This Is What Putin Wants From His Syria Deal With Trump
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-08/putin-s-endgame-in-syria-gains-traction-after-deal-with-trump
Although Putin and all sides are formally committed to Syria’s territorial unity, the plan would temporarily lead to something akin to Germany after World War II, when the four allied powers divided the country into four administrative zones, according to Fyodor Lukyanov, who heads Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy.
“This is the beginning of the soft-#partition of Syria,’’ he said. “De-escalation is a euphemism for zones of responsibility, where the different sides will agree which power is responsible for which part of the country.’’
The outlines of the Russian proposal approved in Friday’s meeting between Trump and Putin were borrowed from ongoing talks to create de-escalization areas in other parts of the country, between Iran, Russia and Turkey, said Lukyanov.