The US Deep State: Sabotaging
Putin-Trump Ceasefire Agreement in Syria
By Federico Pieraccini
July 16,
2017 "Information
Clearing House"
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The meeting between Trump and
Putin at the G20 in Hamburg injects new hope
into the complicated relationship between the
United States and Russia. Only time can confirm
whether there is any basis for this hope.
The most eagerly anticipated
meeting of the year, that between Putin and
Trump, lasted far more than the scheduled 20
minutes, extending past two hours. This is not
too much of a surprise given the points of
friction that needed to be discussed, the many
outstanding issues in international relations,
and the fact that this was the first official
meeting between the two world leaders. The
results achieved exceeded initial ambitions, and
the personal chemistry between Putin and Trump
seems to have been sufficient to reach an
important agreement in Syria as well as to
conduct discussions surrounding cyber security.
Trump even asked Putin about the alleged Russian
hacking in the US presidential election as a way
of appeasing detractors back home. The
statements of both presidents following their
meeting underlined their positive intentions.
Putin called Trump a very different person from
the one portrayed in the media, mentioning that
he was reflective and very attentive to details.
Trump, for his part, praised the meeting with
Putin, stating the importance of dialogue
between nuclear-armed superpowers.
The most important agreement
concerned a ceasefire in southern Syria along
the border with Israel and Jordan. This is a
very active area of fighting, and so the
ceasefire obviates the possibility of dangerous
confrontations between the United States and
Russia, as well as between Syria and Israel,
which could escalate out of control as seen when
the US Air Force shot down a Syrian Su-22 jet as
well an Iranian drone. Israel, from its position
in the occupied Golan Heights, has repeatedly
struck the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), in a
desperate effort to halt its gains against al
Qaeda and Daesh terrorists.
In their first meeting, within
less than two hours, Putin and Trump came to an
agreement on potentially the most volatile
situation in the region, saving hundreds of
civilian lives in the process. The agreement on
Syria now has to run the gauntlet of the deep
state and all the other interests arrayed
against Trump. Just four days following a
similar agreement reached in 2016 between Obama
and Putin, everything was upended by the US Air
Force bombing and killing nearly a hundred
soldiers of the Syrian Arab Army in Deir ez-Zor,
shredding the ceasefire agreement that had just
been reached.
Trump is dealing with the same
occult forces that sabotaged Obama’s ceasefire
agreement. It is impossible to know how much
strategic support the US deep state has for the
ceasefire decision. Ever since the SAA reached
the Iraqi border north of al-Tanf, the space
available for the US and her allies to maneuver
has been dramatically diminished. With al-Tanf
isolated, Washington's ceasefire does not change
or shift the already heavily altered balance of
power in that area of Syria. For all these
reasons, the ceasefire does not appear to be a
concession by either party but merely a
commonsense move to lessen the possibility of a
direct confrontation between super-powers.
The military apparatus seems to
be focused on the situation in northern Syria,
with Raqqa and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)
being the central pivot for the US to reach Deir
ez-Zor and its associated oilfields. The US
State Department, as well as the US military
wing involved in Syria, hope to balkanize Syria,
dismembering it in different regions and putting
Raqqa under the control of a puppet authority in
Damascus. However, such American hopes of
imposing a Brennan-style governorate as in Iraq
is forlorn, as Damascus is the only authority
recognized on Syrian territory, and once Raqqa
is filled with returning Syrian citizens, such
American plans will fall apart. Moreover, the
Baghdad authorities have already made clear on
two occasions how reluctant they are to support
Americans in their military operations. In the
case of Mosul, they reiterated that the US
deployment and involvement be minimal, while the
Iraqi authorities have already announced that
they want to place under their full control
their border with Syria, in effect hobbling
Washington’s plan to leave chaos and instability
along the borders of the two countries. The US
deep state finds in chaos the ideal way to
channel conflict and foment instability. One of
the most important objectives of the Syrian and
Iraqi armies is therefore to isolate the borders
and control the flow of human traffic from one
country to the other, nixing in the process what
has hitherto been a strategic advantage for
Daesh and other terrorist organizations, where
they have been free to cross borders with
weapons and whatever else they please.
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Trump and all the actors involved
in this negotiation are finally able to make an
agreement between Moscow and Washington stand.
Unlike with previous agreements, the US in Syria
is now in a worse situation than it was 12
months ago, having failed to achieve many of its
strategic objectives. Cooperation with Turkey in
northern Syria was wrecked following the
liberation of Aleppo and the clear US support
for the Kurds (SDF). Similarly, areas of
deconfliction in Syria agreed to in Astana
(between Iran, Russia and Turkey) have stopped
the gains of terrorists in many active areas of
the conflict, leading to zero chances of
occupying more towns. Such efforts have been
important bargaining chips during the various
peace negotiations.
The crux of this strategy seems
to be a focus on the only possible solution that
meets the interests of the deep state’s military
wing, related to the original plan to dismantle
Syria once the removal of Assad failed. From a
certain point of view, it may make sense to
focus on the situation in the north of the
country in Raqqa, the only area where the US
still has some influence. This may be the
contorted vision drawn up by contending factions
of American deep state. Certainly from the point
of view of Moscow, the strategy in Syria is a
mix of diplomatic solutions, seeking to reach
multiple ceasefire agreements with major players
like Turkey and the United States, but never
setting aside the war effort carried out by
Russia, Iran and Syria.
The agreement between Putin and
Trump will firstly benefit Syrian civilians as
well as widening the opportunity for the SAA to
liberate more towns and villages from the grip
of terrorism. It is a long-awaited agreement and
solution that is now met by the predominant wing
of the US deep state. In the event of a failure
of the agreement, Trump will be obligated to
point out to the world the subversion of the
Washington establishment and its deep state,
which works to frustrate his agenda and replace
it with its own terrible policies.
Moscow's confidence in deriving
concrete benefits from this deal increases hour
by hour, thanks to the truce continuing to hold.
From the Russian point of view, any military
sabotage would once again lay American
intentions bare, regardless of Trump's
subsequent moves. However, one thing that is
certain is that in the case of sabotage, Trump
will be faced with having to make a definitive
choice. Either he will surrender to the deep
state, returning the situation back to a state
of hyper-conflict with a nuclear superpower; or
he will confront and overcome the deep state,
thereby enabling him to implement his electoral
promises.
This
article was first published by
SCF
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The
views expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of Information Clearing House.