Alexander Lavrentyev, Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Syria, granted an interview to TASS yesterday, a day after the conclusion of the 16th Astana format meeting in Syria, in which he clearly laid out Russia’s views on how to resolve the conflict in that country.
• “I think that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria may take place at any time,” he said. According to Lavrentyev, U.S. troop pullout from Afghanistan signals the Kurds that the United States may arrive at a decision to leave Syria, too. “You must remember that former U.S. President Donald Trump had decided to withdraw troops but his decision was later reconsidered and delayed,” he said. Lavrentyev observed that Iraqi officials have told Moscow that Baghdad, in its talks with Washington, intends that the U.S. military will withdraw from Iraq. “If that happens and the U.S. contingent withdraws from Iraq, then its maintenance of the contingent in Syria would become impossible due to logistics issues,” he said.
• Lavrentyev suggested that a U.S. withdrawal from Syria could facilitate dialogue between the Kurds in northeast Syria and Damascus. “As for the Americans, we think that their presence in the northeast is solely dictated by the need to fight against what is left of the so-called ISIL, of course, but it is excessive,” he said. “Their withdrawal could stimulate the development of dialogue between the [Kurdish] Syrian Democratic Forces and the central government in Damascus with the aim of finding a compromise solution, and to return the Kurds and the Arabs living in the northeast to a united Syrian state.”
