Syria’s Assault on Daraa Provides Opportunities to End Assad’s Rule

 

 'The Syrian uprising erupted in the southern province of Daraa when kids wrote on public walls “your turn has come Doctor Assad.” Since then, Daraa has proven to be one of the icons of the Syrian uprising and calls for freedom, democracy, self-governance, and rule of law in Syria. The Assad government has responded to those calls with live bullets, siege, murder, and destruction. The city and province of Daraa hold a critical geopolitical role in the country. It borders two of the United States’ strategic partners, Jordan and Israel. The main trade pathways through Syria must go through Daraa, from the Arabian Gulf countries all the way to Lebanon, Turkey, and Europe. The Nassib Jaber border crossing port represents the busiest Syrian port of its kind.

 I, Dr. Ghbeis, write as an American medical doctor of Syrian descent. I was educated in Syria and the United States, and in the past decade returned to Syria several times to support those Syrians most in medical need. I witnessed first-hand the devastating, inhuman conditions internally displaced Syrians have gone through. I witnessed how whole neighborhoods have been affected by a strategy of siege by the Assad government and its backers, which have targeted the most vulnerable components of society in Syria, the elderly, and children.

 Unfortunately, that same strategy of siege has been used by the Syrian government on Daraa al-Balad for the past several weeks. As a result, the humanitarian and medical conditions of 55,000 men, women, and children have become unbearable. The régime is using collective punishment measures and reprisal against large groups of civilian populations in Daraa, both of which are recognized crimes against humanity. Furthermore, in Daraa, all the medical supplies provided to local hospitals and clinics by western NGOs were stolen by Assad’s government-backed militia for financial gain on the black market. What makes the situation even worse is the lack of doctors in Daraa because they, too, were targeted by the Syrian government since the peaceful uprising began a decade ago. Many doctors have fled, but others have not made it out. They and their families were assassinated before they could get out from under the siege.

 Since the uprising began, Bashar al-Assad has made every effort to label those opposing it, including doctors, as terrorists. The régime’s false narratives include stating that Daraa’s residents are seeking to build a radical Islamic government in the southern part of Syria. In fact, as time passed, the province has proven to be one of the most resilient against extremist ideologies, despite the terrible hardship. ISIS was unable to hold territory in the area despite the government’s efforts to infiltrate it with ISIS cells, such as the “Yarmouk Martyrs” militia. Free Syrian Army (FSA) brigades in Daraa seized the opportunity to fight extremist groups, including the Yarmouk Martyrs, and for several years, up until 2018, they maintained a tough stand against these groups. In 2018, Daraa province was handed over to Assad under the guise of “reconstitution. At that point, Assad claimed that his régime would take extremist elements and move them to other territories in the Syrian desert and areas near Deir ez-Zor under the watchful eye of the régime and its backers.

 Following a 2018 agreement, brokered mainly by Russia and the Trump administration, control of the southern region of Syria was handed back to Assad. Among other things agreed upon in 2018, it is important to highlight the presence of Iranian militias and the requirement to keep them at a distance of no less than fifty miles from the Syrian borders adjacent to Jordan and Israel. This condition, however, was never met. On the other hand, a number of other key provisions in the agreement were met, including régime forces not being allowed to enter Daraa; local FSA fighters handing over heavy weapons and maintaining only small arms, and some of the FSA fighters being rolled into a new brigade under Russian command.



 In the meantime, Iranian militias were infiltrating Syrian communities and neighborhoods in different ways across the country. Some of the militias operate under the leadership of Lebanese Hezbollah and other militias under different names, such as Fatemiyoun and Zainabiyoun. These foreign militias move around Syrian society wearing the same military fatigues as members of Assad’s army. Some are organized under the Syrian Army’s 4th Division, which is commanded by Assad’s brother, Maher. This Syrian army division is fully controlled by Iranian interests. The siege in Daraa and the effort to displace the 55,000 Syrian civilians from their homes there in order to tighten control of the southern Syrian region was notably conducted by Assad’s government forces and Iranian militias.

 Iran is clearly seeking to control areas in southern Syria, such as Daraa, in order to expand its influence in a wider space in Syria. Iran had done the same in southern Lebanon with Hezbollah. Eventually, Iranian influence expanded in Lebanon to areas far beyond southern Lebanon including the capital, Beirut. In fact, Iran would like to use southern Syria as it did southern Lebanon all in the name of the goals of the Islamic Revolution of 1979.



 The Iranian initiative in Syria is unacceptable to the people of Daraa. The opposite is true. While the residents of southern Lebanon may have shared sectarian beliefs with Iran, the same is not the case in southern Syria, which is a melting pot of Muslims, Christians, and Druze, and the Shia sect presence is weak in the area.

 Prior to 2018, the United States supported Syrian society in southern Syria and backed FSA fighters as well. It was a positive influence on local Syrian communities, in places like Daraa, helping to maintain stability and counter efforts at radicalization as well. However, in 2018, American engagement and influence were lost in that part of Syria to Russia and Iran. The recent escalation in Daraa presents an opportunity for the Biden administration to re-engage communities in this critical region of Syria and impact them in positive ways. Such U.S. engagement will in turn put pressure on Assad and his backers to re-engage diplomatically toward a negotiated settlement on the future of Syria.



 The recent events in Daraa make it very clear that the communities in southern Syria are not interested in taking orders from the régime despite the terrible human toll suffered because of it. It would be timely indeed if the United States and its allies fully understood this point and led a diplomatic initiative to end Syria’s decade-long humanitarian crisis by calling the régime to the table and insisting that it compensate the millions of Syrians that have suffered from its policies. Assad will not compromise if he is not made to understand that to do otherwise is far more dangerous for him. Daraa and southern Syria represent an opening to a much-needed political transition in Syria for the sake of all Syrians and the international community. The Syrian uprising was born in Daraa, and it would be poetic justice after all the loss if it is there that the Assad régime goes away for good.'

Civilians bear the brunt of escalating violence in Syria’s Idlib

 

 'Maryam Barakat’s marriage last month was quiet due to a recent escalation in bombings by Syrian and Russian forces in the rebel stronghold of Idlib, northwest Syria. Few people came – those who did were careful not to sound their car horns in celebration.

 Despite the war, Maryam, 20, had managed to continue her studies and graduated this year as a midwife. It was while studying midwifery at university that Maryam met her future husband, 25-year-old Taha Taqa, who was training to become an anaesthetist.

 “I told Taha one day that I had never seen two people this close to one another. They could not live apart from one another. Taha’s life was Maryam and Maryam’s life was Taha,” Mohamed Taqa, Taha’s father, told Al Jazeera. They married on July 10.

 But their marriage was brutally curtailed – it lasted just a week.



 On July 18, they prepared to celebrate the Eid al-Adha holiday with family in the village of Jabal al-Zawiya.

 “All the men were sitting in front of the house when we heard a sound,” Mohamed Taqa said.

 “Moments later, a big explosion happened and I was thrown on the ground. I could no longer move and I was breathing very heavily. We were screaming for the paramedics.”

 The family home was hit by what witnesses said was most likely a laser-guided artillery shell fired by Assad régime forces. Remnants of Russian-made artillery shells were found on the ground.

 Taha was badly injured in the attack. He is now conscious and being treated in a hospital across the border in Turkey.

 Maryam was killed.

 “Words cannot describe her,” Maryam’s eldest brother Bashar says. “I did not see anything but good from her.”



 The shelling that killed Maryam is the latest in a series escalation in attacks over the last two months in Idlib, the last rebel-held bastion in Syria.

 The latest violence comes despite a ceasefire signed in March 2020 between Turkey, which backs opposition armed groups in control of much of Idlib province, and Russia, the Assad régime’s closest ally.

 Assad’s forces want to take control of Jabal al-Zawiya, as it is close to the strategically vital M4 highway south of Idlib linking régime-controlled cities of Aleppo and Latakia.

 But Omer Ozkizilcik, a Syria analyst at the Turkey-based SETA Foundation, said the recent escalation in violence may also be about sending a message to Turkey.

 “Whilst the Assad regime and Russia always want to maintain a certain amount of escalation in Idlib to not lose their ability to launch a new military operation, the recent escalation is mainly motivated by international developments rather than Syrian dynamics,” he said.

 “Russia is trying to exploit the millions of civilians in Idlib as a pressure tool against Turkey to limit its support and cooperation with anti-Russian [forces].”



 Amid the renewed violence in Idlib, humanitarian workers have also paid with their lives.

 On July 17, White Helmets rescue workers, also known as the Syria Civil Defence, lost their 291st team member in Idlib. Paramedic Hammam al-Asi, a 30-year-old father of three, died in an attack.

 The White Helmets said they have been “deliberately targeted with laser-guided Krasnopol shells” by the régime forces and Russia at least six times in two months, with two volunteers killed and 13 others injured.

 Al-Asi had dreamed of becoming a chemistry teacher, his father Muhammad Saeed said.

 “But due to the revolution, he was unable to achieve this. He loved working in the Civil Defence since it was humanitarian work,” he said.

 Kamel Zureik, the White Helmet’s team leader in Bzabur Centre in Southern Idlib, was with al-Asi and other colleagues as they worked to free people trapped under the rubble in a home that had been hit by shelling from the Syrian regime in Idlib’s Sarjah.

 Civilians had saved two children before they arrived and the White Helmets freed one more, and were working to save another when an incoming shell exploded and fatally wounded al-Asi.

 They were targeted what is known as a double-tap attack, a brutal tactic used by the Syrian and Russian forces to target a location and then, when first responders are on the scene trying to save the civilians injured or trapped as a result of the first attack, hit the same location again.

 Al-Asi died en route to the hospital, too badly wounded to drink the water he was pleading for, Zureik said.

 “We say to the international community: Look at what is [still] happening on the ground. Look at how the rescue teams are becoming victims,” Zureik said.

 Since then the attacks have continued – at least nine children were killed last week in a series of attacks by Russian and régime forces in Idlib.



 Meanwhile, amid the ongoing violence, civilians face severe challenges such as access to healthcare and education, fewer work opportunities, and scarcity of food and water.

 “I, like all people in Idlib, fear for my children and try to provide them security, safety, and food,” Maryam’s father Muhammad said. “But I feel that we have no future; where are we going?”

 Maryam and Taha’s families say their love and marriage, as war raged around them, was a quiet but heroic act of defiance and courage and hope, in the face of loss, displacement and suffering.

 But in Syria, there are endless ways to break a heart.

 “Here in Idlib, all dreams are bombarded. Dreams here have a limit but they are eventually destroyed,” Maryam’s father Muhammad said.

 Now, Maryam’s father goes to stand at her grave, where her and Taha’s initials are written on the front of her headstone.

 “I wish the whole world to know the story of Maryam, of her pure and tender heart. I know Maryam’s wish would be that this does not happen to other civilians, husbands, and children,” he said.

 “When they broke Maryam’s dream, they broke all of our dreams.” '