NEO – The Syrian conflict is already a decade old

by Vladimir Danilov, …with New Eastern Outlook, Moscow, …and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a research institution for the study of the countries and cultures of Asia and North Africa.

[ Editor’s Note: It’s been a long time since my morning with the Syrian election commission three days before election in June of 2014. They Syrians thought they have a bad situation to deal with at the time, but had no idea how much worse it would get.

Yes, Syria has become one of America’s ‘Forever Wars’, born of the evil spawn of 9-11, for which the US will forever wear the shame of that fake investigation. You will notice how low key the 9-11 commisioners have kept themselve since then. There have been no calls from them to Debate VT on any of it.

If that were not bad enough to endure at the time, it was made worse by the extensive cowardice put on display when VT’s exposures, year after year, with the coverup evidence shown over and over, yet almost no one was interest outsid our VT readership.

People will ask why did we bother, which is a good question. And the answer for that is we wanted all the agencies that monitor us to know that we knew that they know and yet they did nothing. We were taking away their ability in the future to claim they did not know, but if they had they would have done something.

But this goes beyond having an apparent rogue country ascribing to itself that due to a 9-11 event that was obviously an Intel psyop, that it could then claim to have unlimited powers to go anywhe, and to do anything they wanted simple under a new version of the old pirate’s 9-11 black flag.

We are now two decades from that horrible event, where sadly the 3000 killed on that day are now just a drop in the bucket for the reign of terror unleased upon the world under the fake war on terror, which was an obvious war of terror.

While the word sedition in regards to the Capitol attack perculator up into the media after a week of so, we have not hear the sedition word used against all those involved in the fake 9-11 commission report, where some of the commissioners openly stated on their book tours that they knew witnesses had perjured themselves and withheld information.

My trips to Syria were an education in that seeing the damage with your own eyes is a more searing memory than reading about it. Since VT’s last trip in 2015, it has gotten much worse despite Trump’s fake claims of ‘bring the troops home’, where the gangster in him showed itself with his asset stripping of Syria’s oil wealth which funded all of the Syrian people’s social welfare programs.

The only word to describe this is crass cruelty. And while the stain remains with no remorse, we now have the proclaimed ‘moral, and human rights oriented President, but yet we have seen no real evidence of that toward the teror war on Syria.

Biden has planted the seeds of his administration following Mr. Trump in that he talks a good story but when you strip away the fluff that tragedy and ugliness goes on, with the Syria people literally being tortured by the US to force them to accept being colonized by a US-Mideast syndicate.

If Biden does not fix this soon he will find himself getting the Trump treatment. Sure, he does not present himself as the goof that Trump was, but we VT people in our 70’s a our fakeness radar highly tuned, a defensive instince honed after decades or work dealing with a large number of ‘less than honest people’. Thus ends my cheery missive for the day… Jim W. Dean ]

Jim's Editor’s Notes are solely crowdfunded via PayPal Jim's work includes research, field trips, Heritage TV Legacy archiving & more. Thanks for helping. Click to donate >>

First published … March 21-2021

March 15 marks the 10th anniversary of the war in Syria, where the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) estimates that of the country’s 18 million inhabitants, 36 percent have lost their homes, 6.6 million have become internal refugees, and 13.4 million are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Over 5.6 million people have fled the Syrian Arab Republic since 2011, mostly to Turkey, Lebanon, and Germany.

Before the conflict began, in 2011, Syria was one of the most rapidly developing countries in the Middle East, with a good standard of living and low inflation compared to neighboring countries. According to the GDP growth rate published by the World Bank in 2007, Syria’s performance was similar to Israel and Kuwait, surpassing the regional average (5.7% vs. 5.1%).

On September 30, 2015, at Assad’s request, Russia entered the Syrian war on the side of the Syrian president, which significantly shifted the balance of power in Assad’s favor and helped him retake Aleppo and other important cities. Although full-scale hostilities have ended in most parts of the country, the Syrian crisis is still far from over.

Chronic economic problems are exacerbated by the collapse of the financial system in neighboring Lebanon, as well as national and regional restrictive measures in the fight against COVID-19, the sanctions policy of the West.

All of this worsened conditions for Syrians, especially during 2020, when the Syrian pound collapsed six times over 2019, or nearly 70 times over prewar 2010. This was largely a consequence of the US “Caesar’s Law,” which stiffened other countries’ economic cooperation with Syria, thus becoming an important factor in the country’s complications.

Today the country is divided into four zones of influence. Damascus officials control most of Syria, including all eight major cities: Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Latakia, Tartus, Deraa and Deir ez-Zor. These territories are home to about 12 million people.

The remaining third of the country is divided into three parts. The northeast (the entire left bank of the Euphrates with its rich oil fields) continues to be under the control of US-backed Kurdish groups. This is about a quarter of the country and 80% of all its natural resources.

The northwest (the area west of Aleppo and the section of the border from Tel Abyad to Ras el-Ain) is controlled by rebel groups affiliated with Turkey.

The source of resistance still remains in Idlib, where a joint patrol is conducted by Russia and Turkey. Insurgent forces still remain there, including jihadists from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a group affiliated with al-Qaeda (both banned in Russia). Turkish forces are also present there.

Only 15% of the land border is controlled by the Syrian army, the rest is in the hands of outside players. The same is true of the maritime and air borders.

The ongoing war in Syria is largely due to the involvement of international players in the conflict. Thus, the continuing acuteness of the situation around Idlib is related to the Turkish troops deployed there, and any action there is fraught with the risk of a direct clash with Turkey. Any clash in Trans-Euphrates, where there are American, Russian and Turkish military personnel, can escalate into an open conflict.

After pro-American fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces knocked out Daesh (banned in the Russian Federation) terrorists from the oil fields, the United States began to establish production and smuggling of resources from northeastern Syria.

Former US President Donald Trump explicitly said that the main task of the US Armed Forces in the region is to keep control of the Syrian oil fields. Thirty million dollars a month – that’s how much, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, the US earns from oil production in Syria.

The schemes of its supply have long been fine-tuned: the largest deposits are guarded by soldiers of US private military companies and Kurdish militias under the control of the Pentagon. Syrian authorities have already repeatedly appealed to the UN Security Council to ban the United States from plundering the country’s oil resources.

According to Moscow and Damascus, the US and its allies, using financial and political leverage, put pressure on international organizations, forcing them to “turn a blind eye” to the grave consequences of the sanctions they imposed on Syria and the violation of its sovereignty.

On March 12, Russia and the SAR appealed to the international community to put pressure on the US to counter its inhumane policies towards Syria. “We demand that the American side cease its destabilizing influence on the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic and strictly comply with international law and the principles of the United Nations.

Only the complete restitution of control of the Syrian authorities over all the illegally occupied territories of the US and its allies and the removal of sanctions will allow to resolve the crisis and restore lasting peace,” reads the statement of the inter-agency coordination headquarters of the Russian Federation and the Syrian Arab Republic (SAR). “The Syrian people must be given real help to restore the economy and provide decent living conditions,” Moscow and Damascus stress.

The reconstruction of post-war Syria, the return of refugees, and a political settlement are interconnected. According to the most conservative estimates, it will take 50 years and at least $300 billion to patch the holes.

But no one is ready to pay yet. The West has made it clear in the past that it makes its assistance conditional on political change. In July 2020, parliamentary elections were held in Syria, and in August Assad approved the new government of the SAR.

Elections for a Syrian president are scheduled for the summer of 2021, but Western countries have already said they will not take the election process seriously if Assad is involved. On March 16, the US, Britain, France, Germany and Italy reiterated the same position in a joint statement of the foreign ministers of the five countries.

Nothing today indicates that the situation in Syria will change fundamentally in the coming months or years. The new administration will try to keep the remaining US troops in Iraq and Syria, which, however, will be primarily concerned with strengthening its position in Syria and the region and enhancing control over the oil wealth of that country.

Under these conditions, only a diplomatic solution, where the Astana troika — Russia, Turkey, and Iran — will try to negotiate with the US and other participants about the future of Syria, is acceptable for a way out of the current situation.

Vladimir Danilov, political observer, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

Jim W. Dean

Jim W. Dean is VT Editor Emeritus.  He was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022.  He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews.  He now writes and posts periodically for VT.

Read Full Complete Bio >>>
Jim W. Dean Archives 2009-2015