Turkey

As Turkey continues to build up its military presence on the Syrian border, Saudi Arabia have announced their plans to launch a ground operation in Syria alongside the the United States. Russia have accused both countries of using Syria as an excuse to wage a coordinated attack against Russia.  The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that the possibility of a large-scale war in the Middle East is almost inevitable now that Turkey and Saudi Arabia have entered the picture.

The deployment of Saudi jets and forces to Turkey’s İncirlik military base has prompted speculation of an imminent ground invasion of Syria. The Saudis say that Syrian President Assad must go and declare that they want to defeat ISIS, but what are they really doing in the region? The Independent reports: Confirmation of the Saudi deployment came from the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, and shows a calibrated policy by two states, who consider themselves to be heavyweights and who are both currently badly losing out in Syria.

It looks like a joint Turkish-Saudi assault on Syria may be imminent. Saudi Arabia has deployed military jets and personnel to Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base in the south of the country ahead of a possible ground invasion of Syria.

Should Turkey or Saudi Arabia attack Syrian forces they will be met with significant Russian Air Power, according to a report by Stratfor, the US-based intelligence think tank, often called the Shadow CIA. Sputnik reports: In its report, Stratfor points out that “when Turkey downed a Russian Su-24 warplane on November 24, it did not just sour relations between Ankara and Moscow: It gave Russia a reason to build up its air defense capabilities in Syria.” And build up they did.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened Europe that unless it provides Turkey more money to tackle the migrant crisis, Turkey would be opening the floodgates for migrants to enter Europe. “In the past we have stopped people at the gates to Europe, in Edirne [in northwest Turkey] we stopped their buses. This can happen once or twice, and then we’ll open the gates and wish them a safe journey,” Erdogan said during an address to the Young Businessmen Confederation of Turkey.