2 weeks has now become 4 months.
Russia and the US have every capacity to establish an appropriate negotiating table for the Damascus Government and the Autonomous Northern Administration to work their issues out. Will they?
I'm not hopeful given the primitive thinking (do date) from Assad's side but anything is possible.
The bottom line is that neither side is in a strong position to dictate terms to the other. Years ago I posted that a fully sustainable peace may take a generation to cement and I still hold to that view. Each side needs to move forward in bite sized increments, slowly rebuilding trust as they go.
Whether they like it or not, both the Northern Administration and the Damascus Government need each other's willing co-operation moving forward, the alternative being the erasure of Syria from world maps.
There is a lot more to this that "death and sand" (which is how Trump and many others view Syria). That said there is often a grain of truth in Trump's otherwise ignorant tweets.
Dealing with the "sand" issue first, both Syria and Iraq need to sort out the open theft of critical water rights by the Turkish Government. A joint Syrian team should prioritise their water rights case because without water there will only be sand in many areas, with climate change greatly exacerbating this crisis.
For what its worth I can't see why it is necessary to instantly centralise the administration of the north or decentralise the Damascus administration. It's not. Nothing need be forced. Nothing need be instant either.
Effective collaboration would (I believe) lead to a diminution of both PKK and Iranian influences. Childish name calling and "demands" will not.
cheers
