... drafting and approval of a new Syrian constitution to be followed by UN-supervised “free and fair” elections.
The West hopes to use these political terms as a tool to pressure Damascus and its allies. Apart from political considerations, the refusal to cooperate directly with the Syrian government is justified by citing the need to implement administrative reforms and modify property and investment laws. Western experts believe that directing international economic aid through official channels to the country’s militarized economy ...
... aggravation with the United States, could open a “second front” on the northern border of Israel taking advantage of the increased military potential of Hezbollah on its southern border.
Thus, the initiative of Israel to organize a new format for Syria in Jerusalem was put forward at the time when the erroneous estimations could lead to an exchange of blows with the escalation into an armed confrontation of a regional scale. Moreover, on the eve of the parliamentary elections Israel does not want to be drawn ...
Why Russia and Turkey Need Each Other in Syria
“Turkey is our close partner, our ally,” said Presidential Spokesperson and Turkologist Dmitry Peskov on the eve of the meeting in the town of Zhukovsky near Moscow. On August 27, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin met his ...
... one or in other words from risk based approach to opportunity-oriented
Since the start of the Russian military operation in Syria in 2015, the configuration of political forces in the Middle East began to undergo major changes. The dominance of the United ... ... the desire of the states of the region to diversify their ties does not mean a lack of desire to cooperate with the EU and the USA. Regional elites can use their contacts with Moscow to get greater benefits from the West by showing that they have alternative ...
... could, perhaps, help us settle some issues,” a senior Russian diplomat told Al-Monitor on the basis of anonymity. “If the Turks attack the Kurds, this may make the latter more flexible in terms of reaching an agreement with Damascus.”
Bye-bye, USA
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov voiced Moscow's view of the desired outcome shortly after US President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of US forces from Syria last December. “The weapons, the territories and the military facilities that are owned by the [United States] in Syria should be passed over under the control of the Syrian authorities, Syrian military and the Syrian administrative structures,...
... the profound systemic crisis is yet to be found. Most countries (Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia) have launched the needed socioeconomic reforms, albeit belatedly, but outcomes are difficult to predict. In other parts of the Arab world (Syria, Libya, Yemen), civil war has been the means of resolving questions of power. In these countries there is an inextricable tangle of ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegitimate’ governments, numerous militias, terrorist groups, and foreign military contingents,...
... EU, Tehran’s claims remain natural
The seizure of an Iranian tanker by the authorities of Gibraltar has aggravated Iranian-British relations and could lead to further escalation. The oil transported by the Iranians was supposedly intended for the Syrian government. Tehran has already threatened to respond by detaining British ships. Meanwhile, the authorities of Gibraltar have extended the detention of the tanker for two weeks, increasing the chances that the crisis will develop further.
Ivan ...
Russia should not necessarily wait for the Europeans to join its rebuilding efforts
As the United States eyes
new sanctions
on Syria, Russia increasingly finds it needs to work out solutions that would nonetheless push forward the post-conflict reconstruction in the country the way Moscow envisions them.
Syria has been subject to legislatively mandated US penalties since the ...
... less prone to condemn so-called “destabilizing” activities in the region and is in any case not prepared to establish any causal effect between these matters and the implementation of the JCPOA. However, Russia and Europe do share some obvious common ... ... implementing their part of the civilian nuclear cooperation covered by the nuclear agreement.
Yulia Sveshnikova:
Iran’s Presence in Syria: Is It There for the Long Haul?
More generally, time has come to establish a better coordination between Russia, China and ...
... Dreadful Scenarios for Tomorrow’s Syria and What We Can Do To Avoid Them
The third phase of Jihadism is conducted under the initiative of two ideologues and tacticians who share the same given name, Abu Musab al-Suri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Abu Musab al-Suri was a Syrian Muslim brother engineer, partially trained in France, who had worked in London as the spokesperson for the Algerian GIA before joining Bin Laden as his PR person. He became dissatisfied with what he called the hubris of 9/11 and developed a new ...
