Iran, Russian Federation FMs present united front on Syria

“If some of our partners believe that we should necessarily agree in advance that at the end of an interim period the president will leave his post – this position is not acceptable for Russian Federation”, Lavrov said.

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 Arab Sunni states have no serious dialogue with Assad’s main patrons, Iran and Russian Federation, and any deal that would be acceptable to these two countries is not likely to be satisfactory to the Sunni states, especially Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Moscow on Wednesday and Thursday attempted some diplomacy, however, welcoming a delegation of Syrian rebels against the authoritarian al-Assad in Damascus.

“Neither the head of the Syrian regime nor any citizens of the country who spill the blood of the Syrian people should be given any role in the transitional governing body…”

Syrian government powers are generally associated with having done the assault, which prompted a Russia-U.S. that decimated Syria’s compound weapons stocks under overall observing.

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

Moscow is also pushing a plan for a broader grouping than the current US-led coalition to fight the Islamic State (IS) group, to include Syria’s government and its allies, but Assad’s opponents have rejected the idea.

So the Saudis are reaching out to Russian Federation as a counterweight, in part to show the Americans that they can no longer take Saudi loyalty for granted, in part to challenge Iran’s claim to regional primacy.

Riyadh and Washington, along with Ankara, have been backing efforts to see Assad removed from power. It is the US government, in its asinine belief that it is “exceptional” and deserves ultimately to rule the world, that labors to justify war and condemn all other powers but its own. Turkish forces remain massed along the border, prepared to launch incursions that would inevitably draw Turkey into fighting with Kurdish forces in northern Syria.

One of these US air strikes, targeting the village of Atmeh, killed eight civilians, including at least five children ages four through 10 and two women, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.