Gulf states wary of engagement over Syria

...it was surprising that the Gulf states wanted to talk to the Russians, but they have two important priorities in Syria. One is to find an end to the civil war; the other is to wipe out Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). These two tasks are linked but are different.
Ending the war requires a desire for a political settlement between the main Syrian militias, which requires support from Al Assad’s allies. Russia must be willing to help find an end to the fighting as it looks at its wider Middle East strategy.
The fight against Daesh is a different matter and while everyone agrees Daesh must be wiped out, not much has happened to make that happen. The international coalition has been trying to support the government in Iraq against Daesh, but with no great success, and while it has run some air raids against Daesh in Syria, it has refused to back Al Assad in that struggle and has no ground forces with which to fight Daesh.

Daesh forces have become one of the more successful militias in Syria and they now control much of the centre and east of the country.

Gulf states wary of engagement over Syria | GulfNews.com

so Russia and the Gulf states ( including Saudi Arabia), as well as the 'international coalition' all have the common goal of
killing Daesh,
But I don't think it's going to be a priority until there is some kina peace process in place. Talks at least.
I'm thinking the US needs to backoff and quit supplying the FSA types -
the faster the war can end, the quicker Daesh can be dealt with , and really do we care if Assad stay or goes??

annata said:

...it was surprising that the Gulf states wanted to talk to the Russians, but they have two important priorities in Syria. One is to find an end to the civil war; the other is to wipe out Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). These two tasks are linked but are different.
Ending the war requires a desire for a political settlement between the main Syrian militias, which requires support from Al Assad’s allies. Russia must be willing to help find an end to the fighting as it looks at its wider Middle East strategy.
The fight against Daesh is a different matter and while everyone agrees Daesh must be wiped out, not much has happened to make that happen. The international coalition has been trying to support the government in Iraq against Daesh, but with no great success, and while it has run some air raids against Daesh in Syria, it has refused to back Al Assad in that struggle and has no ground forces with which to fight Daesh.

Daesh forces have become one of the more successful militias in Syria and they now control much of the centre and east of the country.

Gulf states wary of engagement over Syria | GulfNews.com

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Wait, hold on! I thought it was all Obama's fault! According to the American Right, it's Obama's fault that there's any violence whatsoever in the ME! Of course, we on the Left say most of the blame goes on Bush 43 since he had us illegally invade Iraq and kill tens of thousands of innocent people.

I guess nobody here in America can conceive of the possibility that maybe, just maybe much of what's going on in the Middle East (ever since we left Iraq) has very little to do with what the White House does or does not do.

Glen Contrarian said:

Wait, hold on! I thought it was all Obama's fault! According to the American Right, it's Obama's fault that there's any violence whatsoever in the ME! Of course, we on the Left say most of the blame goes on Bush 43 since he had us illegally invade Iraq and kill tens of thousands of innocent people.

I guess nobody here in America can conceive of the possibility that maybe, just maybe much of what's going on in the Middle East (ever since we left Iraq) has very little to do with what the White House does or does not do.

Click to expand...

well I do not want to make this political, or talk about why Russia is n etc.

The WH 's insistence on "Assad must go", and the "Friends of Syria" was never helpful...
but this thing has a life (death) of its own -yes.

At this point I think we're better off following Russia lead.

annata said:

well I do not want to make this political, or talk about why Russia is n etc.

The WH 's insistence on "Assad must go", and the "Friends of Syria" was never helpful...
but this thing has a life (death) of its own -yes.

At this point I think we're better off following Russia lead.

Click to expand...

There's a lot of people in America who seem to think that if Russia does something, it must be wrong or evil and must be opposed. While Russia has done a lot of things that are very wrong, in this instance they may be doing the right thing.

But the key word is 'may', because if the conflict spreads to an even greater extent through out the region, the cure might wind up being worse than the disease. Personally, I think that we should have kept our hands off from the beginning, and done nothing more than trade and perhaps provide logistical support to the nations in the region. That, and it would help if we stopped supporting Israel's decades-long oppression of the Palestinians.

*ducks to avoid stones thrown by pro-Zionist right-wingers who have no clue what the Israelis have been doing to the Palestinians*

Glen Contrarian said:

There's a lot of people in America who seem to think that if Russia does something, it must be wrong or evil and must be opposed. While Russia has done a lot of things that are very wrong, in this instance they may be doing the right thing.

But the key word is 'may', because if the conflict spreads to an even greater extent through out the region, the cure might wind up being worse than the disease. Personally, I think that we should have kept our hands off from the beginning, and done nothing more than trade and perhaps provide logistical support to the nations in the region. That, and it would help if we stopped supporting Israel's decades-long oppression of the Palestinians.

*ducks to avoid stones thrown by pro-Zionist right-wingers who have no clue what the Israelis have been doing to the Palestinians*

Click to expand...

Russia is pursuing their interests, the US needs to do the same.
I'm a lot more concerned about Egypt though - el Sisi is making nice to Putin, and vice versa directly because Obama
decides to put needless sanction on him because of the Morsi coupe.

Obama's middle east policy is in shambles , from Libya to Syria. and Egypt.
Iraq was Bush's screw up, but Obama owns his own fiascos

annata said:

Russia is pursuing their interests, the US needs to do the same.
I'm a lot more concerned about Egypt though - el Sisi is making nice to Putin, and vice versa directly because Obama
decides to put needless sanction on him because of the Morsi coupe.

Obama's middle east policy is in shambles , from Libya to Syria. and Egypt.
Iraq was Bush's screw up, but Obama owns his own fiascos

Click to expand...

Egypt is a concern, but I disagree that Obama's ME policy is in a 'shambles'. I'd say that most of the problems stem more from England's and America's actions before when most of us were born, specifically:

- England arbitrarily deciding the borders for Iraq and Afghanistan, with no allowance for tribal and sectarian differences
- England promising Palestine to BOTH the Palestinians and to the Jews...and then giving it to the Jews
- The secret agreement among the western powers in WWI about who would get what parts of the Ottoman Empire once the other side lost.
- America supporting a coup against the democratically-elected leader of Iran in the early 1950's because they were nationalizing their oil fields
- America supporting Israel no matter how egregious Israel's actions were. To be sure, the Muslim nations are not guiltless...but neither is Israel.

In other words, I think that it didn't really matter much what Obama did or didn't do - the problems run a lot deeper than anything he's responsible for, and the leaders of the ME states need to step up, to do what is necessary to get their region in order.