Bloomberg Politics reports Russian and U.S. officials are discussing possible areas of agreement that would allow President Trump to claim his upcoming summit with Vladimir Putin was a success.
At the top of the list for the July 16 meeting in Helsinki, Finland, is Iran’s role in Syria, an issue that Moscow is simultaneously negotiating with Tehran, a senior Russian official said on condition of anonymity because he’s not authorized to comment on the record.
Putin has agreed in principle to U.S. and Israeli demands that Iranian-backed forces in southern Syria be kept away from Israel’s border, replaced with troops loyal to the government in Damascus, two Kremlin advisers said.
After studying Trump’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, during which he announced a surprise halt to U.S. military exercises with South Korea, Putin decided he needs to negotiate with the billionaire personally ...
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Trump has shifted away from his predecessor’s policy of demanding the ouster of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, a position formulated before Russia turned the tide of the country’s civil war in Assad’s favor with Iran’s help ...
“We’ll see what happens when the two of them get together,” said [National Security Advisor John] Bolton, who’s long advocated regime change in the Islamic Republic. “There are possibilities for doing a larger negotiation on helping to get Iranian forces out of Syria and back into Iran, which would be a significant step forward.”
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Still, there are major questions about Putin’s ability to enforce any agreement involving Iran’s actions in Syria, even if he offers to deploy troops to stabilize the border areas in question. This in turn is fueling concerns in Washington and among U.S. allies in Europe that Trump may proclaim the Helsinki meeting a breakthrough without extracting any real concessions.
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Russia isn’t trying to take decisions with the U.S. about a third country behind its back, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on a conference call on Friday, when asked about a possible deal on Iran’s presence in Syria.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that he’ll confer with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after the Helsinki summit about implementing whatever agreements are reached. Even so, he cautioned that “it’s absolutely not realistic” to demand Iran pull out of Syria altogether.
Full story: Putin Is Preparing a Deal Trump Can Tout After Summit (Bloomberg Politics)