MESOPOTAMIA NEWS PRESS SERVICE : – Arab press: Decisive visit to Russian delegation to Damascus, Turkish message to Macron via Barzani

ANHA –  5 Sept 2020 – Sources revealed that a high-level Russian delegation will visit Damascus next week, describing this visit as pivotal, while observers said that Turkey requested Nechirvan Idris Barzani in a hurry to deliver a message through this to Macron about influence in Iraq, while the Lebanese government is just around the corner.

WORLD-Middle East 05 Sep 2020, Sat – On Saturday morning, Arab newspapers touched upon the Russian moves in Syria, in addition to the meeting between Erdogan and Nechirvan Barzani, and the Lebanese crisis

Al-Sharq al-Awsat: A tripartite Russian delegation on a “pivotal visit” to Damascus

The Arab newspapers published this morning on the Syrian issue dealt with several topics, the most prominent of which talked about an expected Russian delegation’s visit to Damascus. In this context, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted a high-ranking Russian diplomatic source as saying: “A Russian military, political and economic delegation includes ‘prominent personalities’. Early next week, it will visit Damascus, which he described as “pivotal”, during which he will hold rounds of talks with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and a number of Syrian officials<span “=””>.

The source stated that “the Russian delegation represents the most prominent levels concerned with the Syrian file at the diplomatic, political, military and economic levels,” noting that this is the first time that these levels meet in a visit aimed at conducting comprehensive discussions on the files related to the situation in Syria<span “=””>.

And Western diplomatic sources said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit Syria next week, and stated that “Lavrov’s visit will focus on combating terrorism and discussing the Syrian leadership on the results of the work of the Constitutional Committee, as well as discussing the file of the eastern Euphrates regions<span “=””>.”

These data drew attention to the fact that Lavrov had never visited Syria since the outbreak of the crisis, in 2011, except once, which was in early February 2012, and that visit constituted a milestone because it was the beginning of the widespread Russian involvement in the Syrian crisis<span “=””>.

Al-Arab: Erdogan’s message to Macron via Barzani: We will run out of Erbil if you block the Baghdad road ahead of us

Regarding the French-Turkish rivalry, Al-Arab newspaper said: “It was only seventy-eight hours after the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Baghdad, until Ankara“ summoned ”the president of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, Nechirvan Barzani, to visit it in a hurry, in a clear message to France that entered In a sharp competition with Turkey for influence, the race took the form of a race in a vast region extending from Libya in the west to the eastern Mediterranean and Lebanon and reaching Iraq<span “=””>.

Barzani was received on his second visit to Turkey since he assumed the presidency of the region, succeeding his uncle Masoud, who stepped down from the post in 2017, by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a “closed meeting that took about an hour and 15 minutes<span “=””>.”

The President of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq also had talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on “developing bilateral relations, especially economic,” during which the two sides affirmed “giving greater attention to trade exchange between the two parties,” according to a statement by the region’s presidency<span “=””>.

Observers saw that Turkey wanted to receive her Barzani, who in his turn had met Macron in Baghdad, to send a message to France that it had allies in Iraq that would guarantee it a foothold in the country in the event that the central state leadership sided with Paris and expanded the circle of political, economic and security cooperation with it at the expense of Turkish interests are there<span “=””>.

According to the newspaper, “As for the Kurdish side, the feelings of the Iraqi Kurdish leadership were not without anger towards the central government, which has been subjected to severe financial pressures during the last period, as it refused to hand over the region’s share of the federal budget due to failure to fulfill its obligations, chiefly the delivery of oil revenues that it undertakes.” The government of Erbil sold it outside the scope of the Iraqi Sumo Oil Marketing Company<span “=””>.

It added, “Indeed, the Kurdish anger would not have excluded France itself because of Macron’s reluctance to allocate a visit to the region, as most international officials do when they visit Iraq, despite France being a great traditional supporter of the Iraqi Kurds, and thus Turkish sensitivity to the French role in Iraq has met with the Kurdish anger at Baghdad and Paris to create a circumstantial interest between the two sides<span “=””>. ”

Opponents of the Barzani family’s policies say that the Turkish view of the Iraqi Kurds does not deviate from the general view of the Kurds of the region as a whole, whether in Turkey or in Syria and Iran, and it is a view governed by national chauvinistic motives that intensified during the rule of the Justice and Development Party led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan<span “=””>.

Al-Bayan: Pivotal hours in forming Lebanese government 

Regarding the Lebanese issue, Al-Bayan newspaper said: “In conjunction with the passage of a month after the earthquake explosion that struck Beirut from its port, where the dust of rubble, debris and traces of destruction still dominates, the course of the entitlement to form the government seemed to be in a frantic race as the President-designate Mustafa Adib continued his presidential consultations And politics, accompanied by a French, before sifting through the outcome of the ideas and propositions that were put into his custody, provided that the coming hours will be decisive in the context of drawing the parameters of the initial draft of the expected government<span “=””>.

It added, “The authoring journey has begun, which if it is based on the reality of his consultations, it is assumed that the government will be born within days, and not within the two-week period specified by Macron. Writing, in and of itself, constitutes the basic test<span “=””>.”

In the context, Al-Bayan learned that Adib works on the basis of 5 points: determining the priority of the quick reform files that must be put into effect immediately after gaining confidence in the government, drawing up a road map for the government emanating from the French paper, forming a mini-government of 14 ministers, distributing portfolios among sects and launching Names on the bags<span “=””>.

T/S

ANHA