Military landscape has changed in Syria: Analyst
In this edition of The Debate, Press TV has conducted an interview with James Jatras, a former US Senate foreign policy analyst, and Patrick Basham, the founding director of Democracy Institute, both from Washington, to discuss the new round of Syria peace talks scheduled to start later in March.
Jatras says Russia’s support for the Syrian government has changed both the political and military landscapes in Syria, stressing that it “has forced a kind of a sorting out” between extremist groups and those who can engage in a political dialogue with the government and “are simply not Wahhabi terrorists who insist on overthrowing the established government and instituting their own state.”
The analyst expressed optimism about the upcoming Syrian peace talks because the negotiations are supposed to focus on a political transition in the war-stricken Arab country.
“If there is a genuine opposition and they do not want to be associated with Daesh, or al-Nusra and be destroyed by the Russian Air Force and the Syrian army, they must come to the table and talk. I hope there is a chance for that,” Jatras says.
The military action by the Syrian army and the Russian Air Force against Takfiri Daesh terrorists and al-Qaeda militants “needs to continue” even after a ceasefire takes hold in Syria.
Basham, for his turn, says he is at best “cautiously pessimistic” that the talks will be successful.
Russians have once again “outmaneuvered the West, particularly the United States, in that their attacks on the Daesh Takfiri militants ,” he says.
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