Syrian forces took control of M5 highway connecting economic hub of Aleppo to Damascus and other key population centres to Jordanian border, February 12, 2020. The de-escalation talks between Moscow and Ankara over the Russian-backed offensive by the Syrian government forces in the northwestern province of Idlib didn’t help defuse tensions. On the contrary, …
Continue reading “Syria: M5 highway secured, time for truce”
Next to a US armoured vehicle, Syrian Kurds protest against threatened Turkish military invasion, Hasakeh province, October 6, 2019 The US president Donald Trump is not known to practise judo. A few judo techniques he may have got to know from his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who is a Black Belt. But what Trump has just …
Continue reading “Trump orders troop withdrawal in Syria. It could be for real.”
(Who controls what in Syria, October 2018) An impression has been gaining ground lately that the Trump administration is making overtures to Ankara to revive the original US-Turkish project on regime change in Damascus. The recent visit to Ankara by James Jeffrey, the US special representative to Syria, was seen in that light. Prior to …
The Trump administration is making a determined effort to engage with Turkey, which used to be the anchor sheet of American regional strategies in the Middle East for several decades. Without a robust partnership with Turkey, US policies remain ineffectual on several regional fronts – ranging from the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean to post-conflict …
Continue reading “US creates new facts on the ground in Syria”
