sought-after concessions as undermining the whole concept of the EU on matters of free movement and workers' rights. Both Germany and France have said that they are not willing to keep Britain onboard «at any price» - indicating a limit to tolerance towards British concessions.

Attacks on civilian infrastructures and hospitals in northern Syria reportedly left some 50 people dead on Monday. While Turkey accused Russia of perpetrating a "war crime" on its border, a Syrian ambassador blamed the US-led coalition for the destruction.

The UN Secretary General office said that close to 50 people were killed in attacks in northern Syria as the Syrian army engages jihadist militants in fierce battles across the Aleppo and Idlib provinces.

"The secretary-general is deeply concerned by reports of missile attacks on at least five medical facilities and two schools in Aleppo and in Idlib, which killed close to 50 civilians, including children, and injuring many," said UN spokesman Farhan Haq.

Alexander Yakovenko, Russia's ambassador to Britain, dropped something of a bombshell on Monday, though one that has gone completely unnoticed.

In a piece in the print edition of the London Evening Standard defending Russian policy in Syria he made the following extraordinary disclosure:

"Last summer we were told by our Western partners that in October Damascus would fall to IS (ie. the Islamic State - AM).

What they were planning to do next we don't know. Probably, they would have ended up painting the extremists white and accepting them as a Sunni state straddling Iraq and Syria".

Can we please just dispense with the nonsense and talk about how things really are. The US-led NATO military alliance is at war with the world. And Russia is the main force holding this criminal organization at bay.

Listening to various Western political leaders at the recent Munich Security Conference is both laughable and cringe-making. We heard from the likes of US top diplomat John Kerry and British foreign secretary Philip Hammond holding forth on issues of international law and peace, while NATO's Jens Stoltenberg and General Philip Breedlove assured that there was no Cold War.

The EU's foreign affairs chief Federica Morgherini also made the stupendous denial that the world was not witnessing a new Cold War towards Russia, as did German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Who do these people think we are? If they are stupid enough to live in denial that's up to them. But surely the rest of the thinking human race can see the world for what it is: a place where the United States and its various allies are running amok, making a mockery of international law, waging wars, covertly and overtly, against anyone who stands in their way.

This is exactly the sordid scenario that Russian president Vladimir Putin warned about back in 2007 when he addressed the Munich conference. Putin said it would end in tears, from lawlessness and state-sponsored terrorism, instigated and justified by Western leaders who hypocritically speak as if they are paragons of virtue.

Syrian army units and paramilitary forces are reportedly moving into Raqqa province, seizing strategically important areas along the Salamiyah-Raqqa road which leads directly into the Islamic State stronghold.

On Sunday, Syrian government forces and Palestinian armed militia captured the strategically important Tal Masbah hilltop, the last entrenched Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS/ISIL) position. The fortified position guarded approaches to the Salamiyah-Raqqa highway, leading to the terror group's stronghold in the city of Raqqa, Al-Masdar news outlet reported, citing a military source. Later that day, the Syrian government army launched a massive assault on the village of Zakiyah and seized an important crossroads near the village, cutting IS's major supply route from Raqqa to nearby Hama province.

The Syrian government army's 555th Brigade, 4th Mechanized Division, "Desert Hawks" brigade and Golani regiment, as well as the pro-government Palestinian Liwaa Al-Quds militia (Jerusalem brigade) took part in both ground offensives. A source in the 555th brigade told Al-Masdar that IS militants entrenched at Tal Masbah hilltop were forced to flee northeast towards the desert on the Raqqa-Hama border, where an intense battle between the terror group and government forces is taking place.

International Military Review - Syria (Feb. 16)

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies are pushing into ISIS territory at an alarming, almost reckless speed. No wonder the Saudis are desperate to enter the fight:

Moments ago in the Al-Raqqa countryside, the Syrian Arab Army's 555th Brigade of the 4th Mechanized Division - in close coordination with the National Defense Forces (NDF), Liwaa Suqour Al-Sahra (Desert Hawks Brigade), Fouj Al-Joulan (Golani Regiment), and the pro-government Palestinian militia "Liwaa Al-Quds) - imposed full control over several hills surrounding the imperative village of Zakiyah along the Salamiyah-Raqqa Road.

According to a military source in the Al-Salamiyah District, the Syrian Armed Forces established control over several small hilltops that surround the village of Zakiyah in southern Al-Raqqa after a fierce battle with the so-called "Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham" (ISIS) this morning.

A map of the the SAA's advance:
Next stop: Raqqa

Meanwhile, Turkey continues to shell these very forces that are advancing towards Raqqa. Damascus has filed a formal complaint with the UN regarding Turkey's blatant act of aggression.

Yesterday we reported that the ECB has begun contemplating the death of the €500 EURO note, a fate which is now virtually assured for the one banknote which not only makes up 30% of the total European paper currency in circulation by value, but provides the best, most cost-efficient alternative (in terms of sheer bulk and storage costs) to Europe's tax on money known as NIRP.
That also explains why Mario Draghi is so intent on eradicating it first, then the €200 bill, then the €100 bill, and so on.

Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili, the commander of Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base, made the remarks during an interview with the Tasnim news agency on Sunday.

After praising the government and people of the Arab country for their five-year battle against foreign-backed Takfiri terrorism, he stressed that any military presence in Syria without the approval of Damascus would end in nothing but "defeat."

The remarks were made in the wake of reports that Turkey and Saudi Arabia were preparing to launch joint military operations on Syrian soil.
Instead of contemplating a ground presence in Syria, Esmaili noted, Riyadh should consider stopping atrocities in Yemen where over 8,200 people have been killed and some 16,000 more injured since March 26, 2015.

Russian warplanes have conducted 444 sorties, hitting 1,593 terrorist targets in six Syrian provinces in a week, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

"Warplanes of the Russian air group in the Syrian Arab Republic have conducted 444 sorties, hitting 1,593 terrorist targets in the provinces of Deir ez-Zor, Daraa, Homs, Homs, Latakia and Aleppo from February 10 to February 16," Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov.

The Syrian army liberated over 800 square kilometers and 73 villages from terrorists since the beginning of the Russian anti-terrorist campaign, the Russian general said.

The Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said that terrorists in Syria's Idlib and Aleppo continue to receive weapons and reinforcements through the Turkish border.