Putin received Assad at the Kremlin on Tuesday evening and underlined on Thursday that he considers the Syrian president and his government to be “fully legitimate”. It seems that talk about transition and elections may be an impractical compromise.
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Hosting a delegation of Russian parliamentarians in Damascus on Sunday, Mr Assad expressed his gratitude for Moscow’s support and said eliminating “terrorist” groups would resolve Syria’s problems. Drawing the FSA (let alone ISIS, which will presumably sneer at the idea) into protracted negotiations over election rules can only lessen the opposition’s will. In the highly unlikely event elections were actually held, who doubts that Assad’s henchmen would deliver his votes with even more predictability and efficiency than America’s urban political machines?
Thus, the presence of radical Jihadist groups (particularly ISIS) has created a complicated triangle of hostility among the various actors: ISIS is opposed to Assad and his allies, Assad and his allies are opposed to ISIS and the other rebel groups, and the rebel groups are opposed to Assad, but are also backed by an worldwide coalition led by the United States which primarily seeks to defeat ISIS. Parliament’s term expires in May 2016.
Washington, Riyadh and Ankara back groups fighting the regime of Russian Federation ally President Bashar al-Assad, while Moscow says it is targeting IS and other “terrorists” in Syria.
Mr Assad made a surprise visit to Moscow this week to discuss the intervention.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has been fighting with the Syrian army since early in the conflict. Akbik, the opposition politician, confirmed he had learned of such communications. “They focused on their shared pursuit of options to achieve a political transition and discussed the potential for future multilateral meetings on the topic”, said Kirby. Instead, they believe Russians can not be trusted. Then came the huge diversionary controversy over Syrian chemical weapons, with the White House claiming that the Assad regime had crossed the “red line”. The readiness rate of 70% for Russian fighters isn’t surprising, he said, because they lack experience being deployed and have been flying their jets hard.
“What we care about is Assad leaving, not turning this from a war against the regime to a war against terrorism”, Saoud, a former Syrian army officer who defected and now leads the rebel 13th Division group, told the AP.
Russian Federation is trying to save its influence and positions in the Middle East and Mesopotamia region, which is becoming more and more complicated.
One of the airstrikes killed 46 family members, including 32 children and 12 women who were all related to a local commander affiliated with the FSA in the village of Ghantou, in central Homs province.
These were huge changes in the stance of Western interventionist powers, aligning them closely to Russia’s longstanding position based on the original Geneva principles.
Moscow has invited the USA, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to coordinate their air campaigns, which target IS militants, with Russian Federation. That would be to split from al-Qaeda and its coalition decisively, and find a place in a new post-conflict Syria alongside the pro-Baath groups that still support al-Assad.
Why is there a war in Syria?
It was the first known trip overseas taken by the Syrian leader since his country’s civil war began in 2011.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also met with Saudi Arabia’s monarch, King Salman, to follow up on those discussions.
“They pledged to continue and intensify support to the moderate Syrian opposition while the political track is being pursued”, the State Department later said in a statement.
On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Kremlin was ready to provide support for the Free Syrian Army, state news agency RIA reported.
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As Russia’s advance into Syria proceeds, apparently with a few early successes against key targets, it starts to look as if Moscow is using the Syria crisis to force the Obama administration into a bind. On the other hand, an exit strategy becomes available only if the USA were to pool efforts with Russian Federation and is joined by Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
