Aftandilian in The Arab Weekly on US-Russia Tensions
Gregory Aftandilian, Lecturer at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a recent Op-Ed examining how the current tensions between the United States and Russia will affect potential cooperation between the two nations in the Middle East.
Aftandilian’s Op-Ed, entitled “New Cold War Will Hinder US-Russian Cooperation in Middle East,” was published on August 13, 2017 in The Arab Weekly.
From the text of the Op-Ed:
Deteriorating relations between the United States and Russia are likely to complicate whatever cooperation existed between the two countries in the Middle East.
Despite US President Donald Trump’s professed desire for better relations with Russia, the relationship between the two countries has worsened since his election. The US Congress, upset over alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and Moscow’s behaviour in Crimea and Syria, included Russia along with Iran and North Korea in comprehensive sanctions legislation. The bill passed overwhelmingly in Congress, prompting Russian President Vladimir Putin to order the expulsion of hundreds of US diplomatic staff from his country.
Trump was opposed to the sanctions bill partly because he believed it treaded on presidential powers and partly because he did not want to make relations with Russia more difficult than they already were. Nonetheless, he signed the bill, which he labelled “seriously flawed” and “unconstitutional,” because he knew that Congress would have enough votes to override a veto. That would have further embarrassed Trump after a series of White House foibles.
Earlier this year, Trump declared that it would be “great” if the United States and Russia cooperated in Syria to defeat the Islamic State (ISIS). Although the United States and Russia have cooperated in Syria on some matters — such as bringing about a ceasefire in south-western Syria and pursuing “de-confliction” between US and Russian militaries to avoid clashes — the deterioration of relations is likely to complicate policy in Syria and other parts of the Middle East.
Aftandilian spent over 21 years in government service, most recently on Capitol Hill where he was foreign policy adviser to Congressman Chris Van Hollen (2007-2008), professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and foreign policy adviser to Senator Paul Sarbanes (2000-2004), and foreign policy fellow to the late Senator Edward Kennedy (1999).