MESOP ANALYSIS THE ASSAD / PUTIN TALKS – ANALYSIS BY FOREIGN AFFAIRS / NEW YORK TIMES / THE ECONOMIST

“One thing is certain: Only the big players in this crisis have what it takes to effect change. The end game will not please everyone, and trying to build super coalitions of dozens of nations for endless rounds of talks will result in more deadlock. Worse still, competing coalitions risk pouring resources into competing aims. It’s time for the United States and Russia to work together to stop the flow of death machinery into the Syrian inferno, and to remove from the battlefields of Iraq and Syria those who will never negotiate with anyone,” write Luay Al Khatteeb and Abbas Kadhim in Foreign Affairs.

“Viewed through a broader regional framework, American acquiescence to this Russian initiative would ultimately mean an accommodation with a major reshaping of the strategic order in the Middle East. Moscow is clearly trying to accomplish the creation of a powerful alliance with Iran, Iraq, Hezbollah, ‘Little Syria’ and others. To secure this new compact, Russia is willing to risk not only confrontation with the West, but also its recently improved relations with other regional powers like Turkey and Saudi Arabia,” writes Hussein Ibish in the New York Times.

 “The region’s sectarian problems risk getting worse and broadening. Iraq’s cartoonists now portray Mr Putin as a Shia tribal hero, giving the region’s Shia powers (currently led by Iran) a global reach. Meanwhile, Sunni powers still look grudgingly to America, despite Mr Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. After months of waiting, some of Syria’s rebels have at last received an American arms drop (ostensibly to fight IS, not the Syrian regime). In Iraq, America is again arming and training thousands of tribesmen, adding a Sunni flank to the Iranian-dominated fight against IS. On the street and in parliament, some Sunnis have denounced Russia’s return to Iraq’s stage as vehemently as Shias have championed it,” writes the Economist.