Khalil Al-Mekdad writes in his latest article on Orient Net Arabic that Russia’s military intervention in Syria tipped the balance of power in favor of Assad bolstering his forces strength on ground. However, it failed to resolve the conflict, bringing it to deadlock.
The writer adds that Kurdish militants – in turn – also benefited from the great momentum of the Russian and Western military intervention, which completely wiped out northern Aleppo giving the militants free space to seize control of most of the Syrian border areas with Turkey.
“Russia paved the way regionally for its direct military intervention in Syria through a Quartet meeting which included the leaders of Russia, Egypt, Jordan and the UAE,” the writer points out.
Then he argues that many factors resulted with the deadlock of the Syrian conflict such as, the struggle for influence between Russia and Iran and the ability of the opposition fighters to readjust to the sudden circumstances and still win.
The writer explains that the US, along with Europe, is fully aware of their need for Russia’s role in the Middle East; due to Moscow’s inability to reach the same international levels as the US and the EU, Russia does not mind to carry out their dirty tasks.
The writer then argues that if the EU manages to attract Russia as a strategic ally, it will make up for Britain’s exit and it will free itself a little bit from US’ hegemony, without forgetting that Russia already has major influence in many European countries.
Turkish-Russian rapprochement will liberate Russia, the EU members and Turkey from a lot of political, economic and military pressure, and will open new horizons for cooperation and coordination, the writer adds.
The writer then concludes by asking: “Will we see a fundamental change in the international and regional balances map, or will it be limited to mere economic and security cooperation between the EU and Russia, to keep the US the only global power? And will Russia remain just a perpetrator of dirty jobs or will it turn the tables on everyone? And how will all of these developments reflect on the Syrian conflict?
Khalil Al-Mekdad
