Manaf Tlass, a former brigadier general in the Syrian Republican Guard and member of Syrian President Bashar Assad's inner circle, has made an unusual visit to Moscow, media outlets identified with the Syrian opposition reported Wednesday.
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Some of the reports said that the visit was part of Moscow's wider-ranging efforts to end the Syrian war through a political compromise that all sides in the conflict can accept.
Tlass reportedly met with senior Russian officials including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Tlass is viewed as having the support of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Ergodan and could theoretically author a cease-fire agreement that would be supported by the Turkey-backed militias that control northern Syria.
The Russian media reports also said that Russia was in contact with representatives of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the umbrella organization of Kurdish militias operating in north-east Syria. The unaffiliated Syrian news site El-Dorar Al-Shamia reported efforts to establish a "military council" that would control Syria until a new civilian government could be elected that would represent most of the various factions in the country.
Such a move would likely be met with opposition from Assad and his people, who want the current regime to remain in place. It is possible that the latest reported gambit is an attempt to pressure Assad into throwing off Iran's influence and proposing his own reforms.
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