CFR Daily News Brief: Reports: Russia Launches Air Strikes in Syria

September 30, 2015 Daily News Brief

TOP OF THE AGENDA Reports: Russia Launches Air Strikes in Syria Russia has reportedly carried out its first air strikes (BBC) in Syria, near the western city of Homs on Wednesday. The air strikes come after the Russian parliament approved (WSJ) a request from President Vladimir Putin to deploy armed forces abroad and amid reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad formally requested (Reuters) Russian support. Separately, France's national prosecutor announced on Wednesday that it will open an inquiry (Deutsche Welle) into Assad for committing crimes against humanity.

ANALYSIS "Engineering an acceptable political transition in Damascus may well prove impossible, and even with one, the fact remains most of the country will be under the control of hostile groups. For the foreseeable future then the most realistic policy for Syria is one not based on a national government in effective control of the country. What is required instead is working with the Kurds and select Sunni tribes in their respective regions. US and European support of such enclaves will necessarily be an element of such a policy, as would be attacks on Isis," writes CFR President Richard N. Haass in the Financial Times. "Syria’s conflagration has become a manifold nightmare: for America’s security; the Middle East’s stability; and for Syria’s own wretched people. And the reality is that Mr Obama’s light-touch, tactical response to its conflagration has run its course. If he cannot find common cause with Mr Putin, he will come under increasing pressure to launch a much more vigorous and costly American campaign against IS, the many risks of which would now include that of a proxy war between America and Russia. It is a prospect Mr Obama must dread even more than he would a deeply humiliating compromise with Mr Putin," writes the Economist. "Putting forward a peace plan for Syria is surely a better option than a devil’s bargain with the Russians that is unlikely to dampen enthusiasm for ISIS while costing the United States its remaining vestiges of good will among the region’s Sunnis. Without a vision for what Syria will actually look like when the fighting ends, the fighting may simply never end," writes Edward P. Joseph in Foreign Affairs.