JD: There’s a conference going on in Moscow with Russia, Turkey and Syria coming together and Iran to discuss peace in Syria but at the same time they take the opportunity to bring Hamas and Fatah. The Russians are telling them hey if you two guys get together you can win this situation with the Israeli’s.
DD: Well Jimmy there’s just no question now that Vladimir Putin is on the march in the Middle East. He’s influencing countries all over the region. I just mentioned Lebanon they’re stepping up their relations there. They have clearly helped the Assad regime to win the war, they haven’t completely won it yet but for the most part they have in Syria. Whereas three years ago Assad was losing and before that the US was saying he was going to be out of power, we’ll make sure of that, well that didn’t happen. Stepping up relations with Iraq who also with Saudi Arabia with the Khashoggi affair having harmed relations with the US he’s stepping into that vacuum.
