Friday, August 26, 2016

The Geneva talks are Lavrov and Kerry on Syria – BBC

At a meeting in the capital of Switzerland, ministers should discuss the results of the previous talks in the working groups “to stabilize the situation in Syria and in the region of Aleppo, as well as the possible cooperation in the military sphere in Syria”, reported RIA “Novosti” with reference to the Russian a diplomatic source.

The American and Russian military experts concluded on the eve of the debate. Their talks lasted for three days. Details of the talks are not known, however, signs of a certain rapprochement between Moscow and Washington in Syria there.

The commander of US forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend told reporters that the United States gave the Russians about their own deployment. This is done in order to avoid “friendly fire” from the Russian Military comic Forces (VKS), who lead the operation in the Syrian Arab Republic (UAR). Russian and US military also work in a joint Center for Reconciliation, which should contribute to the ceasefire regime in the CAP.

In Geneva, as will be discussed more closely coordinated military. “This may be a joint counter-terrorist operation” – said the source “Gazety.Ru”, close to the diplomatic process

Turkey to Russian corridors

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However, to coordinate a joint Russian-American operations with the Syrian forces loyal to both countries, it will be difficult. One of the main obstacles to this is the situation in the city of Aleppo, which lies in the long siege by troops loyal to President SAR Bashar Assad, an ally of Moscow.

The American columnist Roger Cohen in an article for The New York Times compares siege Aleppo with the months-long siege of Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia. In the city there is a humanitarian disaster. Moscow announced the creation of humanitarian corridors to exit civilians and militants, who have decided to lay down their arms

«At the moment, there are concrete offers from Russia in Aleppo, but they are still under discussion,. – the expert said the Russian Council on international Affairs Yuri Barmin. – Past humanitarian corridors have shown that few civilians are ready to use them, as the level of trust in Russia in the East of Aleppo is very low »

According to Barmina, a good option for joint action would be Russian. -American humanitarian operation, but “in such circumstances, no one on it will not be solved.” US does not want to risk the lives of American soldiers during the operation. About 250 representatives of US special forces operating in Syria. Washington relies heavily on various groups “moderates” of the armed opposition, which the US Armed Forces are ready to support air strikes.

For now imagine, for example, at the command post of the Russian group at the airbase Hmeymim operational group of American officers you need a lot of imagination. Big issues are and the prospects for joint work of Russian and American military during the negotiation goals and objectives of any of the upcoming operations. Today, even the elementary exchange of data about the situation causes a lot of difficulties and obstacles, which complained, including the Russian Defense Ministry

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At the heart of this state of affairs are not the difficulties of translation, and the military-technical difficulties. The fact that the final political aims of both sides of the military campaign in Syria is still very different. The US military is reluctant to go forward any proposals on the part of the Russian group command in the CAP, including the mutual exchange of intelligence data and crew rescue organization in the defeat of the coalition aircraft air defense systems.

Related claims and expressed the US side to the Russian military. Earlier, CNN source from the US administration expressed doubts that Moscow “will carry out its part of the deal,” and added that a more constructive Russian solution would be to cease attacks on the forces of “Syrian moderate opposition».

Earlier, the commander of US troops in Iraq and Syria, Gen. Stephen Townsend in an interview with the Associated Press, said very clearly: “As a soldier I’m pretty skeptical about the Russian. I do not know how I’m inclined to believe in the possibility of cooperation with them. »

The most painful problems of interaction between the armed forces of different countries are in the forms of subordination. In other words, who is who and what matters is subject to in the course of joint military operations. The experience of peacekeeping operations in Yugoslavia showed that with the Americans on this range of problems is extremely difficult to negotiate. The most real, that it is possible in such a situation to take – to distinguish between actions of the troops of both sides in the zones and sectors. However, even before that deal in Syria has not yet reached.

Until recently the US and Russia remained virtually the only international guarantees that the Syrian military conflict will not come out of the defined framework and preserve the general vector of the counterterrorist operation. However, this week the situation has changed. The Syrian conflict has entered Turkey: Turkish army units launched an offensive against Dzharablus, which was under the control of a terrorist group “Islamic State” (the activities of this institution is prohibited on the territory of Russia and some other countries) with the support of US air and loyal US militants “moderate opposition” .

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Turkey pursues its own goals in Syria. First of all, it is the suppression of Kurdish fighting units. Ankara fears of Kurdish separatism, which may spread to the south of Turkey.

If the offensive Dzharablus to develop, it can seriously change the situation in the north of Syria and hamper coordination between Russia and the United States. By the way, Dzharablus located in the same province as Aleppo, so that the Turkish operation with tanks and aircraft can quickly become a factor in the humanitarian operation Russia.

Gulf State Analytics Leading Expert Group Washington notes that due to various factors, the balance of power on the ground is changing, and this complicates the situation, “especially when the military operations in different countries based on the conflicting positions».

Russian problem

According to Yuri Barmina, everything will depend on how the Russian and American “proxy” (ie financially supported by the allies) in Syria will accept the deal between the two powers. One of the main issues is whether the US will be able to separate the “moderate opposition” against militants of the terrorist group “Dzhebhat en-Nusra”, recently renamed “Dzhebhat Fatah al-Sham.” “Technically it’s hard to imagine,” – said the expert. Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the US is not able to distinguish between areas of responsibility of terrorists and non-terrorists. This significantly complicates the negotiations. The fact that the requirement to delineate these zones have been one of the key agreement, which offers Moscow, Washington .

Russia’s position complicate and contradictions with the main ally in Syria – Iran. According Barmina “operating differences on Syria became apparent after the incident with the base Hamadan.” Tehran has started to its base Russian aircraft, but after several days of successful operations to Hamadan sharply passed back and announced that Russia should leave videoconferencing Iranian airfield

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according to the expert, the two countries have different views on the post-war arrangement of Syria, and that makes Moscow and Tehran only situational allies

The problems Russia has with President Assad CAP. In recent months, it is not particularly looking back to Moscow in their actions. In addition, Assad has repeatedly made statements that were contrary to the Russian position. This is despite the fact that Damascus is completely dependent on Moscow and Tehran in the military.

Moscow, according to the White House, has distanced itself from the Assad regime. As recently said a spokesman for the White House Josh Ernst, Russia “shares the assessment that Assad should not continue to govern the country».

However, this does not mean that all the influential players in the US administration support the idea of ​​cooperation with Russia in Syria. The Pentagon, in contrast to the military “on the ground”, traditionally critical of such a rapprochement. Having a “mandate” by US President Barack Obama, Kerry faced with considerable resistance within the ruling elite, and it is well understood in Moscow.

Between Kerry and Lavrov have and personal sympathy, which gave them the opportunity to build a good relationship for negotiations. Frequent trips to Moscow Kerry even gave Russian diplomats occasion to joke that the Secretary of State “need to rent an apartment” in the Russian capital. However, in his post Kerry left to stay only a few months, leaving Moscow and Washington have very little time to resolve the Syrian conflict under the current Obama administration.

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