The bloody race between war and diplomacy is likely to continue amid bad news coming out of Syria, the writer said. Or, looking ahead, what if Russian Federation decides to greatly expand its role in the fractured region, partnering more aggressively with Iran to shift the balance of power in places like Libya, Yemen, or Iraq?
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With Syria, though, hiding even a small number of casualties is impossible.
But this is the limit of what can be achieved by Moscow’s military involvement in Syria.
Bashar Al-Assad’s departure has always been at a crucial part of proposed global solutions on the Syria issue. Putin reportedly spoke with important Sunni leaders in the Gulf states and Jordan to brief them on his conversations with Assad. The trio of countries say that Mr Al Assad should have no role in the interim government, and if he does, it should only be for the shortest period possible – six months according to Turkey – and with as limited power as possible. Instead of attempting to impose a new Syrian leadership, the United States should host a meeting with internally selected representatives to help them draft a constitution and make other political arrangements. Yet in the 40 months since the communique was signed, there has been no movement toward implementing it. He believed that all factions in Syria, except the Islamic State, would accept almost any plan endorsed strongly by these five, with Iran and Russian Federation supporting Assad and the other three backing the opposition.
Syria has also offered the Kremlin a chance to change the subject from the conflict in eastern Ukraine, says Weiss.
Amid all the talking, fighting in Syria goes on.
Syria’s post-war reconstruction will be led by Russian companies, according to a member of the Russian Parliament Dmitry Sablin. Putin could then propose a political compromise between Assad and his enemies, which would entail a power-sharing agreement between Assad and as numerous non-Islamic State rebels that can be cajoled into working with his regime – and who would agree to target Islamic State.
Russia has shifted its position regarding Free Syrian Army rebels, saying Saturday that the Russian Air Force, which has been bombing targets in Syria since September 30, will be ready to help the insurgents, if it knew where they were. Experts do suggest taking opinion polls in Russian Federation with a grain of salt, though. For example, Putin’s approval rating has not fallen below 80 percent since March 2014 despite a deepening recession in Russian Federation.
ISIS is a would-be global jihadist extremist network born out of the Iraqi insurgency and the Syrian civil war, with offshoots around the Middle East.
He continued, “We are not going to cooperate with a Russian campaign to destroy anti-Assad forces”. Instead, the Conflict Intelligence Team, a volunteer group run by the blogger Ruslan Leviev that scours social networks to track Russian military activity, discovered that Kostenko died October. 24. It said Russian Federation was spending about $710,000 a day on aircraft sorties, $750,000 on munitions, $440,000 to support its personnel in Syria, $200,000 to maintain its naval presence and $250,000 on logistics, intelligence and communications.
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Regardless, by seizing part of the highway Monday between Khanaser and Ithriya, IS has succeeded in severing the Assad government’s last remaining land-based supply route into Aleppo.
