Will Saudi and Turkish Troops Invade Syria? China Power in Mideast

Turkey has massed ground forces on its border with Syria and issued a call for other Sunni Moslem countries to join it in an invasion of that country, as Russian and Iranian supported forces of the Assad regime advanced on rebel held areas close to the Turkish frontier. Kurdish forces, which Turkey considers hostile despite their support from the US, have also made advances in the area even as Turkey has continued cross-border artillery attacks on them.

The UN and Western governments this week condemned Russia’s fierce bombing campaign against rebel positions near the city of Aleppo which apparently killed large numbers of civilians. Also, ground troops from Turkey and Saudi Arabia appeared poised to invade Syria to fight against the Assad regime and its Iranian and Russian supporters while Turkish forces shelled Kurdish forces in northern Syria even as an internationally mediated cease-fire was set to begin.

History was made in the Iranian capital of Teheran on Monday when a train from China arrived loaded with goods in a dramatic statement that economic sanctions have ended and a new era of overland trade between China and Iran has begun. Noting that the train made the trip in half the time a ship would need to travel from Shanghai to the Iranian Port of Bandar Abbas, officials said it symbolized the re-opening of the ancient “Silk Road” overland trade routes and ushered in a new era when sea-borne trade, dominated for centuries by the West, would no longer be the key to the economic power.