Summary: another meeting, another raft of empty words from Sochi as Washington plays for time and tries to figure out what to do about the war in Syria.
The 15th meeting of the Astana Process was held in Sochi on 16-17 February.
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Must the Biden administration involve itself in Syria? With the Russians and Iranians unequivocally supporting a monster like Assad, it seems like a losing proposition. Mr. Alterman asks, “What does success look like?” The question seems without an answer at this juncture. The Turks are meeting with the Russians and Iranians in what is blithely referred to as the “Astana process,” but reconciling the objectives of these three players seems daunting to say the least. And eventually someone is going to have to bear immense costs for reconstruction and refugee resettlement. Not us, I hope.
Do we have to be involved everywhere? Consider what happened in Libya. Yes, there are the Kurds, to whom we are indebted, and there is justification for talking bilaterally with Ankara to resolve this issue, though the chance of progress without active US military support of the SDF seems slight indeed.