Aleppo uncovered Moscow and US confusion

When a superpower adopts methods that can be only described as “confused” and “limited” as the ones followed by Russia in Syria, and in particular Aleppo, this indicates two options: either it expresses a great self-confidence since it is the only decision maker, or it is very confused due to its perception that what it is doing along with its ally won’t lead to the required results.

The last battle in Aleppo started immediately after the opposition suspended the talks in Geneva. The battle aimed at pressuring the HNC to change its attitude about keeping Assad in power during the transitional period.

Putin rushed to use his “little” tactics to justify this war on Aleppo, then he started lying about it and about the “Regime of Calm” not to include Aleppo. On another occasion, Putin said that the ceasefire includes Latakia and Eastern Ghouta then he said that the bombardment is only targeting ISIS. Those contradictions made Lavrov express different contradictory attitudes.

Before the start of the battle, Lavrov said on April 19 that the opposition’s withdrawal from Geneva talks proves that the delegation doesn’t represent the opposition and won’t affect the conference which will be resumed on May 10 stressing that the conference will be held with the attendees because the opposition’s delegation wants “to undermine the political settlement in Syria.”  

After the regime committed many massacres (around 250 deaths in four days), Lavrov rushed to claim that it is the opposition which committed the massacres but not the regime. After a telephone conversation with Kerry, Lavrov said that the “Regime of Calm” includes Latakia and Eastern Ghouta, but not Aleppo. Few hours later, he said there were no guarantees that the ceasefire will be implemented in these areas as well. 

After another telephone call with Kerry, Lavrov said that there was hope to implement a ceasefire, but during a visit by de Mistura to Moscow he spoke about a 24 hour –ceasefire in Latakia and Ghouta without mentioning Aleppo! 

It was clear, particularly for Kerry and de Mistura, that those “little” tactics by Lavrov are intended to give Assad and Iran enough time to end the battle of Aleppo. Two weeks have so far elapsed without any achievements. On the contrary, the international community turned against Moscow because it didn’t practice pressure on Assad to end his atrocities in Aleppo. 

Thus, during one day –May 3- two different attitudes from Moscow revealed the Russian confusion and “open lies” and made the international community more confused towards the actual Russian plan. The first statement was made by Lavrov who said “Assad is not an ally of Russia, but we are fighting alongside his forces against terrorism in Syria.” And the second was Russian’s announcement to pull back 30 Russian warplanes from Hmeymim airbase without a prior notice. 

The fact about this confusion is that superpowers have super policies including methods and means. However, those superpowers may commit some little mistakes, but they usually recognize their faults and make a step backwards.     

Muhammad al-Mashmoshi in Al-Hayat

Translated by Orient Net English