Putin Is on a Syria Roll His arms gambit wins a meeting with Obama in New York. Oh-oh.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/putin-is-on-a-syria-roll-1443137472
Vladimir Putin’s Syria strategy is working better than perhaps even he had hoped. The Russian arms flowing into the Latakia military base in western Syria are already propping up his ally Bashar Assad’s teetering government. Now they’re ending the Russian President’s diplomatic isolation, as President Obama agreed Thursday to meet with him next week during the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
“Given the situations in Ukraine and Syria, despite our profound differences with Moscow, the President believes that it would be irresponsible not to test whether we can make progress through high-level engagement with the Russians,” a senior administration official said on Thursday. Translation: Russia is blowing up Mr. Obama’s Syria and Iraq strategy, and he’d better see what the Kremlin strongman wants.
Two weeks ago Mr. Obama dismissed Russia’s Syria incursion as “doomed to failure.” Now Mr. Putin knows he can use the military facts he has established on the ground as leverage to make further strategic gains.
Imagine his potential wish list. Perhaps he’ll ask Mr. Obama to join Russia and Iran in an alliance against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. He already pulled a version of this in 2013 when he rescued Mr. Obama from his “red line” over Mr. Assad’s chemical weapons use. That deal made it safe for Mr. Assad to unleash his barrel bombs without fear of U.S. attack. A similar deal now would further assist Mr. Assad while dismaying Arab members of Mr. Obama’s current coalition against ISIS and putting Iraq’s Sunni minority further under the thumb of Iran.
If Mr. Obama won’t go that far, perhaps Mr. Putin will settle for the U.S. rolling back the sanctions it imposed on Russia after his Ukraine incursions. Rest assured Mr. Putin wants something—and he thinks he can get it.
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