US forced to cut deal with Russia over Syria: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Scott Rickard, political analyst and former American intelligence linguist, to discuss the violation of the new ceasefire in Syria by US-backed militant groups.  

Here is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: Is there any surprise that the militants/terrorists are not respecting the ceasefire?

Rickard: Well, it is no surprise. I've got to tell you though this is encouraging. I like the deal that the Russians and the Americans have cut this time. They have agreed to work together on future airstrikes. If this ceasefire goes for seven days, it is absolutely no surprise that the militants are not adhering to it but thankfully Russia and Syria and their allies with Hezbollah and Iran have agreed to stand down during this period and wait out the seven days to see how it goes and at this point it is one of the more encouraging agreements from the United States, given the fact that the United States has been really held accountable over the last year since Russia and Iran have gotten directly involved and it is important to note that Turkey also has stopped a lot of their operations because of what happened to Erdogan and his opportunity to be deposed at one point and the help from the Russians there.

So I think what you see is you have an agreement by Turkey and Russia that there is going to be no more incursions from Turkey, so it has minimized the impact of the West and the [Persian] Gulf state allies for the West can have on their arming and support of these mercenaries that are really being defeated left and right within Syria and certainly they are not going to abide by the ceasefire but thankfully Russia and Syria are.  

Press TV: So in a sense was this a save face move on the part of the United States and others on that side because as you well said militants were losing in many battlefields and Aleppo is nearly liberated?  

Rickard: Well that is correct. I think it is not only saving face, I think what the Americans are doing is they are trying to create a stronger coalition with the Kurds, specifically the YPG and create that coalition in a combined effort with the Iraqi Kurds so that they can continue their operations in Iraq against obviously Mosul.

When it comes to the last stand for the mercenaries or ISIS (Daesh) or what you want to call them within the Syria environment, you really only have Raqqah and then some “rebel-controlled” territories that are sparsely populated throughout Syria.

So at this point I am not really sure they are saving face. I think that the United States and its allies have just been held accountable by Iran and Russia and Syria and Hezbollah and now they are forced, their hand is actually forced to cut a deal with Russia because Putin and Russia including Iran have really shown their strength and the resolve to not allow the Western allies and the United States to do to Syria what they did to Libya.

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