Strategically, they are poles apart.
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Russian Federation in particular has ramped up its activity in Syria. In fact, as former state department official Fred Hof has written, the Vienna document finalized last week is far more vague than the Geneva communiqué from three and a half years ago: there is no mention of the plight of Syria’s humanitarian catastrophe; no reference to the horrific violence that men, women, and children have endured every day for the past four and a half years; and no specific call for the Syrian government to allow civilians to leave areas on their own free will as is required under global humanitarian law.
The ambassador said that the US-led coalition operations mostly proved unsuccessful. They captured several towns north of Aleppo from rebels.
Sergey Lavrov, speaking on a trip to Armenia, said the talks should focus instead on reaching consensus on who should represent the Syrian opposition and who should be considered extremists. That has to be – first and foremost – the job of Syrian ground forces and Iraqi ground forces.
That’s not to say that the USA should bail on Syria completely. It was later reported that Russian Federation had initially extended the invitation. “Therefore, we have quite a pragmatic task at this meeting”. In return Russia’s President Putin would supply the Taliban with heavy weapons and promise to support it internationally should it overthrow the Afghan government and retake control of the country. They are as fanatical, vicious and inhumane as each other. Public executions and amputations flourished; men were required to grow beards; women had to wear the all-covering burka; girls were banned from going to school.
Russian ground staff members load a Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jet with weapons at the Hmeymim air base near Latakia, Syria, in this handout photograph released by Russia’s Defence Ministry October 22, 2015. However, our military actions in Syria have weakened our image. Tehran may even need to worry about Riyadh forcing a settlement by cutting a deal with Russian Federation at Iran’s expense.
Additional evidence of involvement came when recently a senior Iranian General was killed in Syria while helping to organize Assad’s forces. Top commanders from both Hezbollah and the Iranian contingent have been killed, a sign of the intensity of the battles. The Saudi military has been launching air strikes in Yemen since March.
Amir-Abdollahian and Bogdanov also discussed the chaotic situation in Yemen, which has been under Saudi military strikes since late March, saying urgent measures should be taken to resolve the Yemeni and Syrian crises.
Hammond cited the “fundamental difference” between Britain, the USA and other countries that believe Assad must leave office as part of the transition process, and Syrian allies Russian Federation and Iran “who believe that he should be able to take part in a future election and if that election decides that he should go, then he goes at that point”.
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Iran and Russian Federation appear to be in close accord, but everything in the Russo-Iranian garden is far from flawless. After all, it is a key player in the Middle East and a major supporter of Syria politically, financially, and militarily.
