MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. Every conceivable effort should be exerted these days to prevent dangerous provocations in the Syrian crisis, the director of Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, Mikhail Fradkov, has said.
"In the current strained situation, at a time when the United States has already made the first attempt to up the ante, redoubled efforts are crucial for preventing dangerous and criminal provocations," said Fradkov, Russia’s former prime minister and former chief of the foreign intelligence service SVR. "The risk is high the radicals, dizzy with the illusion of their strength as a third party, may decide to cause tensions to soar further. This will be tantamount to pouring more oil onto the fire of the conflict, already being fanned by the winds of selfish interests."
Fradkov noted the importance of this week’s meeting visiting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. In his opinion the United States should be "sensitive more than ever to attempts by adventurists to set in motion the flywheel of a global conflict by provoking tensions between the United States and Russia, whose relations are crucial to the state of affairs in the world."
"It is important to realize that the mechanism of response to such provocations through impartial international research will be able to cool many hotheads," he said.
No solution from position of strength
A number of the institute’s experts, who have carried out a situation analysis entitled The Syrian Crisis: Challenges and Situation Prospects, believe only a dialog and joint resistance to terrorist groups, such as the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra (both outlawed in Russia) "will make it possible to lay the basis for not just ending a devastating war, but for gradually restoring peaceful life."
The knot of conflicting interests in the Syrian theater of operations cannot be eliminated by force from the outside or by replacing individual political figures that may be not to somebody's liking, the institute’s experts believe.
At the same time they warn of a likely worsening of the situation. The conflict, they say, may approach a point where the events can go out of control and pose deadly risks to the Middle East countries and the whole world.