By the Gazette Editorial Board US President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on July 16 in Helsinki. No formal agenda has been announced for their first official summit. However, the visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Moscow ahead of the Helsinki summit has shed light on the prime issues (Iranian withdrawal from Syria and the US sanctions on Tehran) that should be laid out on the Trump-Putin table. Putin invited Netanyahu to watch the semi-final of the World Cup with him. While watching the semi-final, Putin and Netanyahu had their own game to play quietly. Both the host and the guest had their attention distracted. On the one hand, Putin must have mused over Israel's demand that Iran should withdraw its troops "immediately" from Syria; and that the Hezbollah fighters should do likewise. On the other hand, the Israeli guest must have pondered whether his host would appreciate Israel's concerns quickly enough, otherwise Trump would help him appreciate them in Helsinki. Moscow has real concerns that an immediate withdrawal of Iranian troops and Hezbollah fighters would offer an opportunity to terrorist groups to rear their heads again and reclaim the land in southeastern Syria they had given up. Obviously, Putin does not want to remove Iran, his major ally in his anti-terror war in Syria, from the equation. Although the Syrian army of President Bashar Al-Assad has scored a decisive victory over the opposition forces, IS and the Jihadists; it seems that the situation in Syria is getting more complicated and even becoming something of an enigma. It must be said that the withdrawal of Iran and its proxies from Syria (estimated unofficially at tens of thousands) is an essential part of Trump's sanctions on Iran. Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, has said that the Helsinki summit offers the possibility of a "larger negotiation on helping to get Iranian forces out of Syria". Putin will be in a difficult situation. The Russian President cannot by any means give up his major ally in his anti-terror war in Syria that easily. In the meantime, Putin should weigh carefully and wisely Trump's concerns over Iran's alleged threat to regional and international security. In an appearance before Congress on June 27, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he would "applaud" the Russians if they could get Iran out of Syria but acknowledged that it was "an open-ended question". At any rate, the Helsinki summit will draw up a new geopolitical equation in Syria and Iraq; and this particular summit will mark a new chapter in the Trump-Putin relationship.
