US Secretary of State Kerry has asked Russia to suspend the raids in Syria. In essence, a unilateral "ceasefire" is proposed in Moscow to give a positive signal in view of the Geneva negotiations.
Foreign Minister Lavrov's response, just beaten by the agencies, is a sharp "no". The Russia "It will continue to pound the Islamist militias of the Caliphate and the al-Qaedists of Al Nusra until their total defeat". Putin's head of diplomacy also adds that the US is persisting in avoiding a peaceful confrontation with Moscow on the Syrian issue.
Whatever the temperature of the clash between the US and Russia, it is worth noting that the Russian intervention that began in September 2015 is the pivot around which the reversal of the military situation in Syria revolves. The effects in the political field are already visible.
Let's take a step back and start from the Arab springs, a geopolitical prelude to the torpedoing of Assad, already foreseen by the 2011.
When the civil war was not yet participated by the Caliphate militias (entered on Syrian territory in the 2014), the accusations were placed on the level of human rights. Just as for Ben Ali, Mubarak and Gaddafi the West, struck on the road to Damascus, suddenly remembered the 50 shades of democracy that separate it from the Arab countries and decided to settle accounts with Damascus.
The protracted civil war, however, has changed the rules of the game. The State apparatuses and the Syrian Armed Forces have proved to be more solid than expected, extending the time for "exporting democracy". You also want an unexpected cohesion of the Syrian people who, in spite of ethnic and confessional diversity, compacted themselves against the arrival of foreign fundamentalists, the Syrian institutions did not allow themselves to be completely overwhelmed as happened in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia.
In virtue of the bad results produced by the Arab springs, the lapse of time was vital to produce the germ of doubt about the opportunity of saving interventions.
From the countdown to the Damascus government we have moved on to a deadlock that has further extended the time frame.
With the data of January-February 2016, the situation on the ground, however, suggests a trend in further progress for the loyalists. From the stalemate we have passed to the full counteroffensive and entire areas of the country are returning to the control of the central state. THE SitRep Newspapers speak for themselves: the Syrian Armed Forces are winning the war.
This morning the news that the offensive north of Aleppo continues to be successful. The Syrian army would arrive at Al Zahra and Noubel and would target the Islamist stronghold Reytan. The Azaz-Aleppo and Maer-Andan connections would be interrupted and the jihadists would no longer have direct contact with Turkey to access supplies. The 30 would arrive on January 104a Parachute Brigade of the Republican Guard who defended Deir El Zor, a strategic center in the east towards the border with Iraq. On this front the heroic resistance of General Issam Zahreddine has become a legend throughout the country. Thousands of Caliphate militants would be on the run after suffering heavy losses.
These victories added to the reconquest south of Shaykh Miskin in the south and Rabia in the north (in the Latakia region) overlapped within a few days, giving evidence of two central aspects:
1) the Syrian Armed Forces and the commanding officers are proving to be up to par with the 5 years of war;
2) Russian support was not decisive only with direct raids, but also with supplies of vehicles, ammunition, spare parts, updates and support for 360 on the operational level.
The above shows us how the results in the field, if they cannot change geopolitical orientations, manage to shift the priority axis. Until the summer of 2015, the US-led coalition interpreted the Syrian issue as an exclusive affair. Today Kerry asks Moscow to suspend the intervention.
While waiting for the Caliphate to strike, it is necessary to understand the strategic counter-moves of Turkey and how the USA will move with respect to the Assad government, whose role as interlocutor, according to the results on the field, does not seem to be more questionable.
(Photo: Andrea Cucco / القوات المسلحه السورية)