Syrian opposition leader: “Russia isn’t clinging to Assad”

The last few weeks have seen intense diplomacy between Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United States and Russian Federation, in what seems to be a concerted effort to break the logjam over the Syrian conflict.

Russia’s top diplomat met his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in Moscow on Monday to discuss Syria along with other issues including the July deal over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Lavrov further said Russian Federation is interested in enhancing cooperation with Iran to settle crises in the Middle East and North Africa. At the final stage of these meetings, representatives of the Syrian government joined in, which led to the approval of the so-called Moscow Platform. Iran wants to maintain Assad’s rule as a key ally as well, and Saudi Arabia, which desperately wants Assad out to spite Iran, is coming to the table mainly for fear of being cut out of a deal that happens. “It is not part of our plans”, Jubeir said.

Syria has been mired in a civil war since 2011.

What the Oval Office intended as a cost-free gesture to support the seemingly imminent overthrow of Assad was received on the battlefield – and to rebel supporters within the administration – as a tacit pledge of U.S. help to get the job done.

The Russian foreign minister, for his part, said the two countries would follow up plans to boost relations.

In a sudden inversion, Moscow assented a week ago to longstanding US requests for insertion of synthetic weapons assessors.

According to analysts and government officials, Moscow’s turn to negotiations stems from the fact that, behind closed doors, Putin’s leadership now believes that Assad’s removal is virtually inevitable.

Russian Federation and Iran have agreed to speed up the agreement on a document on the facilitation of the visa regime between the two countries.

The Syrian Observatory said at least 12 people were killed in rocket attacks by rebels targeting several neighbourhoods in Damascus, including Abu Romaneh and Bab Touma in the centre.

US-aligned regional governments similarly voiced support for a deal over Syria this week.

He emphasized that Iran and Russian Federation would proceed with the expansion of ties on regional and global developments. The same goes for providing military-technical assistance to the Iraqi government for fighting the same Islamic State.

Other powers all have their own agendas.

Meanwhile, the US and its Gulf allies must be debating whether their strategy against IS in Syria and Iraq is working.