Congress of Syrian peoples in Sochi to be of great importance for further settlement of situation

Dec. 13, 2017 - PRLog -- Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a complete victory over Islamic State [ISIS, in the Arabic variant – DAISH, the activities of the terrorist group are prohibited in Russia] militants on both banks of the Euphrates river in Syria.

"Naturally, there still may be some isolated pockets of resistance but let me repeat that on the whole, at this stage and on that territory, combat action has been completed with the full defeat of the terrorists," the head of state told journalists during his working trip to Nizhny Novgorod on December 6.

According to him, all participants of the conflict settlement, including the government of Syria, the countries of the region and the UN, "should naturally move to the next stage – the start of a political process, as we agreed at the trilateral meeting of the presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkey in Sochi, that is, establishing and holding the Syrian National Dialogue Congress."

Earlier Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the Congress of the National Dialogue of Syria, the exact date of which has not yet been determined, will be aimed at launching the process for the preparation of the new state constitution.

"According to the statement earlier made in Sochi, the countries should hold consultations on the list of participants. We informed [the UN Special Envoy] Staffan de Mistura about what we are doing. And we want to use the forthcoming Congress – the date of which will be announced later, after we approve the list of participants – to help the negotiations in Geneva launch a stable constitutional process," Sergei Lavrov said.

Commenting on the forthcoming event in Sochi, Gal Luft, Co-director, Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, said it would be "the first real breakthrough in the diplomatic effort to stabilize the situation Syria."

"It is clear to me that Assad agreed to make some significant concessions in order for an agreement to be reached. Perhaps he agreed to appoint vice presidents from the opposition or create some autonomy for the rebels or even step down by an agreed upon future deadline. We don't know yet, but I suppose we would not be talking about a peace agreement without some major concessions on his behalf," the expert told PenzaNews.

While the fact that war in Syria seems to be winding down there are also some losers, he said.

"One of them is Washington. It is Russia – not the US – that will be ushering the new order in Syria and perhaps the entire region. A Russian brokered peace deal will be a huge diplomatic victory for Putin. If it materializes the Nobel Peace Prize committee will have a hard time overlooking a Putin nomination for next year's prize. The fact that the meeting will be held in Sochi symbolizes not only Russia's full ownership of this agreement but also its ability to create a strategic and diplomatic axis with Iran and Turkey," Gal Luft said.

From his point of view, the optics of all of this do not bode well for US leadership in the region.

"Both the Obama and Trump administrations have demonstrated indecisive and incoherent approach toward the Syria conflict and essentially left the playing field for Russia. The US can at best be a cheer leader for any resulting peace agreement. This would be the first peace deal reached in the Middle East without US involvement and leadership," the analyst explained.

Source: https://penzanews.ru/en/analysis/64849-2017