By Walid Shoebat (Shoebat Exclusive)
The mystery behind the United Arab Emirates pulling out of the war on ISIS and now returning back into battle could have more reasons than what circulates western press. Several Middle Eastern media released leaks from the Jordanian capital Amman explaining how the Jordanian plane was downed. Al-Kassasbeh who ended up becoming the first pilot POW and was later burned alive by ISIS was downed in Syria when the squadron was led by United Arab Emirates pilot Maryam Mansouri.
United Arab Emirates Air Force pilot Maryam Mansouri
United Arab Emirates Air Force pilot Maryam Mansouri
United Arab Emirates Air Force pilot Maryam Mansouri
The Jordanian military leaks said that the jet was first flying at high-altitude beyond ISIS’s reach when female pilot, Mansouri, ordered the Jordanian pilot Al-Kassasbeh to fly low to hit a site believed to be a stronghold for an ISIS leader were Chechen units equipped with sophisticated anti-aircraft Stinger missiles pinning Kasasbeh in a crossfire.
According to the source, Mansouri spotted the plane dropping did not give the coordinates of the fall to a band of paratroopers comprised of Americans and Jordanians who would have been able to save any pilot who parachutes in the battlefield. This despite that the Jordanian pilot communicated his location and managed to subtly change the parachute jump away from from enemy location landing in the river making it difficult to track him. According to the source, the pilot Kasasbeh remained in the river for more than an hour before he was arrested, a time more than enough to have the rescue team pull him out.
In fact, the Jordanian POW’s father, Al-Kassasbeh spoke out publiclly on the issue blaming Mansouri and the UAE:
Al-Kassasbeh’s father even went further to say that Mansouri shot his son’s jet.
This sheds more light as to the reasons that compounded as to why the UAE pulled out as a fallout between Jordan and the UAE over the downing of Kassasbeh’s jet.
To mend the relations between UAE and Jordan, Al-Kassasbeh’s father later recanted his statements and sources today show that the United Arab Emirates has resumed airstrikes according to senior State Department officials while sources from Jordan confirm that the UAE is stationing F-16s to Jordan for use on airstrikes which seems that Jordan requested a leadership role in the operation after the fiasco with Mansouri’s decision to send Al-Kassasbeh to his deadly fate.
Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan ordered the stationing of a UAE Air Force F-16 squadron in Jordan, the WAM news agency said Saturday, contradicting Western media reports the Gulf state had disengaged from the confrontation with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
According to WAM, the order was issued under the directives from UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan
As it seems, the horrific method of Al-Kassasbeh’s death has united the region to lay down their differences acknowledging that if ISIS is allowed to continue, they will all end up in a furnace which has cut down on the blame game.
The UAE claimed that it pulled out fearing for the safety of its air crews, the UAE raised concerns with Washington about its search-and-rescue resources in the region.
UAE representatives proposed that American forces deploy V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft to northern Iraq to be closer to any planes that go down, instead of in Kuwait.
V-22 Osprey
The Ospreys are considered useful for rescue missions as they can take off like helicopters but fly with the speed of a plane.
The blame game was switched when the UAE claimed that First Lieutenant Kassasbeh was reportedly seized by IS jihadists within minutes of his jet crashing near Raqqa, Syria. But the UAE said he was waiting for almost an hour for search and rescue and had the U.S. deployed the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, Kassasbeh could have been saved.
When all fails, it seems that the U.S. is being blamed. Even UAE officials questioned whether US rescue teams would have been able to reach the pilot even if there had been more time, administration officials told the New York Times.
The war, as Shoebat.com maintains, is between Islamists and Arab nationalists who see that strengthening the Arab tribes over Islamists is the key to defeat ISIS. The United Arab Emirates pulled out of U.S.-led air strikes on ISIS’s positions is partly because it thought they could not succeed without a push to arm Sunni Muslim tribes in Iraq.
The UAE was discontent with the coalition which has not kept its promise in supporting the Sunnis in Anbar, not preparing them, equipping them and arming them to take part in the war against ISIS.
Tribes in Iraq’s western Anbar province, which borders Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, are divided. Some have chosen to join ISIS while others are fighting against it. The fall of large parts of Anbar province to Islamic State poses a major security risks for its neighbors.
Not defeating ISIS is embarrassing, especially that ISIS argues that the United States includes more than 60 countries, carrying out various tasks, including military attacks, humanitarian support, propaganda and cracking down on Islamic State’s finances has not succeeded to finish ISIS. This created a huge argument for ISIS on the Arab street.
Washington says Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Bahrain have also participated in or supported air strikes in Syria. Australia, Britain, Canada and France have joined U.S. operations against Islamic State targets in Iraq. And ISIS says that all these and still, “Al-Khilafa Baqiyeah” (The Caliphate remains).
The key to defeat ISIS is to strengthen the Arab tribes against ISIS who were decimating tribal efforts in Iraq and Syria and is a reason that regional support for the coalition air campaign might be slipping. But with Kassasbeh’s death and Jordan’s lead on the war on ISIS with Jordan’s King Abdullah II could reignite a unified effort by Arab nationalists to defeat ISIS, that is if the U.S. is serious about it. As it seems, the Jordanian king is building his legacy while Obama still searches for one.
Long live the King.
SOURCES
Al-Arabiya