Syria war crimes not considered news by half of Britons

 

 'War crimes in Syria are no longer considered newsworthy by almost half of Britons, despite most people thinking attacks on civilians happen regularly.

 Forty-nine per cent of people do not think the UK media would bother reporting on atrocities, such as attacks on schools and hospitals, in the Syrian conflict.

 This is despite the majority (63 per cent) of Britons believing such war crimes are common in the conflict, now in its 11th year.

 The reason is a combination of confusion, insularity, the spread of disinformation and a reluctance for Western countries to intervene, according to a report by the charity Syria Relief, which commissioned the YouGov poll.

 Attacks such as the deadly bombing of Afrin’s Al-Shifa Hospital in June, which left at least 18 people dead, are still a regular occurence.

 Since 2011, Syria has seen chemical weapon attacks, mass killings, the use of child soldiers and the targeting of religious minorities.



 Shamsa al-Ali, a 33-year-old Syrian refugee living in Lebanon, said: “The crisis didn’t end, it’s maybe greater than before.

 “Every day I receive or hear news about one of my relatives who is missing, and his family can’t reach or contact him, or [he’s] died.”

 Another refugee Asreya al-Hajj, 33, said: “Most of my family and siblings are homeless, the sweat we’ve given early before the war, building our houses and memories, are all now gone with a single airstrike.”

 Shaha al-Mohammad, 24, said that she believes there is a lack of interest in what is happening in Syria because of the complex nature of the conflict.

 “Because we kill each other as Syrians, others feel we deserve what is happening for us,” she added.

 Syria Relief’s head of advocacy Charles Lawley believes the main reason for apathy from countries like the UK is “the sheer frequency of crimes against humanity”.

 “We don’t believe that Syria should simply be condemned as just a place where bad things happen, but that every single attack on civilian life is an outrage, no matter how frequent they are,” he said.

 “In fact, we would argue that the more frequent they are, the more outrageous they are. However, sadly, the lack of political will has meant that because there are just so many war crimes being committed, there is less anger about it.”

 The report revealed that civilian victims of sniper attacks were injured in similar ways on certain days, suggesting shooters are having “competitions”. In some cases, pregnant women were found shot in the uterus.

 Brutal attacks on homes, hospitals and schools have forced millions to abandon their lives and seek refuge abroad. Since the start of the conflict, 6.8 million Syrians have become refugees and asylum seekers, with a further 6.7 million people displaced within Syria.

 Rami Elsayer, a refugee at the Atmeh refugee camp in northern Syria, said “international news channels talking about the improvement of the situation in Syria are incorrect”.

 “Our unemployment is high and the spread of coronavirus has affected us greatly, there is no healthcare,” he said.

 “The situation is really much worse than previous years and I hope my message will reach all people around the world – don’t leave us alone.”

 The United Nations (UN) says Lebanon has 865,530 registered Syrian refugees and estimates there are 1.5 million Syrians in the neighbouring country.

 An estimated 90 per cent of Syrian refugee households live in “extreme poverty” in Lebanon, according to the UN, up from 55 per cent in early 2019.'

How to resist siege in Bashar al Assad’s Syria

 

 Omar al-Hariri:

 'Daraa will terrify the régime every day. We will keep reminding them that we are the ones who set fire to this régime, and only we will extinguish it with freedom and dignity.

 We all know very well that when the buses come, we will have to make choices that are difficult, bitter, harsh and painful. It is not our first time seeing these green buses, and it won't be the last. They are always the régime's solution, and often the only solution for the trapped opponents of Bashar al Assad’s régime.

 On August 24, my friend Talal said goodbye to his son Yasser, holding his hand while leaving Daraa al Balad as part of the agreement between the opposition and the régime to transfer those who refuse the "reconciliation", to Idlib.

 Talal is one of the opposition fighters who defected from the Syrian army in 2012, refusing his officer’s orders to shoot protesters. He later joined opposition groups and fought the régime for years in Daraa. Yet now, it looks like he’s the one who has to say goodbye to his wife and two sons, Yasser and Sham. He may never see them again.

 In southern Syria, I experienced this in 2018. This type of settlement deal happened in al Sanamayn in March 2020, and in Umm Batinah in May 2021, and today in Daraa al Balad in August 2021. Disputes between the people of Daraa and the régime forces were always burning here and there, and the régime always stipulated the buses as the only solution.

 And when you leave Daraa you don't really leave, believe me. You leave your soul behind.

 No matter how hard I try to describe it, it is harsher than words can express. Suddenly, you are faced with two options. You can take the buses towards northwest Syria - to overcrowded camps filled to the brim, where there is no room for even a single new displaced person, where people are suffering under continued Russian and régime bombardment.

 Or, you can stay in Daraa, and wait for the régime’s revenge. Perhaps you will be arrested, or forcibly disappeared, or assassinated. And if you escape with your life, you have no choice but to live under the tyrannical rule of Assad.

 Some could not stand the idea of living under his rule, being forced to see pictures of the criminal on every street corner, having to salute him and his officers. They decided to leave in 2018, after a Russia-mediated ‘reconciliation’ deal, while I, and others, chose to remain and stick to what we have believed in since 2011.

 But this "battle" is not easy at all. It is a battle against fear, anxiety, disgust and despair. Many were defeated and left Daraa in succession. Daraa is that tree in autumn whose leaves die and fall slowly.



 Last May, the Assad régime organised presidential “elections”. Official media portrayed scenes straight out of a Syrian series - thousands celebrating the “victory” of Assad and thanking him for his “achievements”! What achievements?

 Only the people of Daraa al Balad and those in Al-Omari Mosque square - the birthplace of the revolution on March 18, 2011, decided to spoil these celebrations. The people of Daraa al Balad flew the flags of the Syrian revolution and raised their voices in anti-election slogans. The media saw that and circulated widely.

 From that moment on, all of us in Daraa al Balad knew that the régime would take revenge on us. We knew that something was waiting for us soon.

 Bombing, destruction and — eventually — the green buses followed soon after. The siege began in June. More than 38,000 people, mostly women and children, became displaced. For two months, the régime has been doing only one thing: forcing its opponents out of the area through those green buses or killing them in Daraa.

 For two months, the remaining residents of Daraa al Balad have been waking up, looking for their food in the morning, asking each other what will happen tomorrow. And before night, they return to the shelters because they know that the bombing will start at night and will not stop before morning. And again the next day and the day after that.



 In 2011, my friends and I established Daraa Martyrs Documentation, a human rights organisation. Even after 2018, we decided to continue documenting human rights violations in Daraa without hesitation. My colleagues and I needed a "weapon" to confront the war we live in our hearts. We are in a war in which we have to convince ourselves that we made the right decision by taking this risk.

 Our office is our secret weapon. We wake up in the morning and ask ourselves, "How are we going to disturb the régime today?"

 The answer is easy. This régime is afraid of evidence of its crimes, afraid that the world will know what is happening in Syria. It wants us to die quietly.

 And we are telling the régime: Look at us. We are fighting you and you don't know who we are and how we do it. It is very dangerous to the point of death, but I feel the flavour of victory in my mouth every day.

 When the régime started its siege, our task became even more challenging. We were used to working in dangerous conditions for years, but this time we felt that it was different.

 Colleagues were split into teams to cover several places in and out of the besieged area to be able to contact colleagues outside Syria. Everyone has to submit their notes and documents every day, to not postpone the work by even one day, because who knows? The régime forces might attack us before we send the last day's work.

 After every night’s bombing, we start work in the morning to assess the damage, check on those who are alive, and to ensure the safety of the injured. The days are too short before the return of the night and the attacks.

 For days, the negotiating committees have been trying to reach a peaceful solution that prevents displacement and war, but it is clear to everyone that the régime is not negotiating to end the war - it came to take revenge on the place where it all began 10 years ago. Daraa al Balad is a major symbol for its people, and the régime wants to destroy it.

 We, in the office, have to defend Daraa in our own way.

 We refuse to let the world forget and forgive the régime for its crimes. We document every single crime, photograph it and record the names and details, and place them before the eyes and consciences of the world and in the records of history.

 Our motto is "we will not forget, and we will not accept that anyone forgets".

 Usually, I try not to lie to myself, I try not to get too hopeful, lest it get lost, but I am certain that we are not defeated yet. I consider what I have done during years of human rights work a victory. If I die today, I will be satisfied.

 There is an Arabic song that says "We will stay here," in which the singer urges university graduates not to emigrate and stay in their homeland. This song is my friend.

 "We will stay here," because if we leave, they will be here, and this place is ours, not theirs.'

This is how the US can (still) become kingmaker in Syria

 

Ömer Özkizilcik:

 'In the early years of the war in Syria, Hilary Clinton positioned herself as a strong supporter of the legitimate Syrian opposition against the Bashar al Assad regime. At that time many speculated about the probability of a US intervention, but the Obama administration’s decision not to enforce its “red line” on chemical weapons shocked Washington pundits.

 This was a demonstration of American unwillingness that ultimately facilitated the Russian intervention in Syria and became a symbol of the US’ failure there.

 However, an equally important failure — one that has cast it to the sidelines of the political process and the future of the country — is not only ignored, but whitewashed. This was the insistence of the Obama administration to only support anti-Daesh groups that neither targeted the Assad regime nor the Iranian-backed Shia militias.

 In Syria, the only group that fit this description was the Syrian branch of the US-designated PKK terror group, the YPG. To preserve the nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration not only alienated Turkey and misguided the international community, but also drove the US into a corner.

 In line with this strategy, CENTCOM officials who worked closely with Iranian-backed Shia militias in Iraq against Daesh, have repeatedly undermined alternatives. The train and equip programmes for the legitimate armed Syrian opposition were defamed as ineffective or unviable. Yet years later, the same armed units of the Syrian Interim Government now control vast territories and cleared several areas from the YPG.

 The US now has entered a state of negligible importance in Syria. After former President Trumps’ partial withdrawal decision, CENTCOM officials preferred seeing Russian, rather than Turkish boots in their former bases. Now the US local partner in Syria depends on Russia for its safety. US troops remained in a strip of land in the east to ‘protect the oil’, but the last reason for the US to stay in Syria vanished when the Biden administration decided to end the waiver for the American company operating the oil facilities.

 Since then, CENTCOM officials are increasingly emphasising the importance of their work in Syria against Daesh. Even though Daesh hasn’t controlled territory since 2019, American commanders regularly publish information about YPG’s counter-terror operations in Syria. In reality, these “counter-terror operations” by the YPG are about as effective as the operations of the Afghan National Army against the Taliban. The narrative over Syria is misguided, just as the narrative over Afghanistan was.

 Moreover, in contrast to the Afghan National Army, the YPG does not have a motivation to eliminate Daesh – their sole source of alleged legitimacy. The YPG wants to fight Daesh, but not eliminate it. While US statements suggest that everything is fine in Syria, the reality is otherwise. Daesh continues to operate in the country.

 The small zone of American influence, its reliance on Russia for protecting its local partner in Syria and the lack of reasons to stay in Syria are just one facet of the looming disaster. More important is that the US has sidelined itself from the political process of Syria.

 According to the UN, the political process in Syria has two sides: the Assad regime and the legitimate Syrian opposition. The US, however, works with a third party that follows a separatist agenda for just a part of Syria. The US has played no role in the decision-making process for the members of the constitutional committee and has lost its influence over the Syrian opposition.

 The Syrian High Negotiations Committee, consisting of all the political spectrums of the Syrian opposition, works closely with Turkey, and Turkey has evolved to become the sole guarantor of the Syrian opposition. American diplomacy remains on the sidelines with sanctions and blockades against some Arab countries normalising relations with the Assad regime.

 The US started by supporting the Syrian opposition and democracy. Now it contributes to a separatist agenda in Syria that will ultimately end with the US playing no role in the future of Syria if the US doesn't change policy.

 At the end of the day, the tactical decision by the Obama administration to partner with the YPG needs to be corrected. Biden has to re-evaluate the tactics of the former president he served under and make a smart decision.

 It’s not in the interest of the US to stay in Syria supporting a separatist agenda. The interest of the US is in supporting a political solution by strengthening the legitimate Syrian opposition.

 To do so, Biden needs to abandon the YPG and work on uniting the non-YPG elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces with the Syrian National Army and the Kurdish Roj Peshmerga under the command of the Syrian Interim Government. By bringing these elements together, the US would become the kingmaker in Syria and could facilitate a political solution for Syria.

 The proposed idea to unite these forces is founded on an already occurring phenomenon as a de facto regional alliance of Turks, Arabs and Kurds is forming against the PKK/YPG. The US only needs to surf this wave and bring non-YPG elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces and formalise the alliance. This would allow Washington to come out of the sidelines into the centre of the game without alienating the Kurds.

 Such a policy shift in Washington would be appreciated by Turkey, which would provide strong support to enable a smooth transition. Moreover, as a bonus of this decision, the US would eliminate the strongest spoiler in Turkish-American relations. The Biden administration would strengthen its relations with a valuable and important NATO and regional partner, easing the burden on the US and helping Biden to focus more on China.

 Finally, this shift in strategy would be a strong alternative to the other proposed idea of normalising the Assad regime that has used chemical weapons on the people and committed numerous war crimes and atrocities.'

Régime’s stereotyping of Idlib shadows its bright side

 

 'Before the start of the Syrian revolution in 2011, Idlib was known as the “Green Idlib” for its richness with olive trees. However, residents of Idlib have always considered their region as a “forgotten governorate” since Hafez al-Assad came to power in Syria. Residents claim that the Syrian government has ignored their governorate and failed to undertake urban development projects there.

 During the revolution, Idlib governorate became the center of attention after becoming home to thousands of displaced Syrians from different regions and opponents evicted from their areas under settlement agreements imposed by the régime with Russian auspices.

 In May 2014, a settlement agreement stipulated the eviction of civilians and former fighters from the old city of Homs to Idlib. As more settlements were reached throughout Syria, Idlib became a large concentration point for displaced residents and fighters from Damascus and its countryside, Daraa, Homs, Hama, and other regions. It is estimated that over four million Syrians live in northern Syria, according to a study published by the Jusoor Center for Studies last March.

 Meanwhile, the régime was launching an information war, in which it presented itself as civilized to the West through holding artistic activities, including concerts and festivals. At the same time, the régime labeled those in northern Syria as extremists and terrorists, attempting to demonize them.



 Singer-composer Samir Aktaa chanted songs for the Syrian revolution and subsequent aftermath, some pressing issues, and cross-border humanitarian hardship. He told Enab Baladi that art has the power to break the régime’s stereotyping of Idlib.

 Art is a tool that allows people to freely express themselves and their society, Aktaa said. He added, artists’ genuine sentiments can reveal the most sublime human feelings away from insincerity and pretense and by having a deep belief in the righteousness of the cause and the revolution.

 According to Aktaa, an artist’s mission is to reflect reality with his/her work and be more attentive to pressing issues than other groups in society, adding that through words and songs, artists can mirror the suffering and injustice directed against people for daring to demand freedom.

 During the revolution, many artistic and cultural manifestations emerged in Idlib, seeking to send a message to the world and those far about life in Idlib and the true nature of its people.

 Aktaa has presented songs about vital issues, including the case of detainees (the living and the killed ones), internally displaced camps, the revolution’s tenth anniversary, and the killing of Abdul Baset al-Sarout, an icon of the Syrian revolution.

 Aktaa told Enab Baladi that Syrians’ battle against the régime’s tyranny and dictatorship is one and indivisible.

 “The world will not stand by a revolution that does not have a voice. Freedom and dignity are vital issues to all people of the free world.”



 The Syrian régime utilized state television, media outlets, and social media networks to polish its image against the international community, depending on repeating the same official version of being targeted by terrorists and foreign elements carrying out a conspiracy to undermine Syria.

 Aziz al-Asmar, a Syrian graffiti artist, living in Idlib, rose to fame after he started painting murals on walls of destroyed houses and buildings by the Syrian régime’s bombing and Russia in Idlib.

 Al-Asmar’s murals tackle humanitarian themes beyond the Syrian case. For example, he painted a mural in honor of George Floyd, an African American US citizen who lost his life to racism and police brutality. Al-Asmar also painted murals of football icon Maradona after his death, the Israeli forces’ assault on Palestinians in Jerusalem, the Syrian revolution, and the death of Abdul Baset al-Sarout.

 Al-Asmar told Enab Baladi that he chose to paint on destroyed buildings because “they mirror the level of tragedy and brutality that have been practiced against Syrians by the régime and its allies.”

 The graffiti artist painted murals on the régime’s bombardment, displacement, arrests, civilians’ daily lives, and the hardships they face, including poverty, unemployment, and rising prices throughout Syria.

 He added that a few colors explained a lot without words and sent a message to the world that the Syrian revolution is not merely weapons, killers, and victims, but it is a revolution of culture, art, and humanity.

 According to al-Asmar, the cities of Saraqeb and Kafr Nubul in Idlib countryside and Darayya in Damascus countryside were the first to use graffiti and colors in the service of the revolution.

 Today, al-Asmar is engaging children in murals painting to help them express their dreams and wishes, considering that their participation enriches and attributes more sincerity and human value to his cultural and artistic project.

 “We are still dreaming of a near victory to paint the victory mural on the walls of the presidential palace in Damascus.”



 Zafer Saleh Sadaqah, a Syrian poet who lives in Idlib, has written poems and composed lyrics of many songs chanted by Samir Aktaa. Sadaqah and Aktaa have formed a harmonious, artistic duo, where words and sounds combine to produce music.

 When asked about the role of intellectuals in bringing to light the bright side of Idlib, which the régime keeps trying to dilute and marginalize, Sadaqah said that a writer, a literary scholar, or artist who does not connect with the pains of his/her people and society is a servant intellectual.

 Sadaqah added, the fact that the régime has an organized media and information system compared to the situation in Idlib does not give primacy to it because it falsifies facts, and only words of truth prevail.

 During the Syrian revolution, many Syrian artists in various fields supported the régime, which used them as a vehicle to promote its media propaganda in television interviews, musical concerts, and other events. These artists positively talked of the régime and helped it look civilized away from its real image as responsible for bombing, displacing, arresting, and intimidating Syrians.

 Sadaqah said that Syrians of the northern region do not need to create an alternative or new society, for they already have an established rich, authentic, and diverse society, particularly after successive displacement waves from various Syrian cities to the north. He added that those who have the right tools must use them to highlight Idlib’s true face.

 “The loudness of guns does not guarantee the continuity of their sounds or give them power over words or songs whose impact goes beyond time and space.”



 The régime knew it could not regain control of all Syrian territories. It was also aware that groups fighting it in Idlib, mainly religiously oriented groups, can indirectly serve its position and offer a ready-made stereotypical image that would distort the Syrian revolution, political researcher Majed Alloush told Enab Baladi.

 Alloush added that the régime sought to turn Idlib into a center for Islamist factions, which at some point in time made mistakes contrary to revolutionary values advocated by Syrians, in reference to HTS, which was listed as a terrorist group after deviating from the revolution’s principles.

 He pointed out that the régime benefited from the armed factions’ mistakes in northern Syria as the West started comparing the régime and the factions’ methods of dealing with civilians in their areas of control.

 The régime was keen to send a message to the international community that it remains the least worst option for the West and its interests with all of its brutality.

 On the régime’s use of media to provide a misleading version of what is going on in Idlib, Alloush said that the problem is not the weakness of media in Idlib or the absence of information materials to be promoted, but the availability of many materials that the régime can benefit from and invest in for its interests.

 Alloush added that any talk of a cultural conflict between the régime and the models fighting it during the revolution’s armed phase would be illogical. The conflict with the régime is a moral one, between people lured by dreams of freedom and dignity and a régime that does not understand anything but killing as a weapon during conflicts.'

 

Do not forget Syria’s disappeared

 

 Mariam al-Hallak:

 'One of the hardest things we go through as families of the disappeared is the wait. For many years we have been waiting for answers, for any clue about the fates of our loved ones, and for justice and accountability.

 During the weekend, I joined fellow activists and Syrian families whose loved ones are still missing after being detained or disappeared by the Syrian régime and armed groups. We placed hundreds of landline telephones on the cobbles of Bebelplatz square in central Berlin as a call to governments to do more to seek information about our loved ones.

 My son Ayham Ghazoul was one of tens of thousands of Syrians who were detained and tortured for daring to peacefully oppose Bashar al-Assad’s régime. He was my youngest son, and the closest to me. His older brothers got married and moved out and my husband passed away in late 2011, so it was just he and I at home.

 During his teenage years before the revolution, he used to bring me stories written by former prisoners on computer disks. Those stories were banned in Syria but Ayham wanted me to know what it was like being a political detainee in al-Assad’s prisons.

 At the start of the revolution, he was studying for his master’s degree in dentistry and taking part in the uprising in Damascus. He joined the movement to defend freedom of expression and was so proud to be participating in the demonstrations, chanting and calling for freedom.

 He and some of his colleagues were arrested by the Air Force Intelligence Directorate and later taken to the notorious Fourth Division Branch where he was frequently tortured. His friends inside were amazed he was still alive after the torture sessions, his wounds were very serious but he always tried to smile until he was too tired to do so. They released him after three months with severe bleeding in his kidneys.

 Once he recovered, he returned to his studies and started to attend activism workshops in Beirut. The night before he was meant to travel home he called me to tell me about the best night of his life on the beach in Beirut. “I’ll tell you about it when I get back, Mama,” he said. I was waiting to hear about that night.

 The day after he came back from Beirut on November 5, 2012, he went to work at the university and this was when he was arrested. They took him to a room inside the university, filled with torture tools.

 A fellow detainee told me they beat him severely all over his body. When they beat him on his head, Ayham lost consciousness and died a few days later. He told me they stuck a white piece of paper to Ayham’s forehead with a number on it.

 Three months after he was killed, I learned of my son’s death. We started to grieve and to accept condolences from friends. At his memorial, a government official arrived and told me that Ayham was actually alive. He gave us details and it was enough for me to let myself believe and have hope.

 My journey of searching for answers about his whereabouts lasted for 17 months, going  everywhere, asking everyone I could. I would go to the intelligence branches with other mothers and we would ask them to tell us about our children. They all denied having any information at all until one day one officer finally nodded his head at me. My son had died, he confirmed.



 When the Caesar photos were first released, it uncovered the horrific atrocities committed by the Syrian régime against political prisoners. It left the world in total shock. I tried to search for Ayham in the photos but looking through such horrific pictures was difficult. A friend of the family managed to identify him.

 Since then, I have not stopped campaigning. We families have spoken out against state-sponsored torture and detention at every opportunity. We went to the German city of Koblenz to file a lawsuit against two Syrian régime officials who have been accused of torturing detainees. Families who recognised their loved ones in Caesar’s photos have come together and are trying to find out where they are buried.

 I need to know where my son is so I can bury him and sit next to his grave. This is why I wait by the phone every day hoping for some sort of information about where his body might be. Nothing can bring back my son, but burying him would ease my pain and provide me with a place where I can grieve and tell him what I have wanted to tell him for years.'

Assault on Daraa Opportunity 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 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.” '

Victims still haunted by chemical attack in Syria

 

 'Eight years have passed since the Bashar al-Assad régime struck Eastern Ghouta with chemical weapons on Aug. 21, 2013, but victims are still haunted by the nightmarish experience that killed more than 1,400 civilians.

 Thousands of women and children were affected by the poisonous agents in the attack in Syria, which is still fresh in the memory of survivors.

 Muhammad Sami, who was forced to migrate from Eastern Ghouta to Idlib, said the attack culminated in the deaths of 37 relatives.

 He said he is alive only because he was not at the location at the time of the attack.

 “I came back to the house to search for my family following the attack. I found none of them,” he said.

 Sami rushed to find relatives but he said it was as if hell broke loose and everyone he found was lifeless.

 He said that hundreds also were killed in the aftermath and his grudge against the regime is growing daily.

 Sami said the international community did not have any action following the massacre.

 “We searched for a safe zone for the injured looking forward to being rescued. I was writing the names of the deceased on their bodies. I lost 37 relatives of mine, among whom were my uncles, sisters-in-law, cousins and aunts,” he said, adding the Assad régime targeted the same region with artillery one day after the chemical strike.



 Russia and China have used their veto power 16 times in favor of the Syrian regime at UN Security Council meetings. They also used the veto six times in sessions dealing with chemical weapon attacks.'

Is Daraa about to become another of Assad's atrocities?

 

  Sam Hamad:

 'It's with characteristic savagery that the Assad régime, bolstered by Iranian forces, attempts to finally conquer Daraa, the area considered by many to be the birthplace of Syria's 11-year-old revolution.

 Unlike other areas of Syria liberated by the rebels only to be militarily conquered by Assad, Iran and Russia, Daraa was to be different. Russia, sensing an opportunity to become the major hegemonic power in the Middle East, decided that liberated Daraa would be spared the typical brutality that had been visited upon other rebel-held areas it had helped the Assad régime to conquer.

 But in contrast to the role of Russia as the imperialistic pacifier of the rebellious people, the ceasefire deal in Daraa was supposed to showcase its other role - its role as the coloniser; as capable of providing 'reconciliation' and stability as it was of destruction. And so Russia thought of its grand colonial vision of 'reconstruction', which really meant Russia becoming the imperialist suzerain over what's left of Syria.

 In Russia's vision for Syria, the financial and geopolitical exploitation of the country for decades to come provides it with all kinds of money-spinning ventures bringing in investment from Russia's allies, and the ever-more Assad-friendly Gulf states and Arab League. This in turn could prompt ideological allies among the EU and western world to get in on the 'scramble for Syria' somewhere along the way.



 But underpinning all of this, was proving to the region and the world that there was stability in Syria - Israel would ramp up attacks on Iranian forces close to its border, while Jordan wants to avoid more refugees adding to the 700,000 Syrians it already hosts, or the destabilisation of its southern border. The Daraa deal was supposed to, in the face of the US retreat, announce that Russia was now the main guarantor of stability in the region.

 That's why Russia did not allow the same genocidal fate of Aleppo and Homs to befall Daraa when the pro-régime forces looked to conquer it in 2018. It's now clear to everyone that Russia is the guarantor of very little in Syria, and that the foundations of the deal were always built of sand. Assad-Iran only grudgingly supported it, with the expectation that the ceasefire was merely a means to pave the way for their total conquest of Daraa.

 Under the 2018 deal, the province was to be split in two: the eastern side, fully occupied by the Assad régime, and the western side, including Daraa City, was to be put under semi-autonomous control of rebel forces and civilian revolutionary forces, forming elected Central Committees representing different areas of the semi-autonomous zone.

 The régime would take over the running of social provisions, and the rebels would hand over heavy weaponry and be incorporated into the Russian-created 'Fifth Corps' of the Syrian Arab Army, which would work with Russia to police the area, denying Assad and Iran any military access.



 Since the deal was struck, Assad has probed for ways to tear it apart. With economic collapse in Assad's kleptocratic rump state putting Syrians at threat of mass starvation, Daraa has become a natural hotbed of resistance and protest. The fact it operates with elected central committees and with essential autonomy has made it antithetical to the régime, especially if it provides an incentive to other suffering Syrians.

 When the autonomous province decided to boycott the absurd fixed presidential election earlier this year that saw the Syrian dictator returned to power with 95% of the vote, Assad began a brutal siege on Daraa.

 The siege then turned into an all-out offensive, with Assad shelling civilian areas, leading to over 90 deaths, including women and children. Eighty percent of the population have been 'evacuated', while Daraa al-Balad, the name for the southern part of Daraa city, is now completely besieged and its residents face starvation.

 To anyone who has paid attention to Syria's civil war, these genocidal tactics are all too familiar. But so far, they're missing the Russian ingredient that could be decisive. The rebels have managed to put up fierce resistance and have on many occasions got the better of the régime - without Russian airpower, régime forces remain vulnerable.

 Russia's attempts to create what we're supposed to believe could be a lasting ceasefire within a ceasefire would be comical were it not for the scale of the tragedy at stake. Though Russian intervention assured Assad's military success, in reality, Russia finds itself increasingly overstretched in the country; it has not carved stability out of Assad's parochial ultra-corrupt rump state and Iran's often quite divergent interests.

 Iran rules on the ground and has the most control over Assad, given many of its Revolutionary Guard forces and proxy militias give the régime much needed manpower. As we've seen during this conflict in Daraa, Iran is actively undermining Russian 'peace' negotiations with the central committees, indicating it wants to prompt a total conquest of the region.




 It could be that Russia concedes and decides there is more to be gained from the destruction of Daraa than there is to allow it to remain alive in peace.

 Or it could be that Russia secures another fragile 'peace', but for how long? The conditions that led to the confrontation aren't simply going to disappear. The Assad régime isn't suddenly going to become a force for peace, and the people of Daraa are not going to willingly surrender their liberty.

 Though the world ought to care about the people of Daraa, the reality is that their fate lies in the hands of forces that have pursued a war of extermination against Syrians with vicious gusto. The usual superficial condemnations from the US and international community aside, there will be scant outrage if Daraa becomes yet another of the atrocities carried out by Assad that litter Syria's recent history.'

Why do so many in régime-controlled areas feel unsafe?

 

 'A recent survey shows widespread insecurity among Syrians living in the Assad régime-controlled territories.

 Syrian régime leader Bashar al Assad won a landslide election victory in May by claiming 95 percent of Syrian votes to clinch his 4th presidential term. The elections were seen as rigged by most democratic governments and credible election monitors across the world.

 But inside Syria, anger and desperation are brewing against the Assad régime, a new study conducted by Syrian Association for Citizens’ Dignity (SACD) shows.

 The SACD is a civil rights group established by Syrian refugees who live in various countries such as Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. At least 75 percent of respondents to its latest survey are “dissatisfied with the régime’s behaviour.”

 The study was conducted through interviews with more than 500 people living in régime-controlled territories across Syria. The Syrian régime controls approximately 60 percent of the country while the US-backed YPG, which is part of the PKK terror group, rules much of northeastern Syria. Idlib, a northwestern province, is still controlled by the Syrian opposition.



 The Assad régime portrays itself as the safest option, a force that could bring political stability and public order in a country where terror groups like Al Qaeda, Daesh and the YPG have run amok. But the SARC study provides a profoundly different account.

 “Some 50 per cent of people in the Assad-controlled areas don't feel safe, including those who never left; 67 per cent of returnees from outside Syria don’t feel safe, and those in the reconciliation areas fear the worst with 94 percent saying they don’t feel safe,” the SARC survey noted.

 It’s significant that even half of the people, many of whom have often been considered Assad loyalists and continued to live under the Assad régime despite its atrocities, feel insecure under the rule of Damascus. “This shows that it is important not to equate those who remained living in Assad's areas of Syria, which people may do for any number of reasons, with loyalty or approval,” the report noted.



 The SARC report revealed that returnees feel even more insecure than people who always stayed under the régime's rule. That aspect has long been a major factor to make many Syrian refugees reluctant to return to their home country.

 But people, who have been allowed to live in former opposition areas through “reconciliation deals”, feel more insecure than anyone else. Reconciliation deals have been conducted between Assad régime representatives and local mediators to ensure former opposition fighters will disarm and surrender.



 While the Assad régime claims to have normalised areas controlled by Damascus, evidence collected by various independent bodies shows that it has been used as a political tactic to tighten the régime's control over people.

 Despite the reconciliation deals, a lot of people, who were part of the process, were not only continuously targeted by the régime, but also subjected to arbitrary arrests and other inhumane treatment, according to many studies.

 The SARC report also confirms it.

 “Campaigns of arrest and enforced disappearance are still ongoing, including against those covered by 'reconciliation agreements' and those who have been included in régime-issued amnesty, which highlights a lack of any kind of security guarantee in Syria,” the report said.

 “19 per cent of those arrested were covered by amnesty while 26 percent were covered by 'reconciliation agreement'. The amnesty laws are almost illusory, used to falsely demonstrate goodwill without the real release of those detained for political reasons and do not represent a guarantee,” the SARC report pointed out.

 Many human rights defenders have long stated that without freedoms, there is no point to security. It’s also true that without security, people cannot exercise their freedoms. But in Syria, even the most loyal citizens lack both security and freedom stuck between a brutal régime and armed groups raging across the country, according to the SARC report.

 For general security, the report indicates that across Syria “there are no safe areas, with some of the more practical safety parameters showing that security is poor everywhere” due to the security policies of the Assad régime.

 But for freedoms, the war-torn country is “a cemetery” according to the report: “78 percent of people in Assad-controlled areas think they do not have freedom of expression, while 85 per cent think that their right to participate in peaceful demonstrations is not protected.”

 “Those who are dissatisfied have no way to express it,” it added.



 The Syrian conflict has also created perfect conditions for corruption, carried out by both the régime and armed groups. Exploiting the absence of any real security and the rule of law, régime representatives have used their positions to extort money from ordinary people, according to the SARC report.

 A fledgling economy and widespread corruption across Syria have allowed the régime’s security forces “to intensify the use of arbitrary arrest and forced disappearance as tools of making extra money through extortion” from people who are desperate to secure their loved ones’ release or some information on their whereabouts, according to the report.

 “The heads of the security branches make the amnesty law a source of theft. The name of the person who pays more is written on the amnesty lists even though he is detained by mistake or often for no reason,” said one of the respondents to the survey.

 Even worse, corruption levels in Syria, when compared to previous years, have increased alarmingly last year, the report said.

“54 percent of respondents see that there were very high corruption rates in 2020 compared to 39 percent in 2019, up from 20 percent in 2011, meaning the perception of corruption jumped massively in the last year alone,” the SARC study reported.

 The increasing menace of corruption is one of the main reasons why Syrians who were largely subdued by the régime are unable to trust the country’s justice system.

 “48 percent of respondents said that they do not have access to the judicial system to tackle corruption issues. 59 per cent of respondents said they need to pay bribes to obtain their citizenship rights, such as obtaining documents or securing government permissions,” the report said.'

Will Daraa be the beginning of the end for Assad?

 

 'After ten long years, Syria is back in the news. Although this is likely to be fleeting, as the international community has long experienced conflict fatigue with regards to Syria, it is another opportunity to focus on the terrible situation there. In a world afflicted with the ongoing pandemic, it is at times understandable for stories and situations to fall out of the public gaze, but Syria has done so far too often, even after atrocities.

 In recent days, the Assad régime and its Iranian allies have been attacking Daraa in southern Syria relentlessly; civilians have been killed. The courage of the people of Daraa, who have been demonstrating against Assad's fake election in May, is clear to see. They have essentially spoiled the victory for Assad. His artillery shelling of Daraa in retaliation is being led by his brother, Maher Al-Assad, whose troops are known as the 4th Armoured Division and are notorious for their ruthlessness.

 Whilst Maher Al-Assad being involved in offensives is no real surprise, the fact is that there is meant to be a de-escalation agreement in place in Syria which covers various zones around the country, including the Daraa province. This offensive has not been a success for the régime; it has incurred losses over the past few days as it lacked Russian air support, proving how crucial Russia is for Assad.

 These de-escalation zones were agreed to by the Assad régime at the conclusion of the Astana peace process in 2017, brokered by Russia, Iran and Turkey. The dominance of states friendly to the régime — Russia and Iran — guaranteed an outcome that was more amenable to Assad and did not demand régime change, which the process should have done. Despite this, the régime cannot abide by the agreed zones. This is the absolute minimum that Assad should be doing, but the arrogance and feeling of infallibility is so ingrained within him that he thinks he can take orders from no one. The irony is that if it wasn't for Russia's intervention in the summer of 2015, the Assad régime would probably have collapsed.



 It has been said that Assad was concerned about the outcome of the recent meeting between Russia's Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden, but it seems that the Syrian dictator has forgotten his position within this power dynamic. He is not Russia's benefactor; it is the other way around. Russia's neo imperialism in Syria will not be forgotten any time soon, and its actions in Syria — bombing hospitals despite knowing their coordinates, for example — constitute war crimes. It is unknown exactly what Biden and Putin discussed, but it is unlikely that Syria would have been top of the agenda, which means that Russian impunity is likely to continue.

 Ultimately, talk of "reconstruction" and the return of Syrian refugees cannot be serious whilst the war is ongoing and blood is still being shed. A ceasefire is an absolute minimum requirement before even talking about reconstruction, but the régime feels that it is above this as Gulf States want to re-establish diplomatic relations with Damascus. Reconstruction should not even be on the agenda as long as Assad is president; how can the arsonist become the fireman?

 Nevertheless, there are concerns that King Abdullah of Jordan – the first Arab ruler to make clear that Assad should step down — has been pushing Biden to build a road map to restore Syria's "sovereignty and unity" without opposing the idea of Assad staying in power. Jordan's main concerns are restoring customs agreements with Syria and Lebanon as their trade convoys generally pass through Jordan on the way to Saudi Arabia, as well as repatriating refugees to Syria. Any mention of sovereignty is meaningless with Russian and Iranian encroachment over the past decade. It is also worth mentioning that Jordan was part of the Military Operation Centre (MOC) led by the Americans to control military activities in southern Syria and ensure that no unknown groups were threatening the border between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

 Assad feels that the wind is blowing in his favour. The Covid-19 pandemic means that most states are busy with their own health issues, and the regional aftermath of the Beirut explosion a year ago as well as the recent Israeli air strikes on Gaza have helped push Syria further down the agenda. As important as these issues are, the predicament of the Syrian people must not be forgotten, and reconstruction cannot take place under a ruler who is still fighting and has the blood of hundreds of thousands on his hands.

 As we witness the Syrian régime attacking Daraa, where events marked the start of the Syrian uprising against Assad in March 2011, will Daraa also be the beginning of the end for his régime? Although Assad is keen to stop the war in order to announce his victory and start reconstruction, the Syrian régime is struggling to provide basic daily needs for citizens, with corruption and misuse of resources rife. Furthermore, many voices are being heard in opposition to Assad, even in areas known to be very much pro-régime, such as Latakia. This is an ominous sign for him.

 Now we must wonder if the anger and demonstrations in Daraa against Assad will extend to other areas. The Syrian economy is struggling and the vast majority of Syrian people are living below the poverty line. This might not be clear, but it is obvious that Syrian refugees cannot return home whilst Assad is still in power and the Iranians are still occupying the country. The Syrian people also believe that Russia is part of the problem and not the solution; a state that has played such a crucial role in the destruction of Syria, cannot offer a remedy to its problems. The international community fails to understand this. Worse still, it apparently does not want to.'

‘Parents are dressing up their children to be buried’

 

 'Amid the rubble of bombed homes in Binnish, a town in north-western Syria, a brightly painted mural stands out. The image shows an intact house, with love hearts streaming from the windows. Overhead, however, the dark silhouettes of birds are accompanied by helicopters, warplanes and missiles, and the garden’s red and yellow flowers look like flames.

 The mural is the work of 13-year-old Hussein Sabbagh, who was eight when his family fled Bashar al-Assad’s attacks on Aleppo in 2016. Like millions of other Syrians, the Sabbaghs ended up in north-west Syria, the last pocket of the country that remains outside the régime’s control.

 The family tried to build a new life despite the fact that war still raged around them: for Hussein, there was respite in football, and helping local artist Aziz al-Asmar with his famous political murals. But the teenager’s dreams of being a painter ended last month when régime forces targeted a swimming pool in the town of Fua with artillery shelling. Hussein, along with his 17-year-old brother, 23-year-old uncle, and three more civilians, was killed.



 “Hussein was loved by everyone. He helped me in many of the murals I painted … He was talented and had such a beautiful imagination,” said Asmar. “There was one particular drawing that he loved to paint a lot, a house with love hearts … He wanted to say that these bombs kill love and destroy homes.”

 Hussein is one of 27 children who have been killed in régime attacks across north-west Syria in the past two months alone as Bashar al-Assad’s war of attrition takes its toll on the area’s youngest and most vulnerable residents. Seven school buildings have also been hit, adding to the régime’s ugly track record of targeting civilian infrastructure.

 “We have begun to notice a pattern in recent years, where the bombing gets worse on holidays like Eid,” said Laila Hasso, director of communication and advocacy for the locally run Hurras Network, a charity that works to protect children in Syria.

 “Thirteen children were killed in just three days. Now every time Eid comes we are afraid we will lose more children. Instead of giving them new clothes to dress up and celebrate, parents are dressing up their children to be buried.”



 North-west Syria is mostly ruled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, an Islamist group that seized control from other opposition factions in 2019. The area is supposedly protected by a ceasefire brokered by Turkey and Russia in March 2020, but the deal is routinely ignored and the area’s residents live in fear of the next wave of airstrikes.

 Around three-quarters of the estimated population of 3.5 million fled to the north-west to escape fighting in other parts of the country. Living conditions are dire and have worsened since last year’s collapse of the Syrian currency, which sent food prices soaring. A steady stream of aid cuts and the arrival of Covid-19 have also added to the hardships of daily life.

 The violence has escalated in the two weeks since the Eid al-Adha holiday began. Around the same time, Assad took the oath of office for a fourth seven-year term as president after winning 95% of the vote in May’s fraudulent election, vowing to make “liberating those parts of the homeland that still need to be” one of his top priorities.

 “The régime calls the people in north-west Syria terrorists. But the acts of terrorism are what the régime does, attacking civilians and schools,” said Hasso.

 “Sometimes parents ask us to close the school buildings because they are so afraid that their children will die there. In other parts of the world, schools are regarded as safe places … The régime wants to send the message that there is no future in this area for you or your children.”



 Asmar, the artist, went to leave flowers at Hussein’s grave in Binnish last week. Despite the pain of losing his young assistant, painting remains a way to hold on to hope and remind the world that Syrians still dream of peace and justice, he said.

 “Since I came back to Syria from Beirut years ago, I seek to draw a smile on children’s faces. I try to make them forget, even for a moment, the terror and war they’ve lived through,” he said.

 “I let them participate with me so that they are able to express their feelings through art. I want to deliver a message to them that hope still exists.” '

How 'the wheel of life' has stopped in Syria's Daraa

 'As the people of the Daraa al-Balad area remain at loggerheads with the Syrian régime and Russian forces, the residents are being starved of food and medicine while also deprived of education and other basic amenities over their refusal to participate in Assad’s “farce” elections.

 Since May, Daraa has been under siege by the Bashar al-Assad régime.

 Daraa al-Balad consists of several neighbourhoods, Palestinian refugee camps as well as camps for those displaced in the occupied Syrian Golan. There are also agricultural farms within the two to the three-kilometre area, but many have moved their operations, fearing bombardment by régime forces.



 Blocked off from medical attention, the elderly and children faint from the heat, as access to treatment for serious illnesses is barred.

 “A woman passed away while she was giving birth because she was prevented from entering the hospital,” says local businessman and family man Mohamed Zatima.

 He says that the Russians even go as far as to block off veterinary supplies to the area. “A siege by the Russians and the régime on Daraa al-Balad is not limited to humans, but even to animals,” he comments.

 Coronavirus is also a cause for alarm, as cases are rising and victims of the deadly disease cannot enter the hospital in the city centre.



 Local father-of-six Abu Abdullah, 55, who is now out of work due to poor health, describes life in besieged Daraa as tragic and difficult under a “suffocating blockade”.

 Having undergone an open-heart surgery eight months ago, he needs access to hard-to-get medicine, which is now impossible. “There is medicine I will have to cut out due to the lack of it, no presence of doctors, and my inability to buy it on the black market,” he says.

 He continues: “There is no water, no electricity, no way to go to hospitals and doctors in the régime’s area from medical laboratories, radiology or service centres.”

 Abu’s surgery cost him SYP 6 million ($4,770), and he had to seek the help of friends: “With the help of good people, I was able to pay for the operation.” He bears scars on his chest and legs from surgery, where arteries were transplanted to his heart, and he suffered injuries from régime attacks.

 Not only do the people of Daraa lose out on lifesaving medicine, but also the everyday basics. Starved of food and drink as energy runs low, work has dried up in the area. Cut off from the Daraa city centre, where the markets and modern shops are, the 11,000 families in Daraa al-Balad cannot access what they need.

 “[There is] no work, no income, and no minimum supply of food, oil, gas, and energy,” Abu says. “Life since the régime’s control has become much worse than before, previously and despite the war, medicine was still available at least. Now the wheel of life has stopped,” he says.

 The Syrian régime and Russian planes fly low over the neighbourhoods, frightening children, causing great anxiety, and making it impossible for them to continue their education.

 “I have four children who were prevented from entering schools and practising their hobbies," says Mohamed Zatima. "Due to the Russian jets which fly over the neighbourhoods at a low level, the children suffer from anxiety which has affected their behaviour.”

 Abu Abdullah says his daughters are unable to complete their education, due to the fact they are blocked off from schools in régime territory, and his other children are unable to work. “My children are deprived of their human rights, they have neither work nor study,” he says.

 Despite the siege, local activists continue to protest against the régime’s blockade, and the presidential elections, known as “the farce”. Untrusting the Russians, the local governing bodies have rejected the most recent deal put forward.

 Local activist Loranc Alakrad explains, “Russia asked us to hand over light weapons, 200 Kalashnikov rifles and 20 machine guns, but the response of the civil committee was that we do not have these weapons, and it cannot be delivered – this request was completely rejected.”

 Local protests demand the release of detainees, and the implementation of certain clauses in the July 2018 agreement that have not yet materialised, including the removal of militias and the return of the army – which has taken up residents in civilian homes and shops – to its barracks, the return of students to their schools and universities, and employees to their jobs.

 Loranc describes the blockade as revenge, pure and simple. “Regarding what happened in Daraa al-Balad, it is revenge for its rejection of Bashar al-Assad's elections – a child killer and a user of chemical weapons against his people,” he explains.

 Loranc, who is part of the peaceful protest movement in Daraa al-Balad, has faced assassination attempts from régime operatives, including a bombing attempt. He survived an attempted kidnapping in Daraa City after he managed to escape with his friends.

 Formerly a rebel stronghold, the régime retook the city in July 2018 and subjected the residents to what Loranc calls an attempt to humiliate and crush the spirit.

 “The demonstrations in fact did not stop in Daraa al-Balad, but transformed the settlement agreement in July 2018 from an agreement of humiliation and breaking the will of the people into steadfastness, glory and pride,” he says. “[We] turned this defeat into victory, and turned this defeat into pride and glory for every rebel who remained in Daraa al-Balad. In 2011 until today, the demonstrations did not subside.”

 He continues: “Yes, of course, the people of Daraa will continue to resist, and they have said no to handing over weapons or searching homes.”



 As the siege continues on the city, the residents can only speculate what will happen next. Will the régime launch a brutal offensive? Or will it simply continue its siege until the locals are starved out?

 “The régime and the Russians are still besieging the neighbourhoods of Daraa al-Balad, and in light of the arrival of new reinforcements, this suggests the possibility of a storming and massacre against us,” Mohamed Zatima explains.

 He fears an offensive against the people of Daraa, however, others don’t.

 “We are almost dead and there is no deterrent to him after the world abandoned us and his possession to all kinds of power and with the support of regional and global powers,” Abu Abdullah says. “This is a method of starvation and siege… and punishing a people for just an opinion.”

 Mohamed Zatima says if Assad stood in front of him, he would call him a child killer and a war criminal.

 He dreams of a better Syria, and rather than migrate to Europe, he has hope that Syria can achieve democracy: “I do not want to emigrate, but I want my country to become like the countries of Europe in terms of respect for human beings and appreciation of humanity. Syria is our country and the country of our ancestors.”

 Abu Abdullah on the other hand would want to migrate, striving for a decent future for his children. He would tell Assad to leave them in peace: “Leave and let us heal our wounds, for we have been exhausted by the war.” '

Will the West Ever Take Its Strategic Defeat Seriously?

Nicolas Tenzer:

 'It is often difficult to shake off the impression that everything has already been written about Syria. Since the beginning of the war in 2011, which is now entering its eleventh year, and even more so since the fall of Aleppo, all but those who do not want to see or understand anything, not to mention the propagandists of Assad and the Kremlin, know what is going on: there will be no peace in Syria as long as the régime does not fall and as long as Russian and Iranian troops remain there to protect it.

 I am not going to recall here the balance sheet, still provisional, of the war in Syria: probably more than a million dead, of which more than 90% can be attributed to the Assad régime, crimes of humanity that still persist in the prisons where more than 100,000 people remain detained and where torture and summary executions are the rule, about 12 million displaced people, half of them outside the country, Russian war crimes, still, which have caused more civilian victims than even those of IS, a destroyed country under the rule of a predatory mafia and a testing ground for new Russian weapons, but also for propaganda, first of all from the Kremlin, which is probably the most repugnant ever—and sometimes murderous.

 If—let us never forget this obvious fact—the most abominable consequences are for the Syrian people, the international system has been critically affected. This was, moreover, one of the blinding intentions of one of the parties involved: Putin’s régime. Tragically bogged down in their lack of understanding, most Western leaders have still not understood this.

 In fact, the war in Syria has produced the implosion from within of an already damaged but still somewhat functional UN system. It has affected not only the Security Council, paralyzed by the 16 Russian and often Chinese vetoes, but also certain agencies that have, in fact, made a pact with the régime, the latest turpitude being the election of Syria to the WHO executive board, even though it is guilty, along with Russia, of the deliberate attack on hospitals, health centers and rescue workers. The recent agreement reached at the UN on a very partial, one-point, and temporary opening on the delivery of emergency humanitarian aid to the millions of refugees in Idlib province is, alas, just another rout, even though better than nothing. At least the Western powers have not generally had the indecency this time to create victory.

 Let us not forget the primary fact: although with less intensity than two or three years ago, the massacres committed by Assad and Putin continue: a dozen children killed in recent weeks and rescue workers targeted according to the repeated technique of “double tap”: a first strike hits civilians and a second targets the rescue workers who have rushed to the scene.

 So, at times, we hoped: Antony Blinken has said some strong and deeply heartfelt words about Obama’s failings, and it’s all too clear that the failure to save hundreds of thousands of people haunts him. We also know that the Biden administration will not sacrifice Syria to a new, uncertain deal with Iran and that the two dimensions are untied for him. But there is no sense today of resolve to act on Syria. The question is not only moral, but strategic.



1. There is no diplomatic solution to the Syrian conflict.

 Let’s leave aside the empty and indecent diplomatic words: if there was a diplomatic solution, it would have been found long ago. The consequence must be drawn: there is a military solution to the conflict in Syria. If we are ready to give our enemies the monopoly of force, we will have lost.

 2. The main issue is not humanitarian aid, but the domination of a criminal régime and its Russian and Iranian allies.

 We must immediately—and categorically—save the Syrian people, who are facing the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, along with the Yemeni people. We must do everything to open humanitarian corridors and save, save, and save. But as long as the Assad régime is there, we will not have solved anything and the humanitarian crises will continue.

 3. What explains the major failure of the West so far is not our impotence, but our lack of will.

 To speak, indeed, of the West’s impotence when one sees the capacity for military action of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and certain Gulf countries that are members of the Coalition against the Islamic State, is a nasty joke. We have not, we are not, powerless, but we have refused to act and save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. We have also allowed three criminal régimes to act according to their absolute will.

 4. The UN is not the solution to the Syrian conflict and the régime's crimes against humanity.

 From the moment when two powers block the Security Council and when the UN agencies, especially on the ground, sometimes seem to be unable to fight against the diversion of humanitarian aid by the Assad régime, we must draw the consequences. I already wrote this five years ago, sometimes provoking some controversies: “But you cannot marginalize the UN, the keystone of the international system”. Without doubt, it is necessary to do so, albeit with regret and in the hope of better days. No intervention will be decided by the UN against the Assad régime; the New York-based organization will always refuse to refer him and his henchmen to the International Criminal Court. The UN, in fact, serves today as an alibi for inaction.

 5. The fight against the Assad régime is as important as the fight against ISIS.

 Some heads of state and government pretend in their official speeches to consider that the main enemy is ISIS and that this is the priority fight. No one, of course, will responsibly support the absurd and dangerous thesis that the total eradication of ISIS is not an imperative. But can we consider, on the pretext that Assad is formally head of state, even though not recognized as such by most of the democratic countries, that his crimes are lesser, less abominable, and that, let us never forget, he has not himself made a pact with ISIS by releasing jihadists from its prisons? Should we close our eyes to the fact that the all-out murderous repression by his régime, the total de-education of the majority of the country’s children, the resentment left by the absence of action by the West, prepare the terrorist movements of tomorrow? Our fight will only be coherent if it is twofold: against ISIS and other Islamist terrorist groups, and against Assad.

 6. The war is not over in Syria.

 A dual war is actually still going on. First, as mentioned, Assad’s and Russia’s war against the Syrian people continues in the areas not occupied by the régime and which it intends to retake. Second, Assad has not won the war: in these areas, but sometimes also in those controlled by the régime, Syrians continue to fight, even if the space left to them is reduced. Dissatisfaction with the régime, not to say hatred for it, is still there, fueled by an economic and social crisis that plunges the people into grinding poverty and increases resentment against the profiteers of a corrupt régime.

 7. We must act with all powers in the region against the Assad régime.

 We have missed many opportunities for two main reasons. First, often out of fear of “provoking” Moscow—the same scenario applied in Georgia and Ukraine—we failed to seize the opportunity that at one point Turkey appeared to offer. Instead, our irresolution pushed Erdoğan into Putin’s arms. Of course, no one will claim that the man is without reproach and crimes—we will come back to this in this blog—but at some point our interests may have coincided. The same is true of the Gulf States that are members of the coalition, which the West, and first the United States under Obama and then under Trump, have left without a clear political direction. It would be dramatic if Joe Biden repeated the same mistake.

 8. As a corollary to the previous proposal, the United States and the European Union, including France in particular, must use all their means to dissuade the Gulf States from recognizing the Assad régime.

 I have often insisted on this idea: we cannot allow these countries to conclude separate agreements with this régime, as if to recreate an alliance of “strong régimes” in the region. The path opened by the United Arab Emirates is dangerous and could only go against the interests of these countries, especially in view of the destabilization of the entire region by Iran. This also applies to Israel, where the Netanyahu government was tempted to accommodate Assad and thought it could ally itself with Putin against Iran. The Israeli government must be urged to adopt a position that is both more dignified—Netanyahu’s position had in fact aroused indignation in some quarters in Israel—and more realistic.

 9. Putin’s Russia is not part of the solution, but the essence of the problem.

 Beyond Obama’s moral fault, his main strategic failure was to let Russia take over Syrian affairs from the fall of 2015. This major mistake has, moreover, had consequences for the strengthening of the Putin régime’s positions in Europe. Now, the first reality in Syria is that Moscow is the primary blocking point. One will always remember the disastrous exhortations of certain countries at the worst moment of the war who asked the Kremlin to “put pressure on Assad” so that he “shows more restraint”, while Putin’s Russia was committing almost as many crimes as Damascus and was doing everything to encourage him. The Russian lock on Syria must therefore be broken. Going beyond the United Nations could help.

 10. We will not solve the crisis in Lebanon without ending the conflict in Syria.

 Most analysts are clear: the Syrian régime, even if it no longer has total control over Beirut, is omnipresent there, notably in corruption enterprises, in trade, notably in ports, and in currency exchange systems. Trying to put an end to the crisis in Lebanon is futile as long as the Assad régime is in power, or at least as long as it is not permanently weakened.

 11. After Russia, Iran is the major problem in Syria.

 We probably do not need to insist on it here: Tehran largely controls Syria with ground forces and networks that are much more powerful than those of Russia, even if the latter has more of a “diplomatic” role and greater air control. Syria is one of the major fields of Iran’s destabilization of the Middle East, along with Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and Yemen. If Moscow and Tehran are fighting for control of the Syrian economy or what remains of it, politically it would be a major misjudgment to separate the two.

 12. We must, if we cannot refer Syria to the International Criminal Court, establish a special international tribunal for Syria.

 Since Russia and China will always oppose referral to the ICC and Syria is not a party to the Rome Treaty, we must find another way. The Allies, along with as many other countries as possible, must indicate, on the basis of fully documented and damning cases, a decision to prosecute Assad and his cronies for crimes against humanity and war crimes. They must all be subject to an international arrest warrant. A special tribunal should be set up to judge all the crimes committed in Syria, including of course by ISIS, other terrorist groups and Russian and Iranian armed forces and militias.

 13. As a corollary, we must lift all remaining restrictions in some countries on the universal jurisdiction of criminal courts.

 As incomplete, limited and partial as it may be, the Koblenz trial has shown the importance of universal jurisdiction, which allows national courts to judge crimes committed elsewhere. These trials, which will also open in other European countries, allow not only the prosecution of presumed criminals, but also the establishment of their crimes and the bringing of them to light. However, some countries, including France, still have legislation that is too restrictive in terms of opening up to universal jurisdiction. It must be urgently modified.

 14. The European Union must urgently establish a Caesar Act on the model of the one instituted in the United States.

 The American Caesar Act allows sanctions to be imposed on any company or entity that trades in any way with the Syrian régime. Besides the fact that such trade, given what the régime is, is impossible without corruption, it allows its dignitaries to enrich themselves. Imposing a total ban on trade with the régime—except for humanitarian aid, as provided for in the American law—would also make it possible to target certain companies, including Russian and Chinese companies, which participate in this pact of corruption—the visit of Chinese MFA to Syria, where he unsurprisingly condemned régime change, is part of the picture that should be taken into consideration. This would make it impossible to do business with European countries.

 15. Heads of state and government in North America and Europe must name the war crimes of the Russian and Iranian leaders.



 Finally—I have insisted on this recently on this blog—democratic leaders must not only not be afraid to name the imprescriptible crimes committed by the principals and enforcers of these régimes, they must do so. We must be clear that there is no impunity for major crimes. On a symbolic level, this would be a major sign. Not to do so would also be a bad omen.

 These few clear principles govern our understanding of the crisis in Syria and allow us to take the measure of the necessary action. The West has so far let Putin’s régime set the agenda in Syria and given it the ability to impose its own game. Our lack of intelligence as much as our lack of will has allowed him to destroy large parts of the international system. Nor is he unaware that, in the medium and long term, the destruction of Syria will further strengthen the terrorist movements that will directly attack the West.

 But we prefer to play the lyre while the City burns from the fire we have allowed to flourish.'