• Tweeter

  • republish

Turkish and Russian military vehicles patrol the north-east of Syria near the Turkish town of Kiziltepe on November 1, 2019. REUTERS / Kemal Aslan

The first joint patrols between Moscow and Ankara began on Friday 1 November in north-eastern Syria, with the aim of ensuring the total withdrawal of Kurdish forces. This materializes Russia's role as mediator, combined with sometimes antagonistic forces in the region.

These joint patrols are one of the measures taken in the agreement reached between the Turkish President and his Russian counterpart. A new concretisation of the role of mediator played by Russia in collaboration with Iran, according to Cyrille Bret, professor at Science Po.

" The convergences between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation are quite numerous, especially on the nuclear issue , explains the researcher. Russia is Iran's advocate in the negotiating format and in the nuclear deal and the lifting of sanctions that had been concluded in 2015 and from which the United States withdrew. Russia and Iran have the same interest, that is to say, to reflect the American influence at the very borders of the Iranian space and the Russian border, in particular. In Iraq, it is once again the void left by the United States that has allowed the Moscow-Damascus-Tehran axis to become so important in the region. "

Moscow has an " ambiguous " position on Kurds, according to Cyrille Bret

With this agreement, " Russia stands out by the coherence of its international position ," continues Cyrille Bret. " It was around this goal that she tried to cement alliances with Damascus, and it was for the reasons of this fight against Sunni Islamist terrorism that she took the opportunity to eliminate a large share, also , opposition to the al-Assad regime. So she will help to the end the regime to reoccupy the entire Syrian territory. "

According to the researcher, Russia will also associate with " rival " forces and try to " reconcile " them.

Vis-à-vis the Kurds, the position of Russia is ambiguous. On the one hand, they need the Kurds to continue fighting the Islamic State and dormant cells in Syrian territory. But on the other hand, they can not give a strong support to the Kurds, who have rather loose alliances with the central power of Damascus, but have rather deep disagreements. I think that Russia will propose to the Damascus power to grant certain degrees of autonomy or administrative freedoms to the Kurds in order to reconcile the two rivals they constitute.

According to Cyrille Bret, the Russians want to continue their "fight against Islamists and rebellion in Bashar" 02/11/2019 - by Véronique Gaymard