Saudi FM to visit Russian Federation

Russian Federation supports Assad while Saudi Arabia insists he must step down to help end a four-year conflict that has cost over 240,000 lives. That represented a significant shift and an opening of channels between two countries that have become arch foes in Syria’s conflict.

The Saudi position is not surprising, as the Sunni kingdom has been openly backing rebels against the Alawite Assad government from the start.

However, speaking after their talks in Moscow, Adel Jubeir the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia reiterated the stance by Riyadh that Assad must go. According to some reports, it includes a “national unity government”.

Moscow is one of Assad’s few remaining allies. “We’re seeing a huge uptick in shuttle diplomacy by all sides”. The session included discussions about the Syrian crisis.

“Fars” analysts add that the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar had reported that Russian Federation agreed with chiefs of Syrian special forces and Saudi Arabia to hold talks without the U.S. The parties would discuss further joint actions in the region.

That would be a major embarrassment for Moscow at a time when it has launched a new diplomatic push over Syria.

Assad is a part of this problem, not part of its solution and there is no place for him in Syria’s future. In another sign of improving relations, two Russian Buyan-class patrol boats arrived at the Iranian Caspian Sea port of Bandar Anzali on 10 August.

Lavrov and Jubeir are expected to discuss Syrian crisis, Iran deal, situation in Yemen and fight against terrorism.

But during his meeting with his Russian counterpart, Al-Jubeir insisted there would be no cooperation with the Syrian regime.

Opposition leaders have been adamant that Assad should play no part in any political transition.

The U.S. would find it extremely awkward to formally back any plan that would legitimize the Syrian government. The war birthed radical Islamic groups, but ISIS is the most notorious of all of them.

“The opposition has no reason to engage with this operation to rehabilitate the regime”, he said.

“They all must be united, and the regional players must use their influence with the groups on the ground to make such unification as efficient as possible”, Lavrov said. He decided out any coalition that could unite Riyadh and Assad. Saudi Arabia earlier announced its willingness to allocate $10 billion to invest into Russian projects in such fields as the agricultural sector, healthcare, retail industry, transport and real estate.