Modern politics is remarkable. Until recently the situation in the Middle East, and Syria in particular, seemed to have come to the deadest of ends, to the blindest of alleys when assessed in terms of political results. It was a tangle of incompatible interests involving a legion of different actors and a hopeless proxy war between Moscow and Washington.

Now, here comes a sudden U-turn. If we can trust various leaks ahead of the long-awaited summit between the two leaders, Syria is the only matter US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin can be expected to agree on July 16 in Helsinki. Why is this the case?

To start with, the “grand bargain” on Syria analysts believe is possible will be neither “grand,” as Syria today is not the focal point for Russia or, more importantly, the United States, nor can it be referred to as a “bargain” per se, since the situation has already taken shape and the presidents will just need to formalize it.

Since it became apparent — quite a long while ago — that the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad's regime was off the agenda, US policy in Syria has blurred. This also happened during President Barack Obama’s term, and the tedious diplomatic marathon of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry in 2016 was a Sisyphean task: work for work’s sake rather than a drive to get a result. For Trump, Syria has been a burden he dreamed of farming out to Moscow. Following the defeat of the Islamic State, Washington’s aims regarding the region have been a complete mystery. The airstrikes against Assad’s forces in 2017 and 2018 were important in and of themselves. It was muscle-flexing rather than manifestation of a strategy. Trump has made no secret that he deems the US withdrawal from Syria necessary.