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Vol. 81/No. 29 August 7, 2017
Washington seeks ‘reset’ with Moscow in Syria
BY JIM BRADLEY
The Washington Post, New York Times and other media reported July 19
that the U.S. government has ended a covert CIA program that has given
some military aid to select rebel forces fighting against the Bashar
al-Assad dictatorship in Syria. The move cements a consensus in
Washington — by both the administrations of Barack Obama and Donald
Trump — to back off calls for removal of Assad as part of any diplomatic
settlement to the ongoing Syrian civil war.
The U.S. rulers goal in Syria is to reimpose some stability in the
Middle East that protects their imperialist interests.
The conflict in Syria began in 2011 after Assad unleashed brutal
military force to crush massive, popular mobilizations of working people
demanding democratic rights and the end of his autocratic rule. Over
400,000 people have been killed. Contending capitalist powers have
intervened, including Washington, Moscow, Tehran, Ankara and the
monarchies on the Saudi peninsula.
Washington’s decision to provide limited aid to a small number of
heavily vetted Syrian rebel groups in 2013 — proposed by then Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton — had limited effect. None of the recipients
were ever provided with weapons capable of challenging the air power of
Assad and his allies.
While a variety of rebel forces, including some backed by the U.S., made
inroads against Assad, the situation on the ground shifted in September
2015 when Moscow intervened, backing Assad with deployment of bombers.
Tehran joined Moscow, sending additional officers, troops and Shiite
militias to take part in ground combat.
The decision of the Trump administration is the latest step in
Washington’s shifting emphasis on confining its actions to attacks on
Islamic State, in both Syria and Iraq. Washington continues to arm and
support troops of the Syrian Democratic Forces, led by Kurdish fighters
from the People’s Protection Units, who are engaged in an effort to
drive IS out of its Syrian capital in Raqqa.
An unnamed U.S. official told the Washington Post that, given Assad’s
current grip on power, the decision should not be seen as a concession
to Moscow but rather, “a signal to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin
that the administration wants to improve ties with Russia.”
Washington seeks to establish a working relationship with Moscow to tamp
down the fighting. Meanwhile, Moscow signed a pact with Assad to station
aircraft and troops at Syria’s Hmeymim air base for the next 49 years,
with an option to extend. The air base supplements Moscow’s Tartus naval
base on the Mediterranean Sea.
At the same time, Washington signed an agreement with the governments of
Russia and Jordan, supported by Damascus, for a cease-fire in an area of
southwestern Syria that began July 9.
Speaking in Geneva July 15, where the latest round of U.N.-sponsored
Syria “peace talks” have been taking place, Russian Ambassador Alexei
Borodavkin said progress is being made because demands for the overthrow
of Assad have receded. Participating in the negotiations are Assad
officials and the High Negotiations Committee — a Saudi Arabia-backed
stand-in for the anti-Assad opposition groups, who are too divided to
have official representatives.
Washington-Tehran relations
The new U.S. policy “will give a boost to the Assad regime and
strengthen the Iranians,” Col. Ahmed al-Hammadi, a Free Syrian Army
commander near Damascus, told the Post July 20.
Washington’s 1991 and 2003 wars against Iraq that overthrew the Saddam
Hussein regime there failed to create a new government that could unite
the contending religious and political forces in the country. One
unintended consequence of this and of Washington’s withdrawal was the
emergence of Islamic State — a marriage of a group of Saddam’s officers
who had been imprisoned by the U.S. and forces that split from al-Qaeda.
A second unintended consequence was the fast-developing political,
economic and military ties of the Iranian regime with Iraq, also a
majority Shiite country. Shiite militias controlled by Iran’s Islamic
Revolutionary Guards hold territory in eastern Iraq that Tehran
envisions as part of a future land corridor connecting the Iranian
capital, through Iraq and southwestern Syria to Lebanon on the
Mediterranean, the home base of its Hezbollah militia ally.
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