Free Syrian Army fighters rest inside a room in Quneitra, Syria July 8, 2017. Picture taken July 8, 2017. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Faqir
Dave Majumdar, National Interest: Can Russia and America Work Together in Syria?
Ultimately, it will be the Assad regime and the various other proxy forces—both U.S. and Russian aligned—that will determine if the two great powers can work together.
The United States is willing to work jointly with Russia to conduct stability operations in a post-ISIS Syria. Those stability measures could include jointly monitored no-fly zones and cease-fire observation missions. But exactly how such arrangements might be implemented are likely to be the subject of intense negotiations—and could be derailed by wayward proxies on the ground.
The United States and Russia have previously worked together during peacekeeping operations in the Balkans during the 1990s, but Moscow is not likely to be as willing to make the same kinds of concessions today that Boris Yeltsin’s government did when the Kremlin’s power was at a near historic low point. Today’s Russia under the leadership of Vladimir Putin is much more likely to demand an equal partnership in Syria than the severely weakened state that emerged in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse.
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WNU Editor: This new U.S. - Russian relationship is going to be tested now .... A new Syrian truce goes into effect, testing Trump’s relationship with Putin (Washington Post). More here .... U.S.-Russian ceasefire deal holding in southwest Syria: Observatory, rebels (Reuters).
