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Under the previous title, Igor Sobotin wrote, in “Nezavisimaya Gazeta”, about the White House administration’s attempt to establish a direct dialogue with Damascus.
The article reads: The administration of President Donald Trump has proposed to the Syrian government to establish a direct channel of communication for the release of US citizens held by the authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic. This was reported by The Wall Street Journal, citing its sources. To that end, the official representing the National Security Council in the White House, Cash Patel, was said to have visited Damascus this year, according to the newspaper. This secret visit was not the first attempt by US leaders to address the Syrian government directly.
The main issue on which the US administration is preparing to organize a direct communication channel is the fate of US citizens detained in Damascus. They are the independent journalist with a military past, Austin Tice, who disappeared in Syria in 2012 without a trace, and the doctor of Syrian origin, Majid Kamalmaz. According to official US data, at least four other people with US passports may be in official Damascus hands, but their fate is not known with certainty.
Two years ago, the Trump administration demonstrated its ability to reach practical agreements in the context of the Syrian dossier. In 2018, with guarantees from the United States, Russia, Israel and Jordan, agreements were signed between the Syrian rebels and the official Damascus on the bloodless handover of the southern regions of the Syrian Arab Republic to the control of the government army. A series of political and economic concessions were made to the Syrian government’s armed opponents, which were ultimately not met, but the fact that the anti-Assad players reached an agreement through mediation gave hope of a practical solution to the conflict. Syrian crisis.
With the US armed forces remaining in Syria, it is reasonable to expect more attempts to establish direct channels of communication between Washington and Damascus. This makes clear, at the very least, the possibility of preserving areas of foreign influence in Syria and the need to find reasonable forms of coexistence.
