I have no idea if this is true, but it’s certainly true that Russia is establishing itself as a major influence in the Mideast again. Nature and geopolitics abhor a vacuum, and the vacuum that the Obama administration’s irresponsibility and neglect have left in world leadership is going to be filled.
I don’t think it’s “irresponsibility and neglect “ I think the ‘powers that be’ have decided the US should retreat from the Mideast. The savings in military cost to be diverted to our welfare state and debt payments.