Russian failure in Idlib, Turkey's crises recall memory of Ottoman Empire's collapse

This week, Arab newspapers reported the failure of the regime's forces and Russia to achieve a military victory in Idlib and its environs, as well as European pressure and sanctions on Turkey and tension in the Gulf region.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat: "faint" campaign in northern Syria reveals force limit of the Syrian, Russian air

In this context, al-Sharq al-Awsat wrote, "Russian aircraft carried out several air strikes on the outskirts of the province of Hama, where it launched several raids on the town of Kafr Zeita and the village of Zakat North Hama, Tal Tal village north-west of the city, after the relative calm of the air strikes since Sunday evening, while the regime continued its ground bombardment on «De-escalation area», and the number of the shells and missiles launched rose to at least 150 by the regime since the morning,"

The newspaper continues: "Syrian forces have so far failed to make further progress within Idlib," said Sam Heller, an expert on the Syrian issue at the International Crisis Group. "It does not mean that it cannot eventually win at the country level, but reveals that military victory depends on developments on the political level, which are greater than Syria's».

Al-Arab: Does Iran stand behind the guerrilla war in the Syrian south?

The issue of guerrilla warfare and assassinations in southern Syria and its relation to the Russian-Iranian rivalry is at the forefront. "The government and Russian forces are facing a guerrilla war in southern Syria by unidentified elements, amid questions about who can stand behind them, especially since the latter is facing a Russian campaign to distance it from the region in the framework of consolidating understandings with the American and Israeli sides. "

Al-Arab: Turkey's exclusion from F-35 project shakes its relationship with NATO

"Turkey's policy of breaking arm, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has bet on Washington's challenge, has failed, and instead of strengthening its role by purchasing the S-400 missile system, Ankara has found itself taking the first step outside NATO which fate depends on an alliance with Moscow, through the Russian President Vladimir Putin to employ Ankara in the liquidation of old accounts with Washington and behind it NATO. "

"Washington's move in this step would put Turkey on a gradual exit path from NATO," the newspaper said.

"The exclusion of Turkey from the F-35 project is a technical procedure, but it paints a picture of the strategic and political shift in the relationship between Turkey and the United States," military experts say.

Al-Sharq Al-Awsat: Erbil attack increases tension between Washington, Ankara

Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper, in turn, dealt with the repercussions of the attack on the Turkish diplomats in Hewler on the relationship between Washington and Ankara and quoted Western diplomatic sources as saying that "the killing of the Turkish Deputy Consul in Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan will increase tension between America and Turkey before meetings between the two countries in Ankara to discuss the establishment of a "safe area" in eastern Syria.

Al-Arab: Erdogan repeats the history of the Ottomans in expansion, collapse

As for the successive crises in Turkey, Al-Arab newspaper wrote, "the base of internal discontent has begun to expand in Turkey from the policies of the Turkish president, who lives according to a number of critics, in an age other than this era."

Experts liken what happens in Turkey to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The Turks look cautiously at Erdogan's policies, which remind them of a historic period in which their country was the cause of conflict between many countries, including Britain, France and Russia, to share their wealth. Today, the situation is not different in some respects, especially that Turkey's relations in the past period have seen ebb and flow with the countries that bet on the alliance with them today, especially Russia.

Al-Sharq Al-Awsat: Iran continues to escalate; detains a British tanker

Iran has continued to escalate as it detained a British oil tanker and stopped another for hours, in response to the detention of her carrier «Grace 1» in Gibraltar on the fourth of this month. The Revolutionary Guards announced that they "confiscated" the British oil tanker "Stena Empero" as it crossed the Straits of Hormuz, for its "lack of respect for international maritime law."