SOURCE: KREMLIN.RU
Moscow Raid bin Khalid Krimli to honor him with an award for his “personal contribution to strengthening Saudi-Russian relations.” Krimli has just completed his service in Russia. A week earlier, on February 19, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with his Jordanian counterpart to hold talks on re-establishing the civilian infrastructure in Syria. Moscow’s revamped contacts with the Sunni monarchies –– while trying to get them into the reconstruction of Syria and normalized relations with al-Assad –– do not exclusively consist in weak-
ening Turkey and finding money to revive Syria’s war-ridden economy. What Moscow may seek is to create a platform for peace talks, with Bashar al-Assad, Syrian opposition factions and the Kurds amongst top participants, an idea endorsed by the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt. But Turkey is reluctant to see the Kurds at the negotiating table. Furthermore, it was a long time ago that the Persian Gulf monarchies forged friendly ties with Sunni tribes living in northeastern Syria, an area dominated by the U.S-backed mainly Kurdish SDF coalition.
3 March 2020
RUSSIA LAUNCHES SYRIAN EXPRESS OPERATION AS TURKEY ATTACKS IN IDLIB As earlier announced, Ankara pressed ahead with a military campaign in Syria’s Idlib province. In late February, there expired a deadline given by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad to withdraw from areas it had taken over after the offensive into Damascus. But what may present the main threat to Syrian regime forces are Turkish drones flying over Syrian air space. In turn, Russia has responded with its ostentatious deployment of warships from the Black Sea into Syria.
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