Washington delegates seek "new strategic landscape"

NEWS DESK

Arab newspapers published on Wednesday referred to Russian and US moves regarding the Syrian file and the region in general.

AL-Hayat : Russia is open to a "quadruple formula" that excludes Iran from the Syrian solution

The Arab press in the Syrian issue dealt with several topics, the most important of which were Russian and American Al Hayat said "As the efforts of the Syrian constitution committee accelerated, hours before the visit of the international envoy Stefan De Mistura to Damascus, The Russian-Turkish-French-German summit was preceded by Moscow In Istanbul next Saturday, by showing openness to the formation of a "new formula" for Syria comprising the four countries which means excluding Iran. This coincided with Washington's adherence to its military presence at the base of al-Tanaf on the Syrian border with Jordan and Iraq to prevent the growing Iranian influence."

On Tuesday, a meeting was held at the level of Deputy Foreign Ministers of the Guarantor States of the «Astana» in Moscow for coordination before the Quartet Summit hosted by Istanbul and devoted to discuss the Syrian file, while Moscow announced yesterday arrangements for a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the summit. The Kremlin, however, said yesterday it "does not expect any breakthroughs from the upcoming summit"" and welcomed the formation of a" new formula "comprising the four countries, Russia, Turkey, Germany and France, which means marginalization of the Iranian role in the political process.

Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (Middle East): US military delegation on public visit to al-Tanf base

Al-Sharq Al-Awsat followed American tours in the area and said, "The commander of US military operations in the Middle East, General Joseph Votel has visited on Tuesday al-Tanf base in which is located in southeastern Syria, where he stressed the importance of the US military presence in the country and he  visited al-Tanaf base with accompanied by a group of journalists. In the first time that the US base opens its doors to the media. The Associated Press reported that the Pentagon had asked journalists who visited the base not to cover the event until Joseph Votel left the area for "security reasons "We have a mission to defeat Daesh, but I acknowledge that our presence and development of our partners and relations here have an indirect effect on some of the malicious activities that Iran and its agents are trying to implementation its project on the ground and" the US general said. "The visit coincided with a political delegation and a diplomat visiting al-Raqqa city and the northeast.

(T/S)

ANHA