俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京星期二会见了叙利亚总统巴沙尔·阿萨德，不到一周前，美国杀害了一名帮助领导反政府武装和圣战的伊朗最高军事指挥官。
普京在大马士革的俄罗斯军事总部会见了阿萨德，两人在那里“听取了关于该国不同地区局势的军事报告”根据克里姆林宫的消息，两国代表团随后进行了双边讨论，普京在讨论中表示，“在恢复叙利亚国家地位和领土完整方面已经走了很长一段路”，特别是在大马士革。
“叙利亚总统对俄罗斯和俄罗斯军方在打击恐怖主义和恢复共和国和平生活方面给予的援助表示感谢，”报道称。
阿萨德办公室的另一份声明称，双方“还讨论了消除威胁伊德利卜叙利亚公民安全的恐怖主义的计划、叙利亚北部的事态发展以及土耳其在那里采取的措施，此外还支持政治轨道并为其创造合适的条件。”
这次访问只是普京第二次访问叙利亚，他上次访问叙利亚是在两年前。这一次，两位领导人交换了圣诞祝福，普京继续参观基督教和伊斯兰教圣地。然而，这位俄罗斯领导人的此行也是团结的标志，因为邻国伊拉克最近危险的局势升级，有可能再次破坏两个主要阿拉伯国家的稳定。
1月7日，俄罗斯总统普京和叙利亚总统巴沙尔·阿萨德在大马士革的俄罗斯武装部队总部会面。这位俄罗斯领导人罕见的访问发生在美国杀害一名支持莫斯科和大马士革战争努力的伊朗高级将军不到一周之后。
俄罗斯2015年对叙利亚的军事干预帮助阿萨德的武装部队及其盟友击退了包括伊斯兰国(ISIS)在内的数十个叛乱和军事团体取得的进展。然而，甚至在俄罗斯参战之前，叙利亚最亲密的地区伙伴伊朗就以德黑兰最高军事人物、革命卫队圣城部队指挥官少将·卡西姆·苏莱曼尼的形式向政府提供了援助。
伊朗于2014年6月正式加入伊拉克和叙利亚打击伊斯兰国的战斗，美国领导的联盟也紧随其后。自那以后，苏莱曼尼出席了伊拉克、叙利亚、黎巴嫩和其他国家多达20多次的重要会议甚至在俄罗斯，协调努力动员远至阿富汗和巴基斯坦的什叶派穆斯林民兵支持巴格达和大马士革。
索莱曼尼的出现为他赢得了整个中东地区的名声和恶名，但他的竞选活动在周四突然结束美国空袭干掉了他的车队在巴格达国际机场，他和伊拉克人民动员部队民兵副领导人阿布·迈赫迪·穆汉迪一起被杀害。此次行动正值美国军方和伊朗支持的伊拉克民兵之间的暴力升级，并震动了该地区。
尽管伊拉克议会周日投票决定驱逐美国军队，以回应唐纳德·特朗普总统的单边行动以及此前的其他行动，但叙利亚政府长期以来一直呼吁五角大楼撤军。美国领导的反伊拉克和黎凡特伊斯兰国联盟与巴格达协调了在伊拉克的战斗，但忽视了大马士革，自2011年以来，华盛顿一直试图推翻大马士革政府，指控其犯有战争罪。
伊斯兰势力在叙利亚的崛起导致美国将重点从支持叙利亚反对派转移到支持一个更加中立、以库尔德人为主的团体——叙利亚民主力量，该团体专注于打击伊斯兰国。然而，随着圣战分子在伊拉克和叙利亚被击败，特朗普政府退出了2015年与德黑兰的核协议，美国和伊朗之间的长期对抗开始了新的战线。
莫斯科和大马士革都对特朗普政府杀害苏莱曼尼的决定深表批评巩固他们的关系与伊斯兰共和国。俄罗斯和伊朗没有正式的军事协议，但是他们最近与中国一起进行了首次三方演习。周一，俄罗斯国防部长谢尔盖·绍伊古与伊朗军方参谋长穆罕默德·巴盖里通了电话。
俄罗斯国防部称，“军方领导人在谈话中讨论了防止阿拉伯叙利亚共和国和中东局势升级的实际步骤，这些步骤与巴格达附近圣城特勤部队指挥官卡西姆·[·苏莱曼尼将军遇害有关。”。
1月7日，叙利亚示威者挥舞伊朗最高领导人阿亚图拉·阿里·哈梅内伊、叙利亚总统巴沙尔·阿萨德、黎巴嫩真主党总书记哈桑·纳斯鲁拉的肖像，并杀害伊朗革命卫队圣城部队指挥官少将·卡西姆·苏莱曼尼，以抗议后者在伊拉克被暗杀，以及美国和土耳其在叙利亚北部城市阿勒颇市中心萨达拉·贾比里广场的军事存在。苏莱曼尼在叙利亚政府夺回这座主要城市的过程中发挥了作用。
然而，伊朗领导人以及政治和军事官员已经发誓要报复。在叙利亚，美国军队的存在主要局限于东部，特朗普说他的重点是控制石油，而在遥远的西南部，在伊拉克和约旦边境附近由美国军队和叙利亚叛乱分子驻守的沙漠前哨。虽然美国和伊朗大多避免了叙利亚冲突，但他们的伙伴之间爆发了孤立的冲突。
随着华盛顿和德黑兰之间的紧张局势恶化，莫斯科已经扮演前线角色试图阻止伊朗与其另一个头号敌人以色列之间的暴力冲突。以色列对叙利亚境内被怀疑受伊朗指挥的目标发动了半隐蔽的空袭，最近将空袭范围扩大到伊拉克。
就在圣诞节前夕，叙利亚归咎于以色列的袭击袭击了大马士革，就在一个月前，类似的袭击袭击袭击了普京周二抵达的同一个国际机场。以色列承认其在这一系列袭击中的作用，指责苏莱曼尼圣城军向以色列发射火箭，并指责叙利亚军方向入侵的战机发射防空炮火。
以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡(Benjamin Netanyahu)长期警告圣城军在整个中东的阴谋，公开赞扬特朗普干掉索莱曼尼的决定。阿希奥斯周一援引两名未透露姓名的以色列部长的话说，内塔尼亚胡在一次私人内阁会议上说，“杀害苏莱曼尼是美国的事件，不是以色列的事件，我们应该置身事外。”
RUSSIA AND SYRIA'S PRESIDENTS MEET AFTER U.S. KILLS IRANIAN GENERAL THAT FOUGHT THEIR WAR
Russian President Vladimir Putin met Tuesday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad less than a week after the United States killed a top Iranian military commander who helped lead their war against rebels and jihadis.
Putin met with Assad at the Russian military headquarters in Damascus, where the two men "heard military reports on the situation in various regions of the country." Their delegations then engaged in bilateral discussions in which Putin remarked that "a huge distance has been traveled towards restoring Syrian statehood and the country's territorial integrity," particularly in Damascus, according to a Kremlin readout.
"The Syrian President expressed gratitude to Russia and the Russian military for their assistance in the fight against terrorism and the restoration of peaceful life in the republic," the readout said.
A separate statement by Assad's office said the pair "also discussed plans to eliminate terrorism that threatens the security and safety of the Syrian citizens in Idlib, the developments in the Syrian north and the measures that Turkey is doing there, in addition to supporting the political track and preparing conditions are right for it."
The visit marks only the second time Putin has traveled to Syria, where he last visited two years ago. This time around, the two leaders exchanged Christmas wishes and Putin went on to tour Christian and Islamic holy sites. However, the Russian leader's trip was also a sign of unity amid recent, dangerous escalations in neighboring Iraq that threatened to once again to destabilize two major Arab countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad meet at the Russian armed forces headquarters in Damascus, January 7. The Russian leader's rare visit comes less than a week after the U.S. killed a top Iranian general that supported Moscow and Damascus' war effort.
Russia's 2015 military intervention in Syria helped Assad's armed forces and their allies beat back advances made by scores of insurgent and militant groups, including the Islamic State (ISIS). Even before the Russian entry into the fight, however, Syria's closest regional partner, Iran, came to the government's aid in the form of Tehran's top military figures, Revolutionary Guard Quds Force commander Major General Qassem Soleimani.
Iran officially entered the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria in June 2014, with a U.S.-led coalition soon following suit. Since then, Soleimani attended up to two dozen major meetings across Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and even in Russia, coordinating efforts to mobilize mostly Shiite Muslim militias from as far away as Afghanistan and Pakistan to back Baghdad and Damascus.
Soleimani's presence earned him both fame and notoriety across the Middle East, but his campaign ended abruptly Thursday as a U.S. airstrike took out his convoy, killing him along with Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces militia deputy leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis at Baghdad International Airport. The operation came amid a deadly escalation in violence between U.S. military and Iraqi militias backed by Iran and it shook the region.
While the Iraqi parliament voted Sunday to oust U.S. forces in response to President Donald Trump's unilateral operation, and others before it, the Syrian government has long called for the Pentagon to withdraw. The U.S.-led coalition against ISIS coordinated its fight in Iraq with Baghdad, but ignored Damascus, whose government Washington has sought to oust since 2011 over war crimes allegations.
The rise of Islamist forces in Syria led the U.S. to shift its priorities away from backing the Syrian opposition and instead support a more neutral, majority-Kurdish group known as the Syrian Democratic Forces focused on fighting ISIS. With the jihadis defeated in Iraq and Syria and the Trump administration's withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran, however, new fronts were opening in the longstanding U.S.-Iran rivalry.
Both Moscow and Damascus have been deeply critical of the Trump administration's decision to kill Soleimani and have only bolstered their relations with the Islamic Republic. Russia and Iran have no formal military agreement, but they recently waged their first trilateral drills alongside China and, on Monday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke by telephone with the Iranian military's chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri.
"The military leaders discussed practical steps during the conversation for prevention of escalation of the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic and the Middle East in connection with the killing of commander of the Quds special unit General Qasem [sic] Soleimani near Baghdad," the Russian Defense Ministry said, according to the state-run Tass Russian News Agency.
Syrian demonstrators wave portraits of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Lebanese Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and slain Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds Force commander Major General Qassem Soleimani in protest of the latter's assassination in Iraq, as well as U.S. and Turkish military presence in Syria in the central Saadallah al-Jabiri square in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, January 7. Soleimani played a role in the Syrian government's recapture of the major city.
Iranian leaders, along with political and military officials, have sworn revenge, however. In Syria, the U.S. military's presence was largely limited to the east, where Trump said his focus was controlling oil, and in the far southwest, in a desert outpost manned by U.S. troops and Syrian insurgents near the Iraqi and Jordanian borders. While the U.S. and Iran have mostly avoided conflict in Syria, isolated clashes between their partners have erupted.
As tensions between Washington and Tehran worsened, Moscow was already playing a frontline role in attempting to prevent violence between Iran and one of its other top foes, Israel. Israel has waged a semi-covert campaign of airstrikes against targets suspected of being under Iranian command in Syria and recently expanded this campaign to Iraq.
As recently as Christmas Eve, strikes attributed by Syria to Israel struck Damascus and just a month before a similar attack struck the very same international airport at which Putin arrived Tuesday. Israel acknowledged its role in that series of strikes, accusing Soleimani's Quds Force of launching rockets toward Israel and blaming the Syrian military for firing anti-air batteries at the invading warplanes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long warned of the Quds Force plots across the Middle East, publicly praised Trump's decision to take out Soleimani. Citing two unnamed Israeli ministers Monday, Axios quoted Netanyahu as telling a private cabinet meeting that the "killing of Soleimani is a U.S. event, not an Israeli event, and we should stay out of it."
