Amidst the military-political events in Libya and the relative calm in Syria, an important piece of news went unnoticed. Yesterday, the U.S. presidential envoy to Syria, James Jeffrey, stated that the Russian military forces and the Assad regime are incapable of handling the fight against ISIS* in the areas they control, and called for their cooperation in this matter.
Jeffrey reported that while the armed Putinists and Assadists are focusing their military efforts on fighting the Syrian rebel enclave in Idlib, an activation of a long-defeated group is taking place right under their noses — in words. This is especially true in the Badia desert, where, according to Jeffrey, ISIS is «strengthening its positions, even attacking cities and holding territory for at least a short period of time.»
Jeffrey said that the U.S. is prepared to support Russian and Assad-supporting forces in the fight against ISIS, but that the effectiveness of such a fight depends on proper prioritization. In particular, the American envoy stated that despite a temporary ceasefire for the Assad regime and its allies, the priority remains the capture of Idlib, where they are concentrating their main forces and where new active fighting can be expected at any moment.
A representative of the White House warned against such rash steps, calling instead for a solution to the Idlib problem within the framework of a political settlement of the Syrian conflict.
In this regard, we would like to remind that despite all the rhetoric about the fight against ISIS as the main goal of Russia’s military intervention in Syria, in reality the fight against ISIS has never been a priority for Damascus and Moscow. For years, they have peacefully coexisted on the front lines, providing each other with a reliable rear for the fight against the main enemy of both sides — the Syrian rebels.
And it is particularly ridiculous for the Kremlin and its propagandists to claim that it was Putin’s Russia that defeated ISIS in the first place. One does not need to be a military expert to understand that the decisive contribution to the defeat of ISIS was made by the so-called international coalition, and in fact by the U.S. with its intelligence, satellite surveillance, air power, and proxies on the ground — the government army in Iraq and the YPG/SDF in Syria.
As for the Assadist-Russian-Iranian forces that turned to an offensive against ISIS forces after their defeat by the Coalition, they did so even thanks to the American SENTCOM, whose targeted airstrikes at that moment blocked the effective maneuvering of ISIS fighters, something their opponents had not been able to do before.
Moreover, it is obvious that even after gaining control over these territories thanks to the Americans, Moscow and Damascus are not capable of effectively containing the force that is considered the main threat to the international community. Instead, as they have been doing all along, they are concentrating their efforts on defeating the resistance forces of the Sunni majority in Syria.