Russian writer: Turkey joins ranks of losers in Syria

NEWS DESK

The United States has announced the withdrawal of its 2,000-strong military units from Syria, which was a surprise to Washington's regional allies.

Evgeny Satanovsky, in an article in the Russian newspaper Kurier, talks about Turkey's failed calculations in Syria against the backdrop of the American withdrawal.

In the Washington dialogue with Ankara, the United States seeks to maintain its alliance with the Syrian Kurds, where the Global Coalition relies on Syrian Democratic Forces(SDF) in the fighting against IS in Syria on the northern and eastern banks of the Euphrates River.

According to the writer, the United States is seeking to take action to prevent IS from re-organizing its ranks, through US main allies in the Syrian Democratic Forces who have demonstrated their ability to do so over the last period.

In this regard, the question poses itself: What is the American strategy in Syria, as well as in Iraq in the medium term? Will the United States retain the support of its Kurdish allies without regard to the position of Ankara, so retain control over key areas beyond the Euphrates and the Iraqi-Syrian border?

The Americans are talking about continuing the war against the terrorists, and the main thing for them is to make efforts to reduce the influence of Iran and Russia in the region. If we talk about President Trump's threats to destroy Turkey in the event of an attack on the Kurds, the outcomes of John Bolton's mission to Ankara were disappointing for Turkey, where the Turks could not persuade the Americans to adopt a new US approach in Syria that serves the aggressive aspirations of Turkey in Syria.

The writer stresses that the United States must rule out the danger of the collapse of SDF, which would make its entire strategy in Syria collapse after the withdrawal of troops from them. SDF are essential for it to control the candidate areas for IS return to the beyond the Euphrates and to cover the Syrian-Iraqi borders. Therefore, the United States wants commitments from Ankara regarding the limits of Turkish presence in northern Syria, rejecting any attempts to expand in it or enter Kurdish areas.

The writer added, "The Turks are not prepared to provide security guarantees to the US allies of the Kurds, and any aggression against them makes it impossible to implement the current US tactics in Syria and negatively affect their implementation in Iraq." Erdogan must attend to Moscow the plan agreed with Washington to establish buffer zone and trying to persuade Russia to divide areas of responsibility in northern Syria. "

The writer added, "It is clear that Ankara does not want and cannot launch a major war and is seeking to agree with Washington and Moscow on the peaceful transfer of areas of interest and the sharing of areas of influence."

The writer confirms that it makes sense to instruct the Russian Military Police and Syrian government forces to deploy on the border between Syria and Turkey, which would be a "guarantee" of Ankara's claim about the "Kurdish threat." This mechanism was tested during the 2018 "South Escalation Zone" clearance and is now being implemented in Manbij. This plan will satisfy the Syrian Kurds, Damascus and the United States.

In the end, Russia is the only guarantor of the interests of the main parties to the conflict in Syria. This means minimizing the Turkish presence in Syria, but this is the position of Moscow, Damascus and Tehran, and Ankara will have to take this in its consultations with Washington. So far, their negotiating positions are weak.

A.H

ANHA