Syrian military official: There’s been a ‘big shift’ in Russian military support for Assad

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While the desperate flight of Syrians from their country's war was dominating news bulletins this summer, yet another diplomatic push to end the four-year-old conflict was quietly running into the sand.

That largely unnoticed failure has reinforced the view amongst Syria experts that there is no solution in sight, with one of the biggest obstacles a seemingly unbridgeable international divide over President Bashar al-Assad's future.

As a consequence, Syria looks set for ever greater fragmentation into a patchwork of territories, one of them the diminishing Damascus-based state where Assad appears confident of survival with backing from his Russian and Iranian allies.

http://www.businessinsider.com/syrian-military-official-theres-been-a-big-shift-in-russian-military-support-for-assad-2015-9

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1. Iran minister criticizes calls for ouster of Syria's Assad

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's foreign minister on Monday criticized demands for the resignation of Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying such calls have prolonged the Arab country's civil war.

Mohammad Javad Zarif went so far as to say that those who have in the past years demanded Assad's ouster "are responsible for the bloodshed in Syria."

The top Iranian diplomat did not name any specific country in the region but was likely referring to Turkey's and Saudi Arabia's repeated calls for Assad to step down. The two Sunni Muslim countries have supported rebels fighting against Assad.

Also Monday, French President Francois Hollande, in announcing that France will send reconnaissance flights over Syria beginning Tuesday and is considering airstrikes in the fight against the Islamic State group, said that resolving Syria's war will only happen if Assad leaves power.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_IRAN_SYRIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-09-07-07-47-45

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2. Putin Now 'On the Offensive' in Syrian Conflict - German Newspaper

Despite Western countries' failed policies in the Middle East, the Russian President made it clear that Russia is ready to cooperate with Washington to find a political solution to the Syrian crisis.

Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized Western foreign policy in the Middle East but is ready to cooperate with the US to establish peace in the region, German newspaper Deutsche Witschafts Nachrichten said on Sunday.

According to the newspaper, Putin's rhetoric could mean that he is "going on the offensive" in the Syrian conflict by saying that Moscow is ready to help Western countries in the fight against the Islamic State. However, he also claimed that the West was not without its share of the blame for the Syrian conflict.

"In Russia, we have even several years ago said that if our so-called Western partners conduct erroneous policies in regions of the Muslim world, in the Middle East and North Africa, this will lead to large-scale issues," Putin said on Friday.

http://sputniknews.com/russia/20150906/1026667621/russia-putin-speech-syria.html

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3. Obama takes timeout from the Salman doctrine

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Aylan has scarred the West’s conscience. Germany and Austria have overnight opened the doors to Syrian refugees. Obama knows there is a political message. The Russian President Vladimir Putin was explicit at a press conference Thursday:

“United States does not have to deal with such a flow of migrants, while Europe, after blindly following instructions from America, is now bearing the brunt of the crisis. I am not saying how smart we [Russians] are and how shortsighted our partners turned out to be, or to bait anyone; we simply need to see what to do next.”

Make no mistake, the US’ European allies will expect Obama to rein in Turkey and Saudi Arabia from exacerbating the Syrian conflict. Aylan didn’t die in vain. His tragic death overnight shifted the locus from ‘regime change’ to political solution to the Syrian conflict.

A consensus is building up that political change is needed in Syria. Putin echoed it: “We [Moscow] understand that political change is also required… There is an overall understanding that joint efforts to combat terrorism should go side by side with certain political processes inside Syria.


http://atimes.com/2015/09/obama-takes-timeout-from-salman-doctrine/