“It would be a process that could last several years, for all of the mandate of Bashar al-Assad, which lasts until 2021″, a Syrian political figure told AFP.
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According to United Nations estimates, the Syrian civil war has killed over 200,000 people since it began over four years ago. Saudi Arabia earlier announced its willingness to allocate $10 billion to invest into Russian projects in such fields as the agricultural sector, healthcare, retail industry, transport and real estate.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (left) and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir at a news conference after a meeting in Moscow yesterday.
And when official US policy is that “Assad must go” – even as Team Obama is chasing a fantasy of allying with Assad’s Iranian patrons. It fears that the deal with Iran would allow the Islamic Republic to funnel more funding to proxy groups that Saudi Arabia considers a threat, such as Houthi rebels in Yemen, for instance.
“The main thing now is that these interests translate into practical coordinated steps”, Lavrov said. “A stalemate could drag on forever”. Gen. Ali Mamlouk, the head of Syria’s powerful National Security Bureau, and Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince and defense minister.
Meanwhile, the US says there is no way it will work with Assad. “We believe that Assad and Assad regime long ago lost legitimacy,” Secretary of State John Kerry said on August 3.
“More coordinated efforts on the ground would help reach the goal”, he said, adding that this covered the Iraqi and Syrian armies, Kurdish forces and some armed Syrian opposition groups.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called in a recent interview with state TV channel Rossiya 1 showed for an end to “double standards” in order to unite against ISIL, the “common enemy”, before finding peace in Syria.
Saudi Arabia joined a U.S.-led coalition to battle ISIS, which recently added NATO-member Turkey. “Just a few months ago it would seem something unbelievable, but today it seems that there is no stronger friendship” than between Russian Federation and Saudi Arabia, the analyst said.
“It seems to me that all regional and global players are rushing around trying to establish a new order in the wake of the Iran deal, and it’s going to continue”, he said.
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Jubeir admitted that they have an “identical approach as Russia” regarding the fight against “extremism and terrorism” but stressed that its troops won’t collaborate with the Syrian army. “Assad is part of the problem, not part of the solution to the Syrian crisis…”
