Interpreting Lavrov’s Assessment Of Events In Syria From His Interview With Tucker
Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter
If Putin hopes to reach a deal with Erdogan on Syria, then it’ll require keeping up the pretense (however unbelievable it is to objective observers) that Turkiye no longer backs terrorists, thus accounting for Lavrov’s diplomatic assessment of events there.
Lavrov’s interview with Tucker mostly saw him elaborate on Russia’s stance towards the proxy war with NATO in Ukraine, which built upon what he shared during his earlier and more concise interview with Newsweek in early October that was analyzed here at the time.
He was also importantly asked about the latest events in Syria, the assessment of which hasn’t received much international media attention, at least not yet. The present piece will therefore review and interpret what he said about that.
He began by describing the Astana process between his country, Iran, and Turkiye as being driven by the need to contain US-backed Kurdish separatist threats in Syria before expressing hope that he’ll meet with his counterparts over the weekend during the Doha Forum to discuss the latest developments.
Lavrov then said he’d also like to “discuss the need to come back to strict implementation of the deals on Idlib area, because Idlib de-escalation zone was the place from where the terrorists moved to take Aleppo.” According to him, Turkiye must continue separating Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from the non-terrorist opposition, and he also wants the M5 highway between Damascus and Aleppo reopened after that group just captured its northern half over the past week.