We may never know what was really discussed in the one-on-one meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin at the Helsinki summit. Yet, it is becoming increasingly clear, and for many good reasons, that Syria was a key topic at the meeting. In fact, among all the issues that overshadow the relationship between Washington and Moscow (i.e. Russian interference in the 2016 US elections, the conflict in Ukraine, NATO expansion, etc.), Syria is perhaps the easiest to come to terms with.
Following the defeat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, and except for the desire to contain Iran, the United States does not have many real interests in Syria. Since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, it has resisted pressure and temptation to intervene. It was only after the fall of Mosul, the declaration of the Caliphate, and the expansion of ISIL that the US decided to step in. Even then, US war efforts remained strictly limited to the fight against ISIL and Washington was careful not to slip into the Syrian civil war.
