Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed asked Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to violate the cease-fire agreement in Idlib, in order to implicate Turkish forces and distract them from the Battle of Tripoli.

David Hurst says in a report published by the British Middle East Eye website, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed is making desperate and continuous attempts to push Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad towards violating the cease-fire with the rebels supported by Turkey's Idlib province.

Hurst adds that in recent months, Assad's forces - with the support of Russian aviation - have made significant gains in the face of rebel brigades in Idlib Governorate, northwestern Syria, where they have killed hundreds and forced millions of civilians to flee to the Turkish border.

The Turkish military forces had intervened in February to help balance the conflict, until the cycle of violence was halted after a Russian-brokered truce was reached last month.

But Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, who then tried to block the ceasefire agreement between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has since repeated his contacts with Bashar al-Assad, and urged him to relaunch his military operation.

During the days leading up to the signing of the ceasefire that took place last March 5 during a 4.5-hour meeting in the Kremlin, Ibn Zayed sent his envoy Ali al-Shamsi - his brother's deputy - and his advisor for security affairs, Tahnoun bin Zayed, to negotiate an agreement with Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

According to sources familiar with the plans of Ibn Zayed, the crown prince agreed to pay Assad $ 3 billion to relaunch the military attack against Idlib, which is the last fortress of the revolutionaries, and it was assumed that one billion of this amount would be paid before the end of last March. With the truce officially announced, $ 250 million had already been paid in advance.

This agreement was negotiated in the utmost secrecy, as Abu Dhabi was especially eager for the Americans not to hear anything about these efforts, as Washington had supported Turkish military moves to stand against the Assad forces in Idlib, and earlier expressed its anger at me Abu Dhabi era, after its release of $ 700 million in frozen Iranian assets last October.

"During the Idlib confrontations, Al-Shamsi met Bashar Al-Assad and asked him not to reach any agreement with Erdogan on the ceasefire ... This happened before Erdogan's meeting with Putin, and Assad replied that he needed financial support," the author quoted a high-ranking source as saying.

The same source adds, "Asad mentioned that Iran has stopped paying money because it does not have the liquidity, and the Russians are not paying anyway, and therefore he requested $ 5 billion in direct support to Syria, and in the end it was agreed to $ 3 billion, to be paid one billion One before the end of March. "

When Assad began to re-equip his forces to push them toward the sites of Turkey in Idlib, the Russians, who were closely following the military movements on the ground, were able to discover this scheme.

The same source reports that Putin was angry as a result, and that he sent his Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu on an unprogrammed visit to Damascus, in order to prevent the Syrian regime from relaunching the attack.

"The message Shoigu delivered was clear: We don't want you to start this military offensive again ... Russia wants the ceasefire agreement to continue," said the source, but at that time the UAE had already paid 250 million dollars to Damascus.

The writer notes that a high-ranking Turkish official confirmed that the United Arab Emirates made this offer to the Syrian government, and said, "All I can say is that the content of this report is correct."

The writer quotes well-informed sources as saying that Mohammed bin Zayed insisted on his attempts to persuade Assad to violate the cease-fire, even after Sergey Shoyego's visit. A second batch of one billion dollars has been sent to Damascus.

The author explains that the motives that cause the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi to pay money to Assad in order to re-launch his attack are divided into two parts:

First - Abu Dhabi wanted to implicate the Turkish army in a costly war in northwestern Syria. Ankara had launched its fourth military operation in the country, after the regime forces killed 34 Turkish soldiers on February 27.

Second - Ibn Zayed wanted to drain the resources of the Turkish army and impede Erdogan's success in defending the Libyan capital, Tripoli, against the attacks of the forces of retired Major General Khalifa Hifter, as Ankara recently intervened to help the internationally recognized national reconciliation government.

The writer says that once Sergei Shoigu crushed the Emirati attempts to violate the ceasefire, Muhammad bin Zayed became very concerned about the leak of this scheme to the Americans, and because of that he needed a novel to cover up the process of paying money to Damascus, and to continue his efforts to persuade the Syrian regime to breach the agreement .

According to a high-ranking source, the crown prince contacted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with the UAE feeling very concerned about the leaking of this news, especially after the uproar that was raised in Washington following the release of the frozen Iranian assets.

David Hurst says that after news emerged about this call between the two parties, Ibn Zayed published a tweet saying, "I assured him of the UAE's support and assistance to the brotherly Syrian people in these exceptional circumstances ... Human solidarity in times of adversity is above all else, and brotherly Arab Syria will not You remain alone in these critical circumstances. "

The writer pointed out that the warming relations between the UAE and the Syrian regime have become open for some time. Although the Emiratis had supported the Syrian opposition at the outbreak of the revolution in 2011, during the past year they reopened their embassy in Damascus and made efforts to restore relations between the two parties.

Several sources confirm that one of the motives behind the desire of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi to implicate the Turkish army in Idlib is the situation in Libya. The attack by Haftar forces on Tripoli with Emirati support has stalled since Ankara intervened and deployed drones, soldiers and Syrian fighters.

But for Putin, who also supports Haftar against the National Accord government in Tripoli, the strategic alliance between Russia and Turkey is more important than all other considerations, so maintaining the ceasefire in Idlib was more important.

The writer concludes that Mohamed bin Zayed found himself in the mess of making it with his hands, and he desperately tries to get rid of it.