with troops , shops were closed , public services suspended . Meanwhile , labour strikes had all but halted the flow of oil , jeopardising a vital Western interest . Persuaded by Carter , Iran 's autocratic ruler , Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi , known as the Shah , had finally departed on a " vacation " abroad , leaving behind an unpopular prime minister and a military in disarray - a force of 400,000 men with heavy dependence on American arms and advice .
“ He sees China as a pretty likely source of that . ” Duterte ’s trip is the strongest hint yet of a stunning diplomatic volte - face towards China from the Philippines . In recent years the two countries repeatedly clashedconflict.attack.selfdirectedbattleover territorial disputes in the South China Sea , with Beijing reacting furiously in 2014 after Duterte ’s predecessor , Benigno Aquino , compared its activities in the region to Nazi Germany ’s expansionism . “ At what point do you say , ‘ Enough is enough ’ ? Well , the world has to say it – remember that the Sudetenland was given in an attempt to appease Hitler to prevent world war two , ” he told the New York Times .
The trouble began on Wednesday when , according to the UK - based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , Kurdish forces advanced on the pro - government National Defense Forces that controls portions of the city . When the NDF responded with arrests , the fighting took off . This is not the first time that Kurdish and government forces have clashedconflict.attack.selfdirectedbattlein Hasakah , which is divided among Kurds , Arabs , Aramaic - speaking Assyrians , and a small number of Armenians . But what makes the latest confrontation so serious is that the U.S. quickly upped ante by scrambling two F-22 fighters to intercept a pair of Syrian Su-24s bombing Kurdish positions . NBC News reported that the jets came within a mile of one another on Thursday and were in visual contact before the Syrian aircraft left the scene .