The data confirms that the Saudis want to return to the relationship with Syria.
This is what prompted the Bahrainis to open their embassy in Damascus, but the obstacles to their return are still continuing until now, as they demand the exit of Iran from Syria which they consider a threat to their regional role through their support for the resistance movements in Palestine, Lebanon, and Yemen. They also suffer from a dilemma: their war in Yemen, which constitutes a security threat to them especially with regard to the Saudi Plan 2030, which needs security stability that allows for this transformation and therefore, the return of relations with Syria is possible if they reach a basic conclusion that Iran is an essential part of the fabric of the region, and its exclusion is not possible. By virtue of its geopolitical weight and that the relationship with Israel cannot serve Saudi Arabia with anything, especially at the level of balancing the Iranian role.
Israel with its new extremist face after Netanyahu's victory, and his alliance with Ben Gvir, constitutes a burden on the Saudi bets, and the last good thing is their conviction that has begun to form of their inability to win in Yemen, and defeat is close, and this is what prompted them to search for a way out, to withdraw in exchange for Yemeni security guarantees.
4. SS: Syria and Turkey have a common interest in returning northeastern Syria to the Syrian government. In your opinion, can Russia play a role in this?
AA: The matter for Russia is very vital as there are a group of factors pushing Russia to return northeastern Syria to the Syrian government, as it needs to prove that its foreign policies depend on fulfilling its legal and moral obligations towards states not dismantling states, but rather restoring the sovereignty of their governments over all of their lands, and this is what it expressed. By answering to the Syrian government's call for military intervention in Syria, and on the other hand it seeks to secure the YPG, the Kurdish militia.
Those who supported them before the collapse of the Soviet Union by abandoning the protection of the Americans and providing a safe environment for their continuation. It has an interest in achieving national security for Turkey because it is certain that what the United States is working on is dismantling the region more than Britain and France did after the First World War and therefore, it is making great efforts on the level of the Syrian and Turkish states on the one hand, and on the YPG in particular, and the Syrian Kurds in general.
Russia seeks to find a political solution that gives the Syrian state the restoration of control over the region, the removal of Turkish national security concerns, and making the Kurds partners in the political solution, in exchange for their giving up arms, and breaking their alliance with the Americans. This will play a key role in restoring the regions of northeastern Syria.
5. SS: Recent reports indicate that there will be an imminent combined military operation between Russia, Syria and Turkey. What can you tell us about this upcoming military operation?
AA: One of the outcomes of the tripartite meeting of the Tehran Summit, which I mentioned earlier, is related to the common threat to the survival of the American forces in northeastern Syria against the three countries, in addition to Syria, and depriving it of its lands and wealth. It was agreed that the American forces should leave it, and the matter requires a Syrian-Turkish reconciliation. It also requires the YPG to disengage from their association with the Americans, and the second option is the passage of the SAA, and its allies, to the areas east of the Euphrates.
Reaching the alignment of the Americans, by neutralizing the SDF, by imposing a fait accompli, without a clash. If it understands its risks, but if it does not accept, then a clash with it will be inevitable, and with the support of the Russian aviation. I believe that this process is postponed because of two factors: the first is, the necessity of quick action on the Syrian-Turkish reconciliation, on and the second, is to continue the attempts with the YPG to return to the Syrian state with gains, which will be determined through negotiations between them and Damascus, which if successful will push the Americans out of the region.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist
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