Russia weakened US standing in Syria: Analyst

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent remarks regarding Russia’s role in the Syrian conflict show how Moscow’s military aid to Damascus has weakened Washington’s position in the Arab country, an American geopolitical analyst says.

Kerry on Thursday demanded that Russia halt its bombing campaign in Syria, implicitly blaming Moscow for the collapse in the UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva.

In an interview with Press TV, Eric Draitser said that Kerry’s remarks hint at Washington’s fading influence in Syria.

“What this really tells you is that the United States recognizes just how weak its position has become, its position both at the negotiating table via its Saudi and Qatari and Turkish proxies, and also weak on the battlefield,” he said.

Draitser attributed the situation to Russia’s aerial campaign in Syria, which was started last September upon a request by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia’s involvement in the war changed the nature and the tactical situation of the years-long conflict, therefore affecting the ongoing UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva which involve ant-government forces, the analyst noted.

“There is a growing realization among the so-called opposition that they will not win this war. The United States and its allies in NATO and in the [Persian] Gulf – it understands now that the so-called regime change, the removal of the dictator and all of these other phrases, all of this has now been lost to history,” he explained.

This is why Kerry now urging Russia to stop attacking Daesh positions in Syria, Draitser argued.

However, he warned against being overly optimistic about the possibility of a peaceful end to the conflict as “the situation of the so-called opposition is now so critical and that they have been devastated so completely, now we enter into a new phase,” where a Turkish invasion of Syria is a looming possibility.

The Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Thursday Moscow has serious grounds to suspect Turkey of preparing for a military incursion into Syria.

Draitser said if such invasion actually takes place then the conflict would escalate into a regional war, which would lead to a direct military confrontation between Russia and Turkey, especially after Turkey’s downing of a Russian aircraft over Syria in December.

Draitser further noted that Kerry’s remarks underscore America’s two objectives of “negotiation” and “deconstruction of Syria.”

The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which flared up in March 2011, has reportedly killed more than 260,000 people and left over one million injured.

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