On March 2, 2016 the Russian International Affairs Council held an expert meeting with a delegation of the International Crisis Group (ICG), headed by Joost Hiltermann, Program Director, Middle East and North Africa at ICG.
On March 2, 2016 the Russian International Affairs Council held an expert meeting with a delegation of the International Crisis Group (ICG), headed by Joost Hiltermann, Program Director, Middle East and North Africa at ICG.
RIAC was represented at the meeting by Director General Andrey Kortunov and experts Yuri Barmin and Nikolai Surkov. The discussion focused on the prospects for peaceful settlement in Syria and on the overall regional context of the problem. The experts noted the need to take into consideration an intricate web of interdependence and intertwining interests, peculiar to the Syrian conflict. The participants identified the main worries that need to be attended to in the process of political resolving the issue of power in Syria, assessed major risks that may arise during the current truce.
А special emphasis was put on the strategic objective of establishing a new sustainable system of collective security in the Middle East that would equally take into account the interests of the parties involved and be based on a fair division of responsibility among all the actors.
