Trolls gonna troll and who owns the title as World’s Biggest Troll? Russian President Vladimir Putin! And the troll strikes again. Russia has invited President-elect Donald Trump’s administration to participate in Syrian peace talks with Turkey and Iran later this month.
I can hear everyone’s head explodes as they use this as more evidence of a cozy relationship between him and President-elect Donald Trump.
Or Putin has simply just latched onto the hysteria and wants to cause even more problems.
Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak extended the invitation to Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn on December 28. A transition official said Flynn did not make a decision at the time. However, Obama’s administration never received an invitation to the talks:
“We have not received any kind of formal invitation to the meeting,” said State Department spokesman Mark Toner. “But if we do receive an invitation, we will certainly make a recommendation” to Trump’s incoming administration to honor it.—The talks on the future of Syria were announced in late December after a nationwide cease-fire was secured. They are being organized for the first time without the involvement of Washington, which had led all the international discussions to resolve the Syrian crisis in recent years.Though the United States has not been a direct party to this specific initiative, Toner said: “We have been in close contact with both the Russians and the Turks as this has gone forward. And we would encourage the incoming administration to continue to pursue those efforts.”
The talks will take place in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, on January 23. Russia, Turkey, and Iran expect “Syrian government and opposition representatives” to attend the talks.
Of course the media has panicked because the U.S. passed new sanctions on Russians on December 28, prompting them to think Flynn and the ambassador discussed those sanctions for attempts to interfere with our election. The transition officials said Flynn had no idea the Obama administration planned to impose those sanctions on that day. Therefore, Flynn and the ambassador did not discuss the sanctions.
Instead, the men discussed the invitation and Flynn also expressed “condolences for the crash of a Russian plane carrying a choir to Syria.” The two men also chatted about “a Putin-Trump telephone call after the inauguration.”
Obama’s administration has approved of this meeting, even though they lack an invitation. Secretary of State John Kerry said the administration has encouraged these talks:
“We hope that could produce a step forward,” he said during a final news conference at the State Department. But the greater objective, Kerry said, was beginning separate, U.N.-sponsored talks among all the Syrian players in Geneva.
Please keep in mind that when Russia pulls these stunts they do it to troll and cause more problems. They do not want to be our friend. I also hope those around Trump make him realize this, too.
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