For a long time, Russia and the United States have differed on strategies in Syria, and have seen one another deliberately trying to undermine the other’s efforts. Russian Chief of Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov sees such an effort by the US coming out of the base at the al-Tanf border.
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They heeded a Shia leader’s call-to-arms, were equipped and trained by Iran’s elite military and were forged in the crucible of war against the Islamic State.
In little more than three years the Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation Units, have risen from a disparate alliance of volunteer militias to become a battle-tested force in Iraq.
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Rouhani, Putin and Erdogan say the end of the war in Syria is at hand [PPIO]
The Presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey have concluded a tripartite summit on Syria in Sochi and say there is a real chance for peace now that the Islamic State has been largely defeated.
With IS forces routed in Syria (and Iraq), a cessation of hostilities in full effect, and hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees returning home, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that there is a real chance a political settlement will end the seven-year civil war.
Al Assad meets with Putin in Sochi, Russia on Tuesday November 21, 2017 [PPIO]
Russian President Vladimir Putin will call his American counterpart after Syrian President Bashar Al Assad concludes his trip to the Russian port city of Sochi.
“Already a talk is planned with the emir of Qatar and tomorrow—with the President of the U.S. Donald Trump, while afterwards (I will speak) with leaders from countries in the region,” a statement from the Kremlin quoted Putin on Tuesday.
Even as Iraq’s pro-government forces close in on Rawa, one of the very last strongholds of the extremist group known as the Islamic State, ordinary Iraqis everywhere are wondering where the extremists will turn up next.
A series of recent attacks and arrests are cause for concern. In Kirkuk, the headquarters of the Shia Muslim militias in that city was attacked and a day after that, authorities announced they had arrested a terrorist network inside the city.
On Tuesday, Turkey lambasted the US and its largely Kurdish allies in Syria, the YPG, for having made a deal that allowed 250 Daesh (ISIS) fighters and all their children and relatives to flee from Raqqa.
Turkey’s prime minister Binali Yildirim said,
