At Iranian initiative, the foreign ministers of Syria, Iran and Russia met in Tehran a week ago (Thursday).
All the reports on the subject of the meeting came from Iranians. Moscow very much played things down.
Iranians and Syrians want a very decisive action. [See the article for details.]
Russian government however is hedging.
So much so, that four days after the meeting, Russian government’s official outlet “Sputnik” published a “commentary”, pouring icy cold water on any expectations of further advances on Aleppo and Raqqa: excusing the lack of action at Aleppo by the need of forces being at Raqqa and at the same time excusing the lack of action at Raqqa by the need of forces being at Aleppo. [!!!] And similar garbage. [IMHO, vintage Putin……..]
Bhadrakumar then says:
“… The big question is what follows next. Iran and Syria will be extremely wary that the US and its allies may have a Plan B – and Russia may fall into the American trap – whereby the locus might eventually begin shifting toward establishing some sort of a mechanism for enforcing the ceasefire in the form of peacekeeping forces by the external players in the respective areas friendly to them. …”
And concludes:
“… All in all, Iran appears to have felt the urgency to ring the alarm bell that all three – Russia, Iran and Syria – have no real choice but to swim together. It remains to be seen whether Moscow heard the bell tolling in Tehran last Thursday.”
Excellent analysis of the Syrian situation by ambassador M.K. Bhadrakumar, http://atimes.com/2016/06/russian-iranian-alliance-in-syria-at-crossroads/ : Russian-Iranian alliance in Syria at crossroads
In a nutshell:
At Iranian initiative, the foreign ministers of Syria, Iran and Russia met in Tehran a week ago (Thursday).
All the reports on the subject of the meeting came from Iranians. Moscow very much played things down.
Iranians and Syrians want a very decisive action. [See the article for details.]
Russian government however is hedging.
So much so, that four days after the meeting, Russian government’s official outlet “Sputnik” published a “commentary”, pouring icy cold water on any expectations of further advances on Aleppo and Raqqa: excusing the lack of action at Aleppo by the need of forces being at Raqqa and at the same time excusing the lack of action at Raqqa by the need of forces being at Aleppo. [!!!] And similar garbage. [IMHO, vintage Putin……..]
Bhadrakumar then says:
“… The big question is what follows next. Iran and Syria will be extremely wary that the US and its allies may have a Plan B – and Russia may fall into the American trap – whereby the locus might eventually begin shifting toward establishing some sort of a mechanism for enforcing the ceasefire in the form of peacekeeping forces by the external players in the respective areas friendly to them. …”
And concludes:
“… All in all, Iran appears to have felt the urgency to ring the alarm bell that all three – Russia, Iran and Syria – have no real choice but to swim together. It remains to be seen whether Moscow heard the bell tolling in Tehran last Thursday.”