Baladi News
Writing by: Turkey Mostafe
Syria; the most significant topic in the summit
The evolving strategy of Moscow and Washington in administrating the Syrian file, is the pus produced by the tumours of the conflict, which gathered and then exploded at once in the Helsinki summit; to constitute a dangerous turning point in the Syrian track, for very long. At the same time, it will have a deeper and more deadly impact than all the defeats in the Syrian history, and in more than one level, unless the local revolutionary, regional and international forces know how to deal with the Russian tempering in the region’s files.
More specifically the American administration and the slacken of its President Donald Trump, who said after the meeting with Putin: “We discussed a wide range of critical issues, including nuclear proliferation, war and peace issues, we also discussed at length the crisis in Syria and Ukraine.”
Trump looked like Putin’s puppet, as he ignored the violation of the cease-fire, and the de-escalation agreement in the Syrian South.
His statements on several issues raised a barrage of angry American protests, from Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders, as well as former senior officials, some of whom described him as “traitor,” while some U.S newspapers described Trump in their headlines as “dog” “traitor” and “negligent”, and other descriptions which can’t be written on papers.
Meanwhile, Russia’s envoy to Syria Alexander Lavrentiev appeared to be more comfortable in his statements: “the goals of Russia and the United States are identical in terms of the political settlement in Syria.”
It’s necessary to reanalyse the Syrian scene, by focusing on the understandings between the great power and the greatest one; Russia and the United States, through the following points:
- Syria is not part of the conflict between American and Russian strategies in the Middle East.
- Both the United States and Russia became allies of Assad, for reasons of circumstantial consensus for each side alone.
- Syria has become the most important strategic issue in Russia’s politics, while the U.S hid behind the wall of “war against terrorism”, and hence, the demand for expelling Iran from Syria.
Consensus and disagreement on Syria
According to the majority of those interested in the Syrian issue, Russia who seeks to acquire the entire Syrian territories, presses to impose its absolute dominance on Syria. But the Russian attempts are still within limits and restrictions, where it is not allowed to go beyond them. One of these limits is Europe; which is the main reason of dispute between the two powers. In any case, regarding the U.S. interests, Syria doesn’t occupy the same importance that Europe does.
However, politics is always unsteady and has no permanent constants. Thus, we can define the constant strategy of Russia in the region as follows:
- Russian military has control over most of the Syrian territories in coordination with the U.S administration.
- The continuous looting of Syrian wealth, especially oil, with Washington gaining the lion’s share.
- Preserving Israel’s security for political reasons, related to the deep Israeli penetration into Russian politics (Netanyahu’s successive visits to Moscow) and the U.S acceptance of Russia as a tool of repression, for anyone threatening Israel’s security.
In this regard, Putin announced that he agreed with Trump to secure the “Syrian – Israeli” border, according to the agreement of disengagement, 1974.
The repercussion of the summit on Syria:
Reading the Helsinki summit with an analytical perspective, we can review its repercussion on Syria in the following points:
First, the summit showed the imbalanced international relations in Syria, after Washington let Russia dominates Syrian territories, for U.S political reasons.
Second, the summit established new balance of powers: following the suspension of U.S support for the Syrian armed opposition factions, Russia increased its support for the Assad regime to continue its crimes in the highest degree of violence.
At the same time, Russia has prevented western countries form playing any role in Syria and the region, except for providing emotional support for Israel, and becoming as charities for the Syrians who arrived in Europe through the sea, seeking safety and security.
We hence can say that Russia’s strategy in Syria after the summit is represented in two things; the first is in continuing the fight beside Assad and committing more crimes, and the second is imposing surrender deals on Assad opponents all over Syria, and this follows the U.S wavering policy embodied in Trump at this summit.
Iran’s options in Syria after the Helsinki Summit:
The observer of Iranian and Russian media outlets before and after the summit, will notice the disagreement between them, in way that will lead Russia to change its alliances, after getting closer to Washington, and agreeing to expel the Iranian militias from the Syrian South as a first step, that will be followed with a U.S insistence to expel Iran from the entire Syrian territories.
Finally, the Helsinki summit can be read through the U.S. administration’s attitudes, thus, the Helsinki understandings will not take the way to implementation unless they are compatible with the U.S. interests.