Mikhail Remizov: Washington suspends agreements with Moscow for Clinton

The US suspended the agreements on Syria with Russia, because the current development of the Syrian conflict is seen in Washington as a defeat for the US side, the President of the National Strategy Institute, Mikhail Remizov, told Vestnik Kavkaza, commenting on the escalation of the conflict between Washington and Moscow due to clashes in Syria.

"The Americans called for a ceasefire near Aleppo, and Moscow agreed on it, but later it turned out to be provoked by a non-compliance with the agreements by the opposition groups and resumed military operations in full scale. Such a behavior was painfully perceived in the US, including in connection with the presidential elections in the country, when the very fact of Moscow's interference is seen as a failure," the expert noted.

The situation is complicated by the fact that currently Washington's foreign policy is determined by "hawks", which are "pretty tough-minded in relation to Moscow", who wrote these letters criticizing the indecisive position of the State Department and the White House. "They expect that if Hillary Clinton is elected, the US foreign policy will become more fierce. Therefore, they put pressure on Moscow. Now they move on to even tougher rhetoric, and perhaps to tougher policy, bearing in mind reports of MPADS shipments to the opposition," Mikhail Remizov said.

According to him, the new conflict situation is contributing to the activation of clashes in Aleppo, which means there are conditions for the Syrian army to achieve an advantage on the battlefield. "Now many things will depend on it. Assad's forces are largely exhausted, his reserves are very limited, there is no unity of command from Russia. If they succeed, a significant part of the groups will receive a signal to join symmetrical rows of the peace process under the auspices of Moscow. If they don't, the situation may become precipitous for Damascus," the expert warned.

"Overall, it opens the way to an intensification of clashes, although it is limited by the depletion of reserves of the warring parties. Also, the question is, how much the opposition and terrorist groups will be assisted from the outside. They have an advantage that they are backed by the US and a number of regional powers. They also can partially replenish their reserves by newly arrived fighters, because now people join not ISIL only, but al-Nusra as well," Mikhail Remizov concluded.

The chief editor of the magazine 'Russia in Global Affairs', the Scientific Director of the Fund of Development and Support of the 'Valdai' International Discussion Club, Fyodor Lukyanov, told Vestnik Kavkaza earlier that the current serious crisis in the Russian-US contacts on combating international terrorism in Syria may lead to a so-called proxy war between the two countries. While the director general of the Institute for Caspian Cooperation Sergey Mikheyev told Vestnik Kavkaza that Washington may follow the Afghan way of assisting the oopposition in in Syria.