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Will Russia force Iran out of Syria?
 [Aljazeera] The US shouldn't count on Russia to force Iran out of Syria any time soon.Speculation about tensions in Russian-Iranian relations after the collapse of the nuclear deal earlier this year has been circulating for a few months now. Tehran appears to be fearing a "betrayal", as Moscow is trying to negotiate with the United States on a variety of issues, including recently imposed economic sanctions. In an August 22 press conference during a visit to Israel, US National Security Adviser John Bolton appeared to suggest that Russian President Vladimir Putin approves of the withdrawal of Iranian forces from Syria. "President Putin... had said it to me three weeks before. ...What he was saying was that Iranian interests in Syria were not coterminous with Russian interests in Syria and he would be content to see Iranian forces all sent back to Iran... we were talking about the complete return of both regular and irregular Iranian forces," Bolton said. The following day, Bolton met his Russian counterpart, Nikolai Patrushev, head of Russia's Security Council, and it turned out that after all there wasn't such solid mutual understanding on the issue. Following the five-hour meeting, Bolton told journalists that the issue, which had been previously discussed in Helsinki by Putin and US President Donald Trump, was brought up again but no major progress had been made. According to him, Patrushev offered the "geographic restriction of Iranian forces" in exchange for the suspension of oil sanctions on Iran; the offer was rejected outright by the Americans. Posted by: Besoeker 2018-08-30 |
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