Will Russia and US Finally Come to Terms on Syria?

• 09.21.2015, 22:20
•  EEU,  America,  Near East,  World

Recently in the western media there were continuous speculations that Russia increases its military presence in Syria. In addition Western officials on the highest level continuously expressed their concerns on the issue noting that Russia’s military involvement in Syria will further deteriorate the situation in the country. Interestingly enough the reaction of Russia to all those speculations was not in the form of absolute denial. On the contrary, Russia has never denied its military presence in Syria.

For example, in her last statement Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that they had never kept in secret their military-technical cooperation with Syria, International Business Time reports.  In addition, on September 18, Press Secretary of the Russian President, Dmitry Peskov, declared that if  Assad regime asked them for military assistance, they would certainly discuss and consider it. The statement of Peskov was in response to the recent declaration of the Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, that in case of necessity Damascus would turn to Russia for military assistance in fight against terrorism.

Notwithstanding such kind of stance of Russia on the issue as well as the reports by the US, according to which Russia continuously increases its military presence, transporting Mi-24 and Mi-15 helicopters, tanks, troops and 200 marines to Latakia, which at present is under the control of Assad forces, US Secretary John Kerry recently declared that they are ready to have bilateral military direct negotiations with Russia on Syria. Moreover, on the other day the US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had a telephone conversation which aimed at making sure that American and Russian forces avoid running into each other by mistake, the New York Times reports.

Despite such seeming willingness of the sides to cooperate, there are still a lot of core issues on which the stances of the sides continue to be contradictory.  The other day the US Secretary John Kerry once more declared that Syrian President Bashar Assad should resign, however,  according to him the timing of his departure from power should be solved through negotiations, Voice of America reports.

Will the sides manage to come to terms on Syria in spite of existing disagreements on such core issues? Maybe the cooperation of the sides will be possible if they for some time put aside existing disagreements (to come to them leter), and and for now concetrate on common challenges and common strategies to overcome those challenges. At the end religious extremism in the Middle East and the resulting chaos in the region will sooner or later become a serious threat, if it is not already, for both sides in spite of their different political interests.