The state of play this weekend started to get interesting with respects to Russia-US relations. During the G20 summit in China this weekend news reports came out that Russia and the United States had come to terms regarding Syria.
#world #singapore US and Russia near deal on Syria-State Department official: The United States is clos… https://t.co/NZEp5DxGT2 #news
— sglatestnews (@sglatestnews) September 4, 2016
But that lasted only a day at most when reports started to come in that Russia had backed away from some of its promises.
Obama: ‘Not there yet’ on US, Russia deal on Syria violence: HANGZHOU, China (AP) — The United States and Rus… https://t.co/PQBSon6Btp
— Albany NewsChannel (@Albany_NC) September 4, 2016
So, this is nothing new. Diplomacy is a slow thing sometimes.
However, reports started coming in today as the G20 leaders are leaving China that Russia is planning to resume its use of an Iranian air base.
Chances high that #Russia will resume its use of #Iran-ian #military base https://t.co/W7BGp453L1 #SyriaCrisis pic.twitter.com/9Ec6M9DUxd
— Iran (@Iran) September 6, 2016
My feeling is that this is not a good development. First, Iran is no friend of the United States. I cannot imagine that the Supreme Leader of Iran telling the Russians no because we don’t like it; in fact, I think the opposite is a likely driver for Iran. This also means that there is a possibility of a Russian-Iranian partnership in the area which will weaken US interests. I wonder if the Iran airbase deal is what was the precursor to Russia and the United States walking away from the negotiation tables on Syria.
For more on this see here and here.
