The Jerusalem Post quotes Global Energy Center Nonresident Senior Fellow Ariel Cohen on the Russia’s involvement in the Syrian conflict:
Ariel Cohen, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and director of the Center for Energy, Natural Resources and Geopolitics at the Institute for Analysis of Global Security in Washington, told the Post that Russia has ambitions to be an equal partner with the US in Syria and the Middle East.
“To accomplish that, it is projecting power into Syria to protect Assad and fight ISIS, so that it becomes an ‘indispensable party’ to the final settlement.
However, this is risky, as Russian and American fighter jets may clash in the skies over Syria,” he said.
“Unfortunately for Russia, it does not recognize that Syria is dead as a nation-state. It is a geopolitical corpse,” asserted Cohen, adding that not even Russia and Iran can maintain Assad’s control over all of Syrian territory.