Posted on 12/21/2016 1:27:15 PM PST by DeathBeforeDishonor1
The US was not invited to a meeting held Tuesday in Moscow between Turkish, Russian, and Iranian officials aimed at solving the crisis in Syria — and it's not the first time Washington has been left out in the cold.
The US was also shut out of negotiations between Russian officials and Syrian rebel factions hosted by Turkish officials in Ankara earlier this month. Those talks ultimately led to a fragile cease-fire and evacuation deal in Syria's largest city, Aleppo, where fighting intensified in recent weeks.
Though the two countries are on opposite sides of the war in Syria — with Turkey supporting the opposition and Russia supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad — Turkish officials reportedly signed a Russian proposal to end the conflict, titled the "Moscow Declaration," during their meeting in the Russian capital on Tuesday.
"This is Turkey bending to Russia," Aaron Stein, an expert on Turkey and a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told The New York Times on Wednesday. "This is putting a fine point on Turkey's policy of 'Assad must go' no longer being the policy."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
The sick man of Europe. Still.
This is a hypothesis, without anything but the course of events to promote it.
That’s all about to change.
Why does this sound like the list of Enemy Powers Bound Together in “The Charge Of The Light Brigade”?
Obama and Kerry should realize that's what happens when your side loses.
No respect for obama or this country , and has not been for the last 8 years.
The left said Bush{no great fan but credit for this} was a cowboy, but he kept us safe, now compare how obama has made this country we ask, and a laughing stock.
He went on TV the other day saying how this country was much better, better in frigging what? Homosexuality and cross dressing, men using women’s bathrooms.
They really are sick of they think that crap makes us stronger.
Wonder if the assassinated Russian ambassador was a key figure brokering a ceasefire with the “rebel” factions?
If so he made an enemy or at least put a target on his back
It all makes sense once you realize this is all a money deal. The Saudis/Qataris want to sell their natural gas to Europe, and run a gas pipeline to do it. They have to run it through Syria, and the Russians don’t want that because they currently have the monopoly on natural gas sales to Europe. The Iranians don’t want the Saudis to sell their gas to Europe. In fact, they want a competing pipeline run across Iraq and Syria to a port on the Mediterranean. The Saudis have used their petrodollars to bribe American policy makers into supporting their position. The Russians have used their long standing ties to the Assad regime to get Syria to oppose it. The Saudis ginned up the uprising against Assad to make a regime change, and get their pipeline. ISIS is in part a Saudi creation as part of this policy, but it seems to have become more virulent than its Saudi masters wanted.
The Turks originally backed the Saudis, as they would get money for transit rights and a cut of the gas. They have been backing the “rebels” in this confused brawl. However, with the victory of Donald Trump, they see that America will no longer be Saudi Arabia’s puppet in the Syrian policy. The intervention by Russia has militarily decisively tipped the scales in favor Assad, while Trump’s victory decisively tipped the diplomatic scales away from Saudi Arabia.
Thus, the Turks are at the table as realists, trying to salvage what they can from this deal since they are very uneasy neighbors of Russia, and now have very real reason to question America’s support of their position.
Gotta hand it to Putin in this situation. He was playing chess while 0bama was playing with himself.
Great summary. I’ve seen several versions of elements of this posted here, and it all rings true.
One thing we often don’t well enough understand here in the US is the whole Sunni/Shia, Arab (KSA and Emirates)/Iranian split in the Islamic world. That and follow the money (oil/gas) explains much of what has been going on in Syria.
29 days and a wake up....cannot come soon enough for me. Of course while most of us are celebrating Christmas, the anti Christ will use those days to lob a few more of his grenades.
Nice analysis.
Also, the Turks recently signed a deal with Russia for the construction of an alternative pipeline, that would carry Russian and Iranian gas.
Which is a nice way for the Russians to buy off the Turks to get them to withdraw support of Saudi/Qatari policy, and keep the owners of the pipeline running north from Istanbul happy as their pipeline will carry something. Pretty smooth, those Russkies.
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