Vol. 79/No. 41 November 16, 2015
Moscow, while saying it’s also fighting Islamic State, has focused on conducting intense airstrikes in western Syria targeting forces fighting against the Bashar al-Assad dictatorship. Moscow’s air assault accompanies a ground offensive by the Syrian army, Iranian troops and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia units from Lebanon.
The talks included top diplomats from the U.S., Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as representatives from Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and China.
It was the first time the Barack Obama administration invited Tehran to participate in talks on Syria.
Officials from Saudi Arabia, Tehran’s arch-rival for influence in Syria and throughout the region, clashed with Iranian delegates. Riyadh has supplied weapons to opposition forces fighting Assad’s rule that are now being hit by Moscow’s airstrikes and Iranian-backed troops. Afterward, Iranian officials threatened to quit further talks because of Saudi belligerence.
Washington has called for Assad to go, but increasingly agrees with Moscow that there should be a “political transition” for some unspecified period of time. At the talks Tehran called for a six-month transition period followed by elections. The last “election” in Syria, held last year, was limited to areas firmly under Assad’s control and he got 88.7 percent of the vote.
Assad responded to a series of massive mobilizations against his regime in 2011 with bombs and chemical weapons, crushing the popular protests. Nearly five years of civil war since have displaced more than half the population and 250,000 have been killed.
Airstrikes and missile attacks by Syrian regime forces Oct. 30 in Douma, one of the eastern suburbs of Damascus held by opposition forces, killed at least 70 people and injured nearly 550, Doctors Without Borders said. About 200,000 civilians remain in the area, which has been under siege by Assad’s forces for more than two years, with no food or medicine allowed in.
Expanding U.S. role
Washington’s decision to place special operations forces in Syria and the recent announcement U.S. bombers will step up missions against Islamic State are efforts to reassert its role in the region. Over the last two months, Moscow has moved in forcefully, sending in bombers and troops and conducting far more sorties that Washington.Moscow also has initiated a series of diplomatic moves, aiming to take the lead in reshaping the region. Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with Israeli and Saudi leaders, and invited members of the U.S.-backed National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces to come to Moscow for talks.
Washington is trying to cobble together what it calls the Syrian Arab Coalition and arm them to put pressure on Raqqa, Islamic State’s de facto capital. The recently formed Syrian Democratic Forces, in which the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) are the leading fighters, is organizing this effort.
The White House is also considering a Pentagon recommendation to send hundreds more U.S. troops to Iraq — above the more than 3,300 currently stationed there — and to deploy Apache attack helicopters and crews, the Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 27.
In addition, the Obama administration authorized sending A-10 Warthog planes and F-15 fighter jets to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey and requested Baghdad agree to a U.S. special operations task force in Iraq.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi government has appealed to Moscow to initiate bombing runs there.
Russian airstrikes and pro-Assad ground forces have driven back opponents of the Syrian regime near Aleppo. Islamic State has taken advantage of Moscow’s actions to expand its territory.
The crisis has led nearly 300,000 Syrians who can afford to do so to seek refuge in Europe since the summer. Millions more have fled to refugee camps in surrounding countries or remained inside Syria’s borders. In refugee camps in Jordan, where 630,000 Syrians are registered, the World Food Program has slashed its food allowance from $34 per person per month to $14. And in September they cut nearly a quarter of a million people off completely.
More than 700,000 refugees from the Mideast, Africa and Asia have arrived in Europe so far this year. More than 3,200 have either died or gone missing making the journey.
In response, many European governments have been closing borders and erecting fences to keep refugees out.
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