Washington letting Moscow stew in its own Mideast juices

WASHINGTON – Russia appears to be getting more entrenched militarily in the Syrian conflict, siding with Iran to preserve the government of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to a new report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

The conflict between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia, however, promises to complicate any Russian effort to solve the Syrian conflict, while Washington appears to be on the sideline, allowing Moscow to dig itself further into a hole, regional sources tell G2 Bulletin.

While Riyadh opposes Russia’s backing of Assad and continues to help finance and supply military arms to the Sunni jihadi fighters in Syria, a high Russian official who insisted on anonymity acknowledged to G2 Bulletin that Moscow still needs to work with the Saudis.

He said that in addition to needing the Saudis’ help to achieve a political resolution of the four-year Syrian civil war, Riyadh has prevented terrorist groups such as al-Qaida and ISIS from achieving gains within the kingdom, at least for now.

At the same time, there is no love lost between Moscow and Riyadh as the Saudis have let oil prices remain low over an extend period of time in an effort to further weaken the Russian economy.

Moscow’s Middle East role is a delicate balance. Russia hopes the recent saber-rattling between Riyadh and Tehran over the kingdom’s execution of the prominent Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr doesn’t result in military conflict.

For the rest of this report, and more, go to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

The Russian official and other regional experts point to Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s recent statement that Riyadh “will not allow” a war with Iran.

For their part, the Iranians have sought to tamp down public anger over Nimr’s execution and calls for revenge against the Saudi kingdom.

Avoiding war

Experts agree that such a conflict would only jeopardize the energy-driven economies of both countries at tremendous expense to their infrastructures.

“Russia’s work-with-everyone approach to the Middle East is logical from a national interest perspective,” wrote Middle East expert Paul Saunders for the Washington-based Middle East news site Al-Monitor. “Since Moscow lacks the power or influence to produce its preferred outcome unilaterally, its leaders and diplomats have no alternative but to rely upon bilateral and multilateral diplomacy to achieve their objectives.”

Saunders is executive director of the Center for the National Interest and a former State Department senior adviser during the George W. Bush administration.

He added that in “a region in which it often seems impossible to know what might happen next, this creates disincentives for spoiling relations with governments that could become important in the future.”

For the rest of this report, and more, go to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

 

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