The Russian authorities have quietly confirmed today what we said previously: the hotline between the US and Russian militaries in Syria is still suspended despite previous claims that the Russians had agreed to reinstate it.
It is probably no coincidence that as international tensions have ratcheted up following on the US missile strike on Syria and the US military deployments around North Korea, that Russia has announced that its new hypersonic Zircon anti-ship missile has achieved speeds of Mach 8 in tests.
This claim appears in an article carried by the official Russian news agency TASS.
The aftermath of the missile strike on Sharyat air base further illustrates a fundamental problem standing in the way of a peaceful resolution of the Syrian conflict: the compulsive duplicity of Turkish President Erdogan.
Erdogan’s overweening “neo-Ottoman” ambitions – intended to carve out a role for Turkey as a Great Power achieving a sphere of influence in the Middle East and the eastern Mediterranean – are one of the primary reasons for the Syrian war.
On Wednesday 12th April 2017 Russia for the eighth time exercised its right to veto a Western proposed Resolution concerning Syria in the UN Security Council. One other country – Bolivia – voted with Russia, and three others – Kazakhstan, China and Ethiopia – abstained.
Just days after Chinese President Xi Jinping met US President Donald Trump in Florida, Zhang Gaoli, the First Vice-Chairman of China’s State Council (ie. China’s deputy prime minister) has arrived in Moscow where he has had a meeting with Russian President Putin.
Since US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s meeting with President Putin yesterday, and since the joint press conference between Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov which followed shortly after, there have been numerous media reports which say that President Putin heeded Tillerson’s request to reinstate the hotline between the US and Russian militaries in Syria, and that as a result this hotline is back in operation.
This is quite simply wrong. It arises from a poor translation of certain comments Foreign Minister Lavrov made at the joint news conference.
There has been some discussion, especial on social media, as to whether or not Russia might shoot down US aircraft or missiles attacking Syria, and of the circumstances in which that might happen.
There have even been some suggestions that there are no circumstances where the Russians would ever shoot down US aircraft or missiles in Syria, and that the whole Russian military position in Syria is limited to fighting Jihadi terrorists and with respect to the US is essentially a bluff.
A few hours ago I wrote an article for The Duran which, drawing on reporting by The New York Times, pointed out that the actual effect of the US missile strike on Syria has been to reduce US air operations in Syria as a result of the Russian decision to suspend the hotline between the US and Russian militaries in Syria.
The media is barely reporting the fact but the immediate effect of the US missiles strike on Syria’s Sharyat air base has been to reduce US air force flights over Syria as the US worries about Moscow’s reaction.
That this is so is confirmed by the New York Times which – presumably because its anti-Trump campaign overrides all other issues – has actually been doing some proper reporting about the Syrian conflict following the US missile strike.
Following a series of telephone conversations between the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Iran and Syria, the Russians have agreed to host in Moscow on Friday 14th April 2017 a meeting of the three countries’ foreign ministers. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov is also due to hold bilateral talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Muallem the day before this tripartite meeting takes place.
