Change of course in Syria?

The missile attack on a Syrian airbase by order of US President Donald Trump in retaliation for the use of chemical weapons against Syrian people in a remote village in the Idlib province has effectively changed the dynamics of the Syrian conflict, or so it seems.

Trump unexpectedly and contrary to all ideas about his position on the Syrian conflict and Moscow, ordered the attack knowing only too well that it would put him on a collision course with his Russian counterpart President Vladimir Putin.

Putin was counting on Trump to maintain his stand on Damascus and respect the Russian grip on Syria and hegemony in the future.

Trump had been signalling to Putin, during the 2016 presidential election that brought him to the White House, that he was seeking warm relations with Russia and not confrontation.

The first casualty of the US attack on Syria is Putin’s ego and pride; the Russian leader never suspected that Trump would dare challenge the status quo in Syria and undermine Russia’s authority there by sending salvos of rockets on one of the main Syrian military airports suspected by the US as having been the airport from which a Syrian warplane was launched to attack innocent Syrian people with Sarin gas.

By ordering the attack, Trump challenged Russia’s idea that it dominates Syria.

While Trump seemed genuinely outraged by the footage of Syrian children dying in the attack, the Russian leader seemed stoic about the whole episode.

This compassionate side of Trump was never known. No wonder he was almost universally praised for his moral courage to stand up on the side of the victims of a crime against humanity.

The Trump administration is scrambling to redefine Washington’s priorities on Syria in the aftermath of the chemical attack.

While US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson seems to waver on the future of Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying first that this issue is not the priority for his country, then reversing himself and saying that Assad must leave office in order to end the conflict in Syria, US Ambassador to the UN Nikky Haley was more articulate and consistent, defining the US priorities in the following order: defeat Daesh, push Iran out of Syria and remove Assad from power in order to make room for a final political settlement.

As precise as these goals are, the question is whether these three complementary objectives can be achieved separately or in conjunction with each other.