US joint inter-chief of staff "Fighting Joe" Dunford met with his counterparts, the Russian Valery Gerasimov and the Turkish Hulusi Akar, to discuss the situation in Syria.
At the center of the talks (which took place in Antalya in Turkey) is the "military crowding" that was created in the region east of Aleppo in anticipation of a final close against ISIS.
The three represent the three different matrices of the offensive against the Islamic State and the strategic objectives linked to them: the US sponsors the SDF predominantly Kurdish; the Russians the Assad Syrian government; the Turks themselves, engaged in the operation Shield of the Euphrates.
The aim of the summit is officially the "de-conflictualization" of the current Syrian landscape, with particular attention to the situation north of Raqqa.
According to US sources, "avoiding shooting yourself" is the top priority at this time of dangerous convergence in a relatively small area.
Beyond the technical aspects, the political value of the meeting is enormous. General Valery Gerasimov, very loyal to Putin, is on the list of Russian personalities affected by sanctions by the European Union. The meeting is in fact an overcoming of the tables for peace in which Brussels is also present, and establishes a prevalence of the pragmatic operative line over the theoretical one.
This is the second time that Dunford and Gerasimov meet in just over a month.
(photo: DoD)
