The goals and aspirations of the United States and Russia in Syria are not so different as it may seem at first sight. Probably, Washington will be convinced in the near future that its original position of demanding the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad cannot be realized at the moment. This statement was made by the dean of the Department of Political Sciences at Harvard, Timothy Colton (USA) in an interview with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza on the sidelines of the 12th session of the International Discussion Club ‘Valdai’, which ended on Thursday in Sochi.
"In principle, the position of the US is not so far from Russia’s one if you look at the real motives of Russia, apart from military action," the analyst said.
"In general, relations between the Russian Federation and the United States have been very bad during the past three years, starting from 2012. I do not think that it happened due to the Ukrainian crisis last year. Other things are the reason for the cooling between the two countries,’’ he said.
Colton recalled that today Russian air forces are carrying out military operations in Syria, as they have permission from the authorities of the country. "Right now, Russian aircraft are operating in Syria at the invitation of the official authorities. And the United States recognizes such actions of the Syrian government, although they do not like that this government has an embassy in Washington,’’ the Dean of the Department of Political Science at Harvard said.
President of the World Academy of citizenship Hakan Altynay (Turkey) also believes that the initial position of the West on Syria has led it into an impasse, since it turned out that the resignation of Assad is now virtually impossible.
"I think that the West is confused, and this happened a long time ago. They were outraged by the violence of Assad against citizens of their own country. We know that 50,000 people were killed due to bombs. But the West could not imagine the Syrian future without Assad. This deadlock has led to Islamic State, which is an important threat to the world.
Former Ambassador of Germany to Russia Hans-Friedrich von Ploetz reminded about another side of the conflict in Syria, the migration crisis in Europe.
"Initially, it was an internal conflict in the Middle Eastern country that was quite far away. Unfortunately, the conflict has been exacerbated, and the external forces of different religions with beliefs and interests were involved in it. In this regard, the situation was becoming more and more complicated. And the fact that the president of Syria and his armed forces killed tens of thousands of his own citizens, led to mass migration in Central Europe," the diplomat said.
Professor Huseyin Bagdzhi at the ODTU University (Turkey) said that the Russian-Turkish cooperation has become somewhat tense in recent years due to the operation of the Russian Federation in Syria, but in the end, Ankara will accept the changed realities and bilateral cooperation will return to the path of development.
Former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin noted that the current Middle East balance of power clearly shows that the importance of Russia in this region is extremely large, and it can significantly promote the settlement of regional conflicts.
