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After Russia’s withdrawal, Turkey, Saudi must accept failure

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (L) listens to a journalist speak during a joint press conference with his Saudi counterpart on January 31, 2016 at the Foreign Affairs ministry press hall in Riyadh.

Opponents of the Syrian government, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey, “have to accept” that their regime change policy “has failed” as Russian troops start withdrawing from the crisis-hit country, says a former advisor to the US Senate.

James Jatras was commenting Tuesday on an order by Russian President Vladimir Putin to pull out the country’s military from Syria.

Russia started its military campaign on September 30, 2015, based on a request from the Syrian government, which has led to a boost to the Syrian army, engaged in retaking key areas from militants across the country.

The Washington-based activist warned that those seeking regime change in Syria are still active in the United States but it is time for Saudi Arabia and Turkey to accept the policy has failed.

“The regime change crowd here in Washington certainly is not done. We don’t know what the Turks and the Saudis really do; whether they will take the opportunity to take a step back from their failed policy,” Jatras said.

He described Moscow’s withdrawal as a “shift of the Syrian conflict from a military track to a protocol track,” a development he evaluated as “generally positive” and a sign of “success” for the Russian campaign in the war-ravaged country.

Jatras also noted that Russians should remain “cautious” on what exactly the US and its allies have agreed on.

Moscow’s unexpected decision came on Monday hours after peace talks between the Syrian government and the opposition resumed in the Swiss city of Geneva.

The move, Jatras argued, would put “pressure on the Syrian opposition to either negotiate in good faith or to be destroyed by Daesh and al-Qaeda.”

The Takfiris have been wreaking havoc in the country and its Muslim neighbor, Iraq, drawing harsh criticism from rights groups and many world states.

According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people in Syria alone since March 2011.


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