… by Yuriy Zinin, Moscow State Institute of International Relations
…for New Eastern Outlook, Moscow
St. Petersburg
[ Editors Note: The Syrian conference is almost over and John Kerry’s hope for dismissing Assad prior to an election remains dead in the water where it had always been from its beginning.
Many think now that it was just a diversion issue to keep the focus off any highly public discussion of Western terrorism in the reagion.
In that regard it worked, or was it because the public is becoming acclimated toward their governments using terror as an intrument for regime change against countries that pose no real threat?
Iran’s news of taking the Saudis to court for terrorism against Iranian targets in Lebanon got pushed off the front page. Western media literally hushed that all up. Such cases require stamina and patience.
Our sources tell us the CNN outrageous pandering of the bogus atrocity report was an attempt to make Assad the big devil. But we all know now there is a whole group of state terrorist actors running around with seemingly little fear of prosecution for their war crimes.
But talking is better than shooting, even where there are no major results. For Syria the results have been death and destruction, and the West seems to prefer that continue. For how long…I would say until the price for doing so outweighs any benefits.
Dear State Dept., Whatever the benefits are please have someone call to give me a briefing. I am just dying to know – pardon the expression… Jim W. Dean ]
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– First published January 28, 2014 –
If Syria goes over the cliff, who will go with her?
An absolute majority of media outlets have headlined the fact that the members of Syrian opposition have been discussing matters with the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people “in the same room” during the Geneva – 2 talks.
Journalists perceived this fact as a milestone in the process of peaceful settlement.
But the fact that Geneva-2 is taking place in the first place is a milestone of its own, it means that politicians have finally understood that there’s no stopping the conflict with brute force.
Yet there’s no easy way out of the conflict after three years of bloodshed. The negotiations remind of walking on thin ice, when a wrong step, say nothing about provocations, that may have devastating consequences.
In this regard a report on “systematic killings and torture” that are attributed to the Assad regime that appeared days before the conference, may turn out to be a deal breaker. Yet the credibility of this report, prepared with Qatar’s assistance, arouses serious question.
It was thrown in the eve of a conference that took months of diplomatic and political efforts to prepare.
The road to Geneva, where the initiative of the Russian Federation and the United States were to be turned into reality, was a bumpy one. A handful of political parties and forces, especially the ones that rallied under the banner of radical Islam, were standing in the way of “Geneva-2”. Those forces named the fact that Syrian opposition sent its representatives to Geneva, as a betrayal.
Since the beginning of 2014 an Islamist group “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” affiliated with “Al-Qaeda” has intensified its operations against other opposition groups in Syria. According to some experts, over this short period of time they’ve managed to kill more than 1,300 people of their “brother fighters”.
Salafist terrorists and their backers, have yet to be ‘criminalized’
It’s no wonder that people in Syria are starting to call these regular skirmishes a “sub-civil war”, which has recently forced the head of al-Qaeda Ayman al-Zawahiri to reportedly address all “jihadis and brothers in Islam” urging them to stop fighting each other.
In such circumstances, the report that had been published before the conference of the above plays into the hands of the most radical Islamists of the m al.
Syria has become a regional problem, which somehow touches upon a number of neighboring states, and the Syrian underground extremists increasingly penetrate into Iraq to sow death here.
This position was defended by a number of Arab experts that participated in a TV round table assembled by an Iraqi channel “Al- Iraqiya” in which I was invited to participate in.
At the round table my Arab colleagues have managed to discuss the prolonged crisis in Syria, on the field which is often a settling of scores of regional forces. Picture remains mobile, overflow occurs militants from one to the other.
At the same time, all experts seem to agree that the key to the crisis remains in the hands of common Syrians. The hardships of military confrontation, refuge and sufferings have made Syrians a resilient nation. Analysts believe that Syrians are no longer satisfied with the role of “observers” so they’re determined to make a change in the situation in their country.
Yuriy Zinin, senior researcher at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
Jim W. Dean was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022. He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews.
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