Terrorism became the main global problem, and if Moscow and Washington will be able to work out a solution on Syria, taking into account the interests of all different sides, they will succeed. This opinion was expressed today by analyst on national security, former US defense official, expert of the Valdai Club, Michael Maloof in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza.
Speaking of Russian-US relations, he noted that Moscow and Washington will have to establish a lasting ceasefire and peace in Syria and throughout the Middle East: "We have to eradicate terrorism. And then we work to preserve peace. We don’t need a nation building any longer, we don't need to change governments, what we need is to eradicate terrorism and then we need to bring a lasting settlement, especially in the case of Syria."
At the same time, Michael Maloof believes that it's necessary to think about the reconstruction of Syria after the war: "We need to begin thinking about it now. Not once the war is over, but now. At the end of the World War II, when we did the Marshal Plan for Germany, it took us two years. By then Germans lived in rubble for two years. We can’t afford to do that in Syria, we need to begin to plan the process and then kick in."
Answering the question about the development of relations between the West and the South Caucasus, he said: "We certainly have commitments. We want to encourage more economic work in Azerbaijan. The same is for Armenia, and certainly the U.S. has relationships with Georgia, but we need to be able to work with those governments and also recognize that they need to work with their neighbors. And we should not be doing anything that is going appear to be threatening. I’m not a big advocate of pushing NATO there at all. I think we cooperate with those countries directly and with Moscow's participation, trying to keep the peace, because everyone has its own national interest, but those countries also need to work more closely with Moscow as well. And I think we see more and more of that."
Maloof expressed the opinion that the US must do more than cooperation in the military sphere: "Its like every time they say that the United States, its some kind of military involvement. We need to start to move away from that and look more like a source for investments and reconstruction. And I think that it will work well in a long run."
