US official: Russia now believes military solution cannot be imposed in Syria

A woman searches her belongings at a debris of damaged building after Russian war planes carried out airstrikes over city center of al-Bab district in Syria on 15 July 2020. [Mustafa Bathis – Anadolu Agency]

Russian officials are now convinced that implementing a military solution in Syria is not possible, a US official has said.

“Russia is convinced that a military solution cannot be imposed in Syria and will lead to a dead end and even to a large-scale war,” the official said, adding that the parties to the international community agree, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported.

According to the unnamed official, despite the deterioration of US relations with Russia, officials in Washington are in close contact with their Russian counterparts in order to understand how to return to UN Security Council Resolution 2254 and reach a solution to the Syrian issue.

The official said the economic crisis affecting the Syrian regime and neighbouring Lebanon overlap, pointing out that the Syrian regime and Iran both depend on Lebanon to secure foreign currency which led to the scarcity of US dollars in the Lebanese market.

READ: Syria goes to the polls as new sanctions hit war-ravaged economy

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