Putin jumps on Trump’s Syria stand
Russian president looks to boost hand in Middle East
Vladimir Putin is seizing on president-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to reverse U.S. policy on Syria to press for a military victory that could mark Russia’s return as a great-power rival in the wider Middle East.
With Trump vowing to focus on defeating Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, rather than on arming militias fighting Bashar Assad’s forces, Putin is moving decisively to oust rebels from Aleppo.
Just days after Trump’s election, Putin and Assad resumed their aerial assault on the former commercial capital, turning a potential stalemate into what may become the Kremlin’s biggest success in the region in decades.
Assad’s military, backed by Russian firepower and Iranian-trained militias, have retaken about 60 per cent of the terrain held by rebels in the eastern part of Aleppo in the past two weeks.
Syria is just part of Putin’s goal in the Middle East, which is to regain the clout the Kremlin had before the Soviet Union collapsed. Last week, for example, Putin played a key role in convincing the Saudis and Iranians to set aside their differences and agree on OPEC’s first cut in oil output in eight years.
Robert Ford, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria, said Russia is now “a factor” in Iraq, too. “For 20 years, people basically ignored Russia on the Middle East,’’ Ford said. “The Russian role in the region now will certainly increase.”