Russia, Jordan discuss Syria in run-up to Trump-Putin summit
A visit by Jordan's foreign minister to Moscow comes as one link in a chain of Russia's recent consultations with key regional players on the state of affairs in Syria.
The July 4 visit of Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi to Moscow shed little light on a potential deal regarding southern Syria — a topic many expect to be on the agenda for the coming meeting in Helsinki between the US and Russian presidents.
The meeting left Russian journalists disappointed. But the real issue is whether the visit met the expectations of the Jordanians, who came to Moscow with a set of concrete suggestions.
The negotiations between Safadi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov lasted two hours — not nearly enough time to talk through details of all the issues raised. The ministers focused on the situation in southern Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which Safadi called “one of the central issues for Jordan," as well as bilateral Russian-Jordanian relations. Moscow and Amman see eye-to-eye on the two latter topics. On Syria, however, their priorities differ, even though Russia and Jordan — along with the United States — are guarantors for the southwestern de-escalation zone.
One purpose of the zone was to provide some respite from the yearslong Syrian civil war and continuing battles against the Islamic State (IS) and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. Yet fighting continues. According to the guarantors' agreements, the zone is supposed to be under the control of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Yet during a joint press conference with Safadi after their meeting, Lavrov said almost 40% of the area is still controlled by militants.
