Written by Alexander Mercouris; Originally appeared at TheDuran
In day of intense diplomatic contact Russian Foreign and Defence ministers hold telephone conferences with their counterparts in Turkey and Iran as Russia seeks to consolidate Syrian military’s victory in Aleppo.
Following the Putin-Erdogan agreement, which after weeks of fighting and unsuccessful diplomacy between the US and Russia eventually led to the withdrawal of the Al-Qaeda led Jihadi fighters from eastern Aleppo, comes news of a three party telephone conference today Saturday 17th December 2017 between the Russian, Turkish and Iranian Foreign Ministers, Sergey Lavrov, Mevlut Cavusoglu and Mohammad Javad Zarif.
The purpose of the call was according to Interfax to discuss the situation in Syria following the Syrian army’s victory in Aleppo.
In parallel with Lavrov’s telephone conversations with his Turkish and Iranian counterparts, Russia’s Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu has also been on the telephone speaking to representatives of the Turkish and Iranian Defence Ministries and – most unusually but of potentially critical importance – to the head of Turkey’s military intelligence agency.
Turkish military intelligence is of course the organisation which tipped the Turkish government off about the attempted coup in July, forcing the coup plotters to launch their coup prematurely in the early evening rather than in the early morning hours as they had originally planned, causing the coup to fail.
The Iranian Fars news agency has as we previously reported, claimed that Turkish military intelligence in turn was tipped off about the coup by Russian intelligence, which supposedly obtained this information by intercepting signals passing between the coup plotters.
I have previously pointed out that the ambiguous language Russian and Turkish officials have used when publicly discussing this alleged tip off essentially confirms that the Fars report about it is true.
Turkish military intelligence is therefore an institution with which the Russians have a history of contacts, and to which Turkish President Erdogan owes his job and quite possibly his life.
Turkish military intelligence is also widely suspected of being the agency which has conducted Turkey’s on the ground operation in support of the Jihadis in Syria. In that capacity it was the agency which initially negotiated the Aleppo withdrawal agreement with the Russians.
All this activity involving not just the senior diplomats but also the senior militaries of Russia, Turkey and Iran points to a concerted effort by the Russians to build on the Syrian army’s victory in Aleppo to kickstart some sort of moves towards a political settlement of the Syrian crisis.
Russian President Putin whilst in Japan has spoken of the need in Syria for a renewed ceasefire. The Russians have however made clear that they are not prepared to enter into ceasefires either with ISIS or with Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria – Jabhat Al-Nusra – which has been leading the armed resistance to President Assad.
President Assad for his part has identified Idlib, in a province adjoining the Turkish border, as the next major objective of the Syrian army following consolidation of its victory in Aleppo.
A possible explanation for all this diplomatic activity is that it is an attempt by the Russians and the Iranians to secure Turkey’s commitment not to interfere with any pending Syrian army offensive against Idlib.
There is now talk of a summit meeting between the Russian, Turkish and Iranian Foreign Ministers, presumably to discuss this question.
Meanwhile the most notable fact about all these diplomatic contacts is that the US has been completely cut out of them.
That the US , has been cut out of the talks , increases the chances of their being fruitful .
Turkey has lost the most face in the rebel loss in Aleppo , so is there a compensating “arrangement” ? Turkish (1), American (1), and Saudi agents (8) , were captured (total 14) in a control room Friday , reported by Fars . “Free Trade” ?
Like Munich, 1938: brits, french, germans. about czechoslovakia without czechoslovakia. uncle stalin told, such deals mke anly fascicsts.
2016: iran, turkey, russia. about syria without syria. ….
it’s not without Syria – Assad has to keep his head down for a while yet. I wouldn’t step on a plane if I was Assad.
hahaha.
So we know for fact that it was indeed Russia who tipped of the Islamist-Salton of Turkey about the Revolution. Why do you think Erdogan changed his policies towards Russia and Putin within 12 hours? Apologized to Russia? And warmed up and became friends again with Russia? This was what Putin told him his payment was for Russia saving his life, and warning them. This article is an attempt to hide the fact that Russia warned the Islamist-Turks about the Revolution.
Yes you are right Putin indeed informed erdogan about the military coup. If Russia would allow removal of erdogan then we would see greater military assistance from USA to Kurds. Moreover Erdogan is not under control of US politics. He’s crazy but he can be convince is better for Turkey to retain the integrity of Syria rather than leting Kurds to build a country
The “revolution” was organized by Erdogan and his regime to justify purges that had been prepared for a long while.
They would rather be on the winning side. They could still side with the US and Israel if the latter decided to attack Syria before January 20th.
.Iranians have to abandon disaster Lavrov policy.His servility to the Americans neocons with his “humanitarian “ceasefire in Aleppo , Syria lost the Palmyra.With his amnesty to terrorists in Aleppo in the time when SAA and army have trapped the rats in East Aleppo gave them to opportunity to move to the rest of Syria or even to move to Chechnya in order to start the third Chechen war.The miserable Lavrov in order to serve his masters neocons sacrifice the security of Russian Federation
ha ha ha ha.
I see no grand issues in this latest days events, other then hopefully the Turks sticks to their words this time, and Idlib is an “natural” next step/phase, and let the rats camp in Palmyra, just close the door behind them, and now where they are in the open range, pick em out, one by one. And I hope the line of command is been made crystal clear, nothing is more dangerous that sincere ignorance and stupid arrogance, the devils twins.
And in all this per-stance ww2 debate, two country’s are left out, Spain and Finland, and in Finland Stalin bombed His own town, and blamed it on the Finns, sound familiar dont it,, yeah and the reasons the same, but somehow, this slips thrue, and all thoe I write it, its not about hating Russia, just about facts. Fascinating, our Tribe, have an deal, written and given its legitimate status by the Tzar, and the Russian Gov. This paper was from Ivan the “terrible”, 500 years ago, but this days nothing is worth is paper, just ask the Native at the Standing Rock in the UssA. Our Tribes paper is still there in its original form, preserved for 500 years, yeah, and I am not even considered to be native, because I refuse to be an f….. “sami” an fake people as the “Kurd” and “Jews”, all lies nothing is true, of course if you believe their sniveling bollocks about been a “native”.
They lie about everything this days,( this isnt for Russia) our “eminent” MSM, and how on earth is they then going to back track all their lies, they whine about Aleppo but when I ask about Libya, they just go bonkers, and simply screens at you, huh, what “enlightening” debates we have this days, where everybody beats each others with propaganda spoon feed for years, since the Balkans gone into warp drive, and left for the lalaland it came from.
Its so much bullshit out there its getting impossible to penetrate, they simply dont care. They must know something we dont know, because the hate propaganda is getting worse and worse, and believe me, only hate is what I read, and you think this will change miraculously in the coming days/weeks/years. Look at the Tribes of Joos people screaming about wiping out white people, yeah, thats OK, but what if I wrote the same. Its ringing in my ears just by the mere thought of it. How is that possible if there isnt something much darker lurking in the shadows, its pure hate rhetoric hammered constant against White and Russians.
Even professors writes about wiping out whites, weirdly anouf they come from the Tribe of Jooos Oh….. I forget, they can say whatever they want, only I can go to jail for doing the same. Hallelujah, what an glorious media world we live in,
And as before I know ww3 is coming., Wanna bet. I bet Trump will ass kiss Russians, to divide the block( BIRICS) against the coming war against Iran, this is the NeoCONs wet dream, and they will get it, mark my words, the war is coming, Trump have promised to His masters in Tel-aviv to do so, all people in the Gov have pledged to do so, every “deplorable” have nada problems with wiping more millions of this planet because their Masters tells them to do so. SO tell me, Am I lying. Trump with His cabinet is even crazier that the one we have right now, His is rabies infested pack of barking/raving lunatics witch is coming, whom all of them drools about ever more wars.
huh
peace
Hello verden. I don’t pay too much attention to what is said. I take it into account but, the moves that accompany it must sync together. I watch what the ‘players’ do more than what they say. This requires a lot of patience but, it does wash out the bs. Have a good weekend. :)
The US is in a state of transition. Only the president can make decisions, but he cannot really make decisions diametrically opposed to his follower – which means no final decisions can be made or they would have to follow Obama’s policy – i.e. to harm Russia as much as possible, a repeat of the mujahedin in Afghanistan that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. That is the function of ISIS and al Nusra. And al Nusra now lost in Aleppo. Note that a large number of rebels threw in the trowel, preferring amnesty over fighting Assad. Which indicates that they fought against Assad only based on promises by the US that they would then become the new government. That is not realistic now and never was, because the rebels don’t have any politically experienced person. They of course also realize that they would lose the government of Syria to ISIS while being ousted themselves from ISIS. Which means, the resistance by the rebels is weakening of collapsing. In time, they will join the Syrian army to defeat ISIS to rescue their country as that is in their advantage, as both Assad and Russia agree to include them in a new government by being represented in parliament. For them that is a way to the presidency in the future. Continuing the fight against Assad is not. Which means that those who continue to fight joined al Nusra/ISIS and are now terrorists at mercy of the Syrian army. That will facilitate the liberation of Idlib As to NATO – its role is no longer defined. On their own, they cannot really play a role in Syria and once Trump is inaugurated, they will have to listen to what he wants. That may well mean a better coordinated approach to eliminate ISIS rather than Assad.
An interesting article in this context is this: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-no-military-solution-syria-russia-tells-assad-370256417
It is an interview with Naumkin. Naumkin is one of four senior political advisers to UN envoy Staffan de Mistura, who has been trying to mediate between the war’s many players since July 2014. He too claims that Russia is pushing Assad to find some agreement with the opposition.