بواسطة Syria in a Week Editors | أبريل 3, 2019 | Syria in a Week, غير مصنف
The following is a selection by our editors of significant weekly developments in Syria. Depending on events, each issue will include anywhere from four to eight briefs. This series is produced in both Arabic and English in partnership between Salon Syria and Jadaliyya. Suggestions and blurbs may be sent to info@salonsyria.com.
Golan Present, Syria Absent
31 March 2019
Arab leaders said on Sunday they would seek a UN Security Council resolution against the US decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and promised to support Palestinians in their bid for statehood.
Arab leaders, long divided by regional rivalries, ended their annual summit in Tunisia calling for cooperation with Iran based on non-interference in each other’s affairs.
Arab leaders who have been grappling with a bitter Gulf Arab dispute, splits over Iran’s regional influence, the war in Yemen, and unrest in Algeria and Sudan sought common ground after Washington recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan.
“We, the leaders of the Arab countries gathered in Tunisia… express our rejection and condemnation of the United States decision to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan,” Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said.
He said Arab countries would present a draft resolution to the UN Security Council and seek a legal opinion from the International Court of Justice on the US decision. It warned other countries away from following Washington’s lead.
Trump signed a proclamation last week recognizing the Golan Heights as part of Israel, which annexed the area in 1981 after capturing it from Syria in 1967.
Trump’s earlier decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital also drew Arab condemnation. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz told the Arab leaders his country “absolutely rejects” any measures affecting Syria’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi said the Arab summit needed to ensure the international community understood the centrality of the Palestinian cause to Arab nations.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who also addressed the meeting in Tunis, said any resolution to the Syrian conflict must guarantee the territorial integrity of Syria “including the occupied Golan Heights”.
Trump Unites Friends and Foes
26 March 2019
US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights united Washington’s Arab allies and its regional foe Iran in condemnation.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait criticized Monday’s move to recognize Israel’s 1981 annexation and said the territory was occupied Arab land. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi said it was an impediment to peace. Iran echoed the comments, describing Trump’s decision as unprecedented in this century.
During a visit to Washington by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump signed a proclamation on Monday officially granting US recognition of the Golan Heights as Israeli territory.
Israel occupied the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move the UN Security Council declared unlawful.
Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner visited the Gulf Arab region last month to seek support for the economic portion of a long-awaited peace proposal for the Middle East. Gulf Arab states host US troops and are important for Washington’s regional defense policy.
United States “Isolated”
28 March 2019
During an emergency meeting for the UN Security Council called for by Syria, the United States defended US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a position condemned by the other fourteen members.
Russian Deputy UN Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov said that this was “a disregard of international law” and a “violation of UN resolution,” stressing that this “recognition is null.”
Belgium, Germany, Kuwait, China, Indonesia, Peru, South Africa, and the Dominican Republic condemned the unilateral decision that runs counter to international consensus that has been adhered to so far.
“The Golan Heights are Syrian land occupied by Israel,” said the Kuwaiti UN Ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi. “We call for the liberation of the Golan territory,” he added.
The United States expressed its approval for maintaining the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) despite Trump’s decision to recognize Israel’s recognition of the plateau.
US diplomat Rodney Hunter told the council that the U S decision on the Golan Heights does not affect the truce or undermine the deployment of the peacekeeping mission. “UNDOF continues to have a vital role to play in preserving stability between Israel and Syria,” he told the council.
“The United States is concerned by the Secretary-General’s reports of continued military activities and presence of the Syrian armed forces in the Area of Separation,” Hunter added.
“UNDOF’s mandate is crystal clear. There should be no military activity of any kind in the Area of Separation, including military operations by the Syrian armed forces… The United States is also alarmed by the reports of Hezbollah’s presence in the Area of Separation,” he said.
The “Resistance” Option?
26 March 2019
The Secretary General for Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday called for adopting the “resistance” option to retake lands occupied by Israel, after Washington recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Syria Golan plateau. He also called on the Arab League to take actions in the upcoming summit in Tunisia.
In a televised speech broadcast by Manar TV channel, which is affiliated with his party, Nasrallah said that the “only option” for Syrians and Lebanese to retake their lands which Israel occupies, and for the Palestinian people to obtain their “legitimate rights” is “resistance, resistance, resistance … at a time in which the resistance has created numerous victories and a time in which the Resistance Axis is strong.”
He described Trump’s move as a “pivotal event in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict,” and reflects “disrespect and disregard for the Arab and Islamic worlds… just for Israel’s sake and Israel’s interest.”
Nasrallah stressed that Trump’s decision “is a fatal blow to the so-called peace process in the region, which is based on land in exchange for peace,” adding that this would have not happened if it were not for “the world’s silence” after Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital last year.
Nasrallah said that condemnation statements “are no longer useful” to confront the US recognition.
An Airstrike in the Depth
28 March 2019
Syrian air defenses repelled an Israeli air “aggression” early Thursday that targeted the northeast of Aleppo in northern Syria, according to the Syrian official news agency SANA.
“Army air defenses repelled an Israeli air aggression that targeted a number of industrial sites in Sheikh Najjar industrial zone, north-east of Aleppo, and downed a number of the hostile missiles,” the official SANA news agency said, citing a military source. “There were only material damages,” the source added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the Israeli bombardment hit ammunition depots belonging to Iranian forces killing seven allied militants. The SOHR said the militants were non-Syrian troops allied to Iranian forces. Five Syrian soldiers were also injured, according to the SOHR.
A number of residents of Aleppo city told AFP that the attack led to a power cut in the whole city.
Israel has intensified its bombardment in Syria in recent years, targeting Syrian army positions and Iranian and Hezbollah targets. It repeatedly insists that it will continue to confront what is described as Iranian attempts to cement its military presence in Syria and send advanced weapons to Hezbollah.
On 21 January, the Israeli army announced that it launched airstrikes that targeted depots and intelligence and training centers affiliated with the Iranian al-Quds Brigade, in addition to weapons depots and a position near Damascus international airport. The airstrike killed twenty-one people, including Iranian forces and allied forces, according to the SOHR.
The strikes come after the US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Monday recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Syrian Golan Heights, which was occupied by Israel in 1967 and annexed in 1981, a move that has not received recognition by the international community.
First Attack After Defeat
26 March 2019
ISIS claimed responsibility on Tuesday for an attack in northern Syrian city of Manbij that killed seven fighters from a local council that administers the city and falls under the umbrella of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The attack is the first of its kind since the declaration of the end of the “caliphate.”
“Soldiers of the caliphate attacked a checkpoint… west of Manbij city last night and exchanged machine fire with them,” said a statement circulated by jihadist accounts on Telegram.
The group claimed responsibility shortly after council spokesman Sherfan Darwish announced the “martyrdom of seven fighters in a terrorist attack on one of our checkpoints at the entrance of the city” at night. He told the AFP that sleepers cells affiliated with the group are responsible for the attack.
The Manbij Military Council administers the city which is located in Aleppo governorate.
The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdul Rahman confirmed the number of casualties and told the AFP, “This is the first attack of its kind since the liberation of al-Baghouz from ISIS.”
The SDF announced on Saturday the complete elimination of the “caliphate,” which the group had declared in Syria and neighboring Iraq in 2014. The SDF also announced the start of a “new phase” to eliminate sleeper cells in coordination with the US-led international coalition.
“After the victory over ISIS, we have entered the phase of sleeper cells. These sleeper cells are being activated and carrying out attacks but we will foil their operations,” Darwish said.
The Nidus of Jihadists
30 March 2019
Wrangles with guards and violent fights break out in al-Hol camp in eastern Syria, as thousands of women and children of foreign ISIS fighters cram in the camp that has turned into a nidus of jihadists which could explode at any moment.
ISIS’s “caliphate” has been eliminated, but it left behind it thousands of extremist supporters, from Syria or foreigners who come from France, Tunisia, or Russia. Some of them were imprisoned while others were transferred to refugee camps run by Syrian Kurds.
In al-Hol camp alone, more than nine thousand foreign women and children were isolated in an area designated just for them, with a fence separating them from the rest of the refugees. Foreigners were separated from the rest due to their close links to ISIS.
Kurdish authorities are calling for the restoration of foreigners to their countries for fear of the “danger” stemming from the presence of thousands of them in the camp. Women and children “need rehabilitation and re-integration into their original societies, or else the will be future terrorists,” Omar Abdul Karim, one of the officials, said.
بواسطة Syria in a Week Editors | مارس 28, 2019 | Syria in a Week, غير مصنف
The following is a selection by our editors of significant weekly developments in Syria. Depending on events, each issue will include anywhere from four to eight briefs. This series is produced in both Arabic and English in partnership between Salon Syria and Jadaliyya. Suggestions and blurbs may be sent to info@salonsyria.com.
End of the “Caliphate”
25 March 2019
Dozens of ISIS fighters surrendered on Sunday to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) after they came out of tunnels they were hiding in inside the town of al-Baghouz, as the SDF declared the complete elimination of the “caliphate”.
The Kurdish self-administration warned on Sunday that ISIS’s danger persists, with thousands of foreign fighters and their families being held inside SDF detention centers and camps and its ability to mobilize sleeper cells.
Several countries around the world hailed the declaration of the elimination of the caliphate, after the group was stripped off of all territories it once controlled. The SDF leadership along with its US-led international coalition ally announced the start of a new phase of the war to eliminate the group’s sleeper cells.
In the remote town of al-Baghouz east of Syria, where the final confrontation against ISIS took place, dozens of men were seen standing in line to board several pickup trucks. Some of them had long beards and some were wearing the traditional woolen robes and kuffiyas on their heads, while others had their faces covered.
“They are ISIS fighters who came out of tunnels and surrendered today,” Kurdish spokesman Jiaker Amed said without specifying numbers. “Some others could still be hiding inside,” Amed added.
An AFP team saw plumes of black smoke rising from the camp on Sunday; Amed said they came from burning ammunition depots that belonged to ISIS.
The camp, which is filled with tunnels and fallen tents, looked like a scrap yard littered with burnt cars, kitchen utensils, water bottles, and gas cylinders.
The international coalition spokesman said that SDF forces will continue to comb the area in search of jihadists and potential weapons caches.
“This back-clearance operation will be deliberate and thorough and help ensure the long-term security for the area,” the spokesman said on Twitter.
Head of the foreign relations in the Kurdish self-administration in Syria Abdel Karim Omar said, “We eliminated the state of ISIS, which is a major accomplishment, however, this does not mean that we have eliminated ISIS as an organization.”
“There are thousands of fighters, children, and women from fifty-four countries, not including Iraqis and Syrians, who are a serious burden and danger for us and for the international community,” Omar said.
The SDF estimates that during their military advances and operations, which were repeatedly paused to allow for the exit of those besieged, more than sixty-six thousand people left the ISIS pocket, including five thousand jihadists who were arrested, while others managed to escape.
Among those leaving is a large number of the jihadists’ family members, many of whom are foreigners. They were transferred to three camps in northeastern Syria, the most prominent of which is al-Hol camp, designed to accommodate twenty thousand people but now hosts more than seventy-two thousand people, including twenty-five thousand school-aged children.
“There are thousands of children who have been raised according to ISIS ideology,” Omar said. “If these children are not re-educated and re-integrated in their societies of origin, they are potential future terrorists,” he added.
According to Save the Children, there are more than three thousand and five hundred foreign children from thirty countries in the three camps.
The issue of foreign jihadists and their families has burdened the Kurdish self-administration, which called on their countries of origin to repatriate them and have them face justice on their territories. However, Western countries seem to be reluctant because of security concerns and fear of public backlash after deadly attacks adopted by the radical group. A small number of countries, including France, showed interest in taking back some of the children.
After eliminating the ISIS “caliphate,” Kurds fear that Washington will move on with its plan to withdraw troops from northern Syria, thus they would become a target for an offensive threatened by Turkey.
Ankara sees the SDF as a terrorist organization and fears they might cooperate with Kurdish insurgents inside Turkey. Omar warned that any cross-border offensive risked leading to mass breakouts from the jails where jihadists are currently held. “There should be coordination between us and the international community to confront this danger,” he added.
The US presence has dampened Ankara’s thrust and prevented Damascus from launching an attack to take back control of their territories. US President Donald Trump announced at the end of last year that he was going to withdraw all two thousand troops from Syria, however, Washington later said that it would keep around four hundred soldiers for an indefinite time.
“Fighting ISIS and its extremist violence will not end soon,” commander of the international coalition Paul LaCamera said on Saturday. Before its defeat, the group put out voice recordings on Telegram in recent days, calling on its members to take their “revenge” from the Kurds and launch attacks in the West against enemies of the “caliphate.”
Al-Baghouz front was a clear example of the complexity of the Syrian conflict which recently started its ninth year, leaving more than three hundred and seventy thousand dead, while all international efforts failed to reach a political settlement.
Kurdish Invitation
25 March 2019
Syrian Kurds urged the government to open up a dialogue to “block all attempts that challenge Syria’s sovereignty by parties that have intervened in Syria, especially the Turkish occupation regime.”
Sihanok Deibo, member of the presidential council of the Democratic Syria Council (DSC) said, “Damascus and other Arab countries should regard the (Kurdish) self-administration as a safety valve and a counter front to Turkish aggressive ambitions.”
“The number of ISIS prisoners and family members exceeds fifty thousand from forty-eight Arab and foreign nationalities,” Deibo said, considering this huge number a “big dilemma which the self-administration in northern Syria cannot bear the sole responsibility for.”
“The best way would be to establish an international tribunal in north and east of Syria, with details agreed upon with the self-administration,” Deibo added.
Golan “Documents”
24 March 2019
The Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that the US President Donald Trump would sign a proclamation recognizing Israel sovereignty of the Syrian Occupied Golan Heights when he meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Monday.
“President Trump will sign tomorrow in the presence of PM Netanyahu an order recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” Katz wrote on Twitter.
The announcement was faced with wide criticism from Arab and Western countries and the United Nations. Damascus affirmed its commitment to retake control the Golan by all means. The Arab League stressed that “Arab summits always affirm in their decisions the Arab status of the occupied Syrian Golan.”
Trump’s announcement is a break from decades-old US policy in the Middle East and longstanding international consensus.
The Arab League said, “In light of the recent development, some Arab countries could ask for new additions to the draft resolution regarding the Golan.”
The Arab League and Arab countries denounced Trump’s announcement, stressing that the “Golan is a Syrian occupied territory.”
“Statements by the US administration, which pave the way for an official US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan, are completely outside international law,” Ahmed Abu Gheit, the General Secretary of the Arab League said on Thursday: “The Golan is a Syrian occupied territory according to international law, UN and Security Council resolutions, and recognition of the international community,” he added.
The Return is “Not Listed”
23 March 2019
“The issue of Syria’s return to the Arab League has yet to be listed on the agenda and has not been formally proposed,” said the League’s spokesman Mahmoud Afifi, referring to the Arab summit scheduled to be held in Tunisia at the end of March.
The Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmed Abu Gheit said on 6 March at the end of the 151stSession of the Arab League Ministerial Meeting in Cairo, Egypt that the issue of Syria’s potential participation in the upcoming summit in Tunisia was not discussed at all during the meetings.
On 12 November 2011, after eight months of the onset of protests in Syria, the Arab League decided to suspend Syria’s membership and impose political and economic sanctions on Damascus, calling on the Syrian army “not to use violence against anti-government protestors.”
A debate has risen concerning Syria’s return, especially after Damascus strengthened its authorities and military victories by the Syrian army, which took back control of vast areas from militant jihadists and opposition with help from its Russian and Iranian allies.
There is division among Arab countries in this regard. Iraq and Lebanon called for Syria’s return to the Arab League, while the United Arab Emirates reopened its embassy in Damascus in December 2018, after cutting diplomatic ties in 2012.
Assistant Secretary General of the Arab League Hossam Zaki said in a press conference in January, “There is no Arab consensus in regards to reconsidering Syria’s suspension from the Arab League.”
بواسطة Syria in a Week Editors | مارس 19, 2019 | Syria in a Week
The following is a selection by our editors of significant weekly developments in Syria. Depending on events, each issue will include anywhere from four to eight briefs. This series is produced in both Arabic and English in partnership between Salon Syria and Jadaliyya. Suggestions and blurbs may be sent to info@salonsyria.com.
In the Eighth Year!
15 March 2019
During theeighth yearof the Syrian tragedy, the Syrian government was able to retake control of eastern Ghouta in April before a snap recapture of al-Rastan and Talbieseh pocket, and then in June, it took control of Daraa, the opposition stronghold, in the south. In September, Russia and Turkey made a deal on Idlib and the opposition-held northwest of Syria, which calmed frontlines but Tahrir al-Sham seized control of much of the area and violence continued. The Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by the international coalition, took control of the last area under ISIS control in eastern Syria. The United States decided to leave some troops in Syria after it had previously declared their withdrawal.
Brussels III for Announcements
Reuters
14 March 2019
The United Nations won almost seven billion dollars in aid pledges for Syria on Thursday, in light of the continued Syrian crisis and divisions concerning how to deal with the Syrian government. The emergency aid pledges came at a conference at which Western donors have had to wrestle with the question of whether to begin providing reconstruction assistance.
The United Nations is seeking $3.3 billion for aid to people inside Syria and $5.5 billion for refugees in the region this year. It drew more in pledges than last year when it asked for a similar amount but received less than two-thirds of its request.
The European Union, the world’s biggest aid donor, pledged 2 billion euros ($2.26 billion) for this year, a sum which includes money already agreed for Syrian refugees in Turkey under a deal with Ankara to take in Syrians.
Mark Lowcock, the UN under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said that emergency aid would not solve the Syria crisis. “It requires a political solution,” he said. That underscored Europe’s dilemma in its efforts to isolate the Syrian government. The EU has repeatedly made longer-term reconstruction support conditional on a UN-led peace process to end a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. Germany, France, Britain, and the Netherlands are forthright in defending a policy of withholding reconstruction money until a transition begins that would lead to Assad leaving power. However, if that were not to happen, European diplomats say they would see it as Russia’s responsibility to seek a solution, given its outsized military role and support for Assad. “The road to stability runs through Moscow,” a European diplomat said.
The United States “Sells Out” the Golan!
Reuters
11, 13 March 2019
The US State Department changed its usual description of the Golan Heights from “Israeli-occupied” to “Israeli-controlled” in an annual global human rights report released on Wednesday. The move came amid intensified efforts by Israel to win US recognition of its claim to sovereignty over the strategic plateau it captured from Syria in the 1967 war and effectively annexed in 1981, a step not recognized internationally. There was no immediate comment from Israeli leaders on the US terminology change, which stopped short of a formal declaration accepting the territorial claim.
The Golan–like the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territories also taken by Israel in the June 1967 conflict–is regarded internationally as occupied under a UN Security Council resolution passed later that year.
On Monday, Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham toured the Golan with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and pledged to lobby the Trump administration to recognize the area as belonging to Israel.
Breaking with a decades-long policy, and drawing Palestinian accusations of pro-Israel bias, President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017. He moved the US Embassy to the contested holy city from Tel Aviv last year.
A Crossing Between the Euphrates Shield and the Government
Enab Baladi
17 March 2019
The “National Army” openedAbu al-Zandain crossing between government-held areas and the Euphrates Shield areas in the northeastern countryside of Aleppo. The spokesman for the “National Army” Major Yusuf Hammoud said on Sunday that the “National Army” took the decision to open the crossing after consulting with its brigades. The crossing will stop the increased profits gained by Kurdish forces because vehicles leaving the area towards the Syrian government areas had to pass through Manbej, and therefore, were subject to increased taxes. The proceeds of the crossing will go for all formations of the “National Army,” and will not be restricted to one brigade, which will provide support for the region. The crossing lies west of al-Bab city near al-Shamawieh village, which is controlled by the Syrian government.
Al-Baghouz
Reuters
11 – 17 March 2019
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Sunday over sixty thousand people, mostly civilians, had flooded out of the Islamic State militant group’s last enclave in eastern Syria since a final assault to capture it began over two months ago. Among them were five thousand militants, the SDF said.
SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said hundreds of militants and their families had surrendered overnight in the spot where hardline insurgents have been mounting a desperate last-stand defense. “We had expected the surrender of a large number of terrorists and their families but only a small group came out,” Bali said.
Artillery shelling and airstrikes resumed on Sunday afternoon after a lull in fighting. The SDF said one thousand and three hundred and six “terrorists” had been killed alongside many who were injured in the military campaign that began on 9 January, while eighty SDF fighters had been killed and sixty-one injured. The SDF said another five hundred and twenty militants had been captured in special operations in the last Islamic State bastion.
Former residents say hundreds of civilians have been killed in months of heavy aerial bombing by the US-led coalition that has razed many of the villages in the area along the Iraqi border. The coalition says it takes great care to avoid killing civilians and investigates reports that it has done so.
Delayed Turkish Attack
Reuters
13 March 2019
The United States is not discussing a Turkish offensive in northeast Syria with Turkey and believes no such operation is needed to address Ankara’s security concerns, a US official toldReuters on Wednesday, dismissing media reports to the contrary. A Turkish defense official was cited by Turkish state media on Tuesday as saying Ankara was discussing with the United States and Russia a potential offensive in a region of northeast Syria controlled by Kurdish-led fighters.
French Children of ISIS!
Reuters
15 March 2019
France saidon Friday it had brought back five young children from camps in northern Syria, but repeated its position that adult citizens who had joined ISIS abroad should stay where they were and face justice. The children were either orphans or unaccompanied in the camps, the foreign ministry said in a statement. Western nations have been wrestling with how to handle suspected militants and their families seeking to return from combat zones in Iraq and Syria, as well as those in detention, as ISIS teeters on the verge of defeat.
French government policy had been to refuse taking back fighters and their wives. But officials say US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he was pulling troops out of Syria is forcing a rethink.
بواسطة Syria in a Week Editors | نوفمبر 20, 2018 | Syria in a Week
The following is a selection by our editors of significant weekly developments in Syria. Depending on events, each issue will include anywhere from four to eight briefs. This series is produced in both Arabic and English in partnership between Salon Syria and Jadaliyya. Suggestions and blurbs may be sent to info@salonsyria.com.
US Vote on Golan
16 November 2018
The United States has, for the first time, voted against an annual resolution at the United Nations that condemns Israel’s occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights, in a move that contradicts with previous US administrations’ abstentions. A UN General Assembly committee approved the resolution with one hundred and fifty-one countries voting in favor for the non-binding resolution and fourteen abstentions, while only Israel and the United States voted against it.
The US Ambassador to the United States Nikki Haley said that the resolution is “useless” and “plainly biased against Israel,” justifying the US objection to the resolution by citing Iran’s military role in Syria. “The atrocities the Syrian regime continues to commit prove its lack of fitness to govern anyone. The destructive influence of the Iranian regime inside Syria presents major threats to international security,” she said.
Israel captured most of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war. It annexed the territory in 1981, a move not recognized internationally. The resolution considers Israel’s decision to occupy and annex the Golan “null and void,” and calls on Israel to rescind that decision. Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Dannon welcomed the new US position, considering it as “another testament to the strong cooperation between the two countries.”
US President Donald Trump’s administration has taken a strong stand in favor of Israel, defying UN resolutions by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem and cutting financial aid to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Palestinians.
The US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, said in September he expected Israel to keep the Golan Heights “in perpetuity,” alluding to the possibility that his country might officially recognize the Golan as Israeli territory. However, national security advisor John Bolton said during his visit to Israel in August that this issue was not under discussion. Syria and Israel are still officially at war, although the truce line remained calm for decades until the Syrian conflict in 2011.
Ahead of the vote, US diplomat Samantha Sutton said the US position on the status of the Golan Heights had not changed, but added that the resolution was out of touch with the situation on the ground. “This resolution does nothing to address the increasing militarization of the Golan and the serious threats that confront Israel from Iran and Hezbollah’s presence in the area,” said Sutton. The resolution was adopted by the assembly’s fourth committee on decolonization. On the other hand, Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations said the Golan is Syrian and will go back to Syria “through peace or war.”
Three Objectives
13 November 2018
The US Envoy to Syria James Jeffrey repeated the US administration’s objectives from its presence in Syria which are defeating ISIS, removing Iranian forces, and reaching a political solution. In a press brief in Washington, Jeffrey said that the first objective was explicitly stressed more than once by President Donald Trump, and most recently at the UN General Assembly in September. Additional objectives of the administration in Syria include a ceasefire and the formation of a constitutional committee for the future stage.
Jeffrey said that the political process, which the UN Envoy Staffan de Mistura has been working on to end the conflict in Syria, is an irreversible process that seeks self-determination of the Syrian people with the help of the UN, in order to ease the conflict, which includes the ousting of all Iranian-led forces from Syria. Jeffrey did not say how Iranian forces would be forced to leave Syria, but he said that the Syrian government would pressure Iran to withdraw its troops from the country. This is the understanding reached with Russia during Bolton’s trip to Moscow last month and the meeting between President Trump and President Putin in Helsinki last summer. US forces will not directly confront Iranian forces on Syrian territory. Jeffrey expected that the US economic sanctions on Iran will contribute to this decision.
Chemical Confrontation
17 November 2018
Global powers are set to clash next week as the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) meets for the first time since it was rocked by allegations of Russian spying. The OPCW faces difficult talks over a new investigative team that will apportion blame for attacks in Syria. Moscow has warned the OPCW risks becoming a “sinking Titanic” over new powers which would also allow it to probe incidents like the Salisbury nerve agent attack on a Russian double agent. But the darkest shadow over the meeting will be the expulsion of four Russians accused by Dutch authorities in October of trying to hack into the OPCW’s computer system.
New OPCW director-general Fernando Arias who took over as chief earlier this year, will give the opening address at the meeting on Monday. He admitted in an interview with AFP on Monday that the OPCW was “going through a difficult moment” given recent events. However, Arias, insisted that the organization was “more needed than ever.” Arias clarified that “The main goal is to consolidate the organization and think that more than twenty-one years of success has to be preserved.”
Key member states including Russia, the United States, Britain, and France will all be able to have their say during the OPCW meeting, as will all one hundred and ninety-three countries involved in the body.
In recent years, OPCW role expanded to cover the investigation of a wave of chemicals attacks in the Syrian civil war, as well as the March 2018 Salisbury attack and the 2017 killing in Malaysia of a half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The meeting will discuss how to implement the new powers that member states agreed on at a special meeting in June to let the OPCW attribute blame for attacks. Arias said the that the OPCW was setting up a “very small but very strong team that will be in charge of identifying the perpetrators in Syria”, involving around nine or ten members. The head of the team had already been picked and it would start work early next year, with a mandate to go back and try to point the finger for all chemical attacks in Syria since 2013. The OPCW is due soon to release a full report on a chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma in April. An interim report said chlorine was detected but not nerve agents. Russia and Iran, which are closely allied to Syria, have strongly opposed the new powers, saying they risk making the OPCW too political.
Fifth Iranian University
16 November 2018
After the universities of al-Mustafa, al-Farabi, Azad Islami, and Faculty of Islamic Schools, Iran is getting ready to open the fifth Iranian university in Syria. The Iranian Minister of Science, Research, and Technology Mansour Gholami said that Iran intends to open a branch of the governmental university Tarbiat Modares in Syria.
According to the official Iranian news agency IRNA: “The university seeks to provide education for Syrian students in their country.” Gholami said that the reason for establishing this university is to prepare and graduate university professors. Additionally, the university will provide an opportunity for Syrian students to complete their graduate and post-graduate studies. According to Gholami: “Many Syrian students head to Iran for their post-graduate studies …We’re hoping to receive a larger number of students.” Unprecedentedly, the University of Hama has announced signing three agreements of scientific cooperation with three Iranian universities (Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Amirkabir University of Technology, and Al-Zahra College for Women.)
Turkish Warning and Opposition Preparations
17 November 2018
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan conveyed to his US counterpart Donald Trump Ankara’s expectation that the United States would end its support for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). Turkey considers the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is classified by the two countries as a terrorist organization.
Sources from the Turkish presidency said on Saturday that Erdogan also discussed in a telephone call with Trump on Friday the importance of close cooperation between Turkey and the US in the fight against all terrorist organizations. The sources added that the two presidents welcomed the new joint military patrols as part of the roadmap in the Syrian city of Manbij. They also discussed completing the process as soon as possible.Turkey and the US launched their third joint patrol in Manbij on Thursday as part of the roadmap signed between the two countries on 4th June, which provides the exit of YPG militants and joint supervision over security and stability until a local administration council is formed.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said it is unacceptable for the US to provide arms and ammunition to the YPG. On the other hand, al-Hamzeh brigade, one of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions, is getting ready to participate in a potential Turkish military operation east of the Euphrates, where the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) take control with support from the US army.
The Turkish news agency Anatolia and Russia Today’s website said that the brigade is comprised of some six thousand and five hundred Arab, Turkman, and Kurdish fighters. The brigade was formed in 2015 to fight ISIS and has provided support for the Turkish forces in the Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations. “We are now taking preparations for a potential military operation against the YPG east of the Euphrates and we are training our soldiers for it,” said Saif Abo Bakr, a leader of one of the groups affiliated with the brigade which is undergoing military training in the Syrian city of I’zaz, according to Anatolia. “We do not have any problem with our brother Kurds there (east of the Euphrates). On the contrary, we will save them from the oppression of terrorism,” he added. Abo Bakr also said that the goal of the brigade, given that it is one of the FSA factions, is to save the people east of the Euphrates from the oppression of the terrorist PKK, stressing the importance of the preparations for the potential operation. “This terrorist organization is practicing oppression and pressure on the people in the area it occupies,” he added. “Before the Olive Branch operation, we provided support for our Kurdish brothers fleeing from the terrorists’ oppression, and we contributed to the formation of the Soqour al-Akrad brigade, which includes around one thousand and two hundred fighters.
On Friday, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said that his country “will transfer the success achieved in the Syrian region of al-Bab to east of the Euphrates as well.” On 24 March, Turkish Forces and the FSA took control of Afrin through the Olive Branch operation after sixty-four days of its onset. In the Euphrates Shield operation, Turkish Forces and the FSA also took control of vast areas in the northern countryside of Aleppo, including the cities of al-Bab and Jarablus, from ISIS between August 2016 and March 2017, which allowed thousands of Syrians to go back to their homes.
Last ISIS Pocket
17 November 2018
On Saturday, the Syrian government forces took control of the last ISIS pocket which is located in Tolool al-Safa area, between the governorates of Sweidaa and Damascus Countryside, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
After bloody attacks on Sweidaa and its eastern countryside in July, which left more than two hundred and sixty civilians dead and thirty kidnapped, ISIS retreated to this rugged terrain famous for its steep cliffs and numerous caves. “Government forces took control on Saturday of Tolool al-Safa after ISIS militants retreats towards the Syrian desert in the east,” the head of the SOHR Rami Abdul Rahman told the AFP.
This area was subject to airstrikes for four months, which were intensified in recent weeks after government forces mobilized military reinforcements in the area and fought fierce battles against ISIS militants. Abdul Rahman estimated the number of ISIS fighters in the area to be between seven hundred and one thousand, likely to have withdrawn “under an agreement with the government forces that besieged them for weeks and targeted their positions with intensive airstrikes.”
The Syrian official news agency SANA said that army units advanced in Tolool al-Safa after “controlling” the highest hills in it. The units continue “to clear the liberated areas from ISIS remnants after eliminating a large number of them.”
Controlling this pocket comes days after Damascus announced the liberation of seventeen abducted women and children kidnapped by ISIS during the bloody attack on 25 July on the Druze-majority Sweidaa. ISIS had abducted thirty people, killing two of them, while an elderly woman died in captivity. Six hostages were freed last month under an agreement with the Syrian government to exchange prisoners. Three other civilians were killed before liberating the remaining hostages on the 8th of November.
In the past two years, ISIS suffered successive defeats in Syria. It is currently restricted to small pockets in the outskirts of Deir Azzor governorate and the Syrian desert east of Homs.
Coalition Casualties
17 November 2018
Forty-three people, mostly civilian family member of ISIS militants, were killed on Saturday in airstrikes by the US-led international coalition on the last jihadist pocket in Deir Azzor east of Syria. The pocket, which is comprised of several town and villages, has been targeted by coalition airstrikes for several weeks in support for an attack by the Kurdish-Arab SDF against ISIS in the region.
Head of the SOHR Rami Abdul Rahman told the AFP that thirty-six civilians, including seventeen children and twelve women from ISIS family members, were killed in coalition airstrikes that targeted Abo al-Hasan village, near the town of Hajjin in Deir Azzor. Seven other people were killed in these strikes but the SOHR could not determine “whether they were civilians or jihadists.” “This is the highest toll of deaths resulting from coalition airstrikes since the SDF launched their offensive” in the area on the 10th of September, according to the SOHR.
The coalition intensified its targeting of this pocket, leading to the deaths of dozens of ISIS family members. Thirty-eight people, including thirty-two civilians, were killed on Tuesday in similar attacks that targeted the town of al-Sha’feh. Since the onset of the offensive, the SOHR has reported the deaths of two hundred and thirty-four civilians including eighty-two children as a result of airstrikes by the coalition, which often denies intentionally targeting civilians in its strikes against jihadists. “The avoidance of civilian casualties is our highest priority when conducting strikes against legitimate military targets,” coalition spokesman Sean Ryan told AFP. He added that “the coalition takes allegations of civilian casualties seriously and investigates each one thoroughly.”
The SDF resumed its offensive against ISIS on Sunday after suspending it for ten days in response to the Turkish shelling of Kurdish positions in northern Syria. The SDF has not achieved any significant advances since the onset of its operations after ISIS recaptured all the positions that the SDF had advanced to in September.
The coalition estimates the number of ISIS militants in this pocket at around two thousand. The battle against ISIS “is still a difficult battle, and was made worse by ISIS’s use of civilians as human shields in areas such as Hajjin,” Ryan said. “They (ISIS fighters) take over places of worships and other areas like hospitals and use them as headquarters for planning,” he added.
ISIS often resorts to using civilians as human shields when it is besieged and battles come close, in an attempt to limit airstrikes against its positions and headquarters. The coalition has carried out one hundred and fifty airstrikes in the area between 4 and 10 November, according to Ryan. In addition to coalition airstrikes and shelling, the area has witnessed confrontations between ISIS militants and the SDF.
SDF commander Redur Khalil said Saturday that operations were ongoing. “There has been an advance on the ground in the past days but it is a careful advance due to fields of landmines, trenches, tunnels and barricades set up by ISIS,” he told AFP.
The SDF has brought in around one thousand and seven hundred fighters in the last two days from areas it controls to the last besieged ISIS pocket, in an attempt to eliminate the presence of fanatics east of the Euphrates.
Minor Amendments and Major Controversy
14 November 2018
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made amendments to the controversial Law No. 10, which pertains to property ownership, allowing more time for owners to prove their ownership after the law stirred fears of refugees and their hosting countries.
Law No. 10, adopted in the 10th of April, gave the Syrian government the right to develop rural areas which were destroyed in the war or the areas that were constructed without official approval or title deeds.
The law had initially given people only thirty days to prove ownership of property and to apply for compensation, starting the date of officially announcing the development of an area. Aid agencies said that this time frame would be impossible for all refugees to meet.
On Sunday, Assad issued Law No. 42 that extends this period to one year and adds other amendments, which include granting owners more time to submit objections to the ordinary judiciary, after judiciary committees end their work stipulated in the law. Property owners who are already registered in the property registry do not have to prove their ownership.
Local authorities in Syria have not announced which areas that would be developed under Law No. 10, thus the effect of these procedures has not been tested yet. In the ongoing seven-year war in Syria, half of the twenty-two million population have fled their homes and around five million sought asylum abroad. In the chaos of war, many government buildings were destroyed, in addition to the property registry. Many refugees and displaced people lost their ID cards or property ownership documents, which means that it could take them a long time to prove property ownership.
As for refugees abroad, granting legal power to relatives or friends takes at least three months under Syrian law, even if all the correct documents are present. It also needs a security pass, which could pose a problem for those who fled areas that were under armed opposition control and were later retaken by the government forces.
Refugee hosting countries have expressed their concern over Law No. 10, saying that it could prevent refugees from going back if they were to lose their property in Syria.
بواسطة David Lesch | سبتمبر 3, 2018 | Cost of War, غير مصنف
He rocked back in his chair, looked up at the ceiling, closed his eyes, spread open his arms, and exclaimed in a triumphant tone, “I would be a hero.” This is how Syrian President Bashar al-Assad responded in the fall of 2008 to a question I asked him in a one-on-one meeting about engineering the return of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. It was one of those authentic moments that was unscripted. Creating the comfort level necessary for Assad to respond in this fashion took years of meetings.
His response was not surprising. The Golan Heights is an emotional issue with Syrians. Ever since it was occupied by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, its return has been ingrained in most Syrians as the sine qua non of Syrian policy. I have witnessed Syrians, especially the older generation, from cabinet level ministers to cab drivers burst into tears in front of me when discussing the issue. They fail to recognize that it was the radical wing of their Baathist government at the time that was partly responsible for generating the tensions that ignited the conflict.
Nevertheless, a UN-monitored ceasefire between Israel and Syria in the Golan, brokered by the United States in 1974, became one of the success stories of UN peacekeeping, as nary a shot was fired in either direction across the border until the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011. However, this ceasefire did not prevent Israel and Syria from fighting each other by proxy, primarily in Lebanon. Despite this, there have been multiple occasions since the early 1990s Madrid peace process in which Syria and Israel have come tantalizingly close to a peace agreement.
Assad’s response to me was interesting in another way. It came within the context of our discussion of a potential quid pro quo, i.e. with the return of the Golan, the Syrian government would significantly degrade, if not totally abandon, its relationship with Iran, including Hizbullah in Lebanon. This was something at the time that Assad was seriously willing to consider. He understood the purely strategic nature of the Syrian-Iranian alliance forged by his father, one that provided strategic depth for Syria following the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty in 1979. Otherwise, the two governments are practically polar opposites: one is a Persian Islamic republic and the other has been at the vanguard of secular Arab nationalism, which is the DNA of the ruling Baath party.
Even if Assad was truly serious about that grand bargain back then, this sort of quid pro quo will be significantly more difficult today. Along with the Russians, Iran and Hizbullah have been the most active supporters of Assad in the civil war, without whom the Syrian regime would probably no longer exist. Naturally, as Assad has improved his position, Israeli concerns in the conflict have shifted from wondering what chaos would ensue on its border should the Syrian regime fall to attempting to minimize the Iranian presence as much as possible. The Israelis have been intensely negotiating with Moscow, the new power broker in Syria, in an attempt to get the Russians to reduce Assad’s reliance on Iran, all the while forcefully making their point by carrying out military strikes against Iranian and Hizbullah positions in the country. This is, to say the least, a volatile situation.
Under these circumstances, it is understandable that Israel would not want to even consider negotiations with Damascus regarding the Golan. Why would it do so in such a strategically ambiguous environment and with a regime that is still, despite recent success, not entirely secure in power? After all, Israel captured the Golan in 1967 in order to prevent Syria from enjoying the strategic high ground and to gain control of tributaries that feed into the Jordan River, the life blood of Israel. As such, some Israeli officials, wanting to hold on to this territory indefinitely, have been urging the Trump administration, fresh off of its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, something Israel did in 1981.
This would be a mistake on many levels. First, many fear that with a US imprimatur, Israel could be encouraged to annex the West Bank and East Jerusalem, thus closing what little chance remains for a two-state solution with the Palestinians. Secondly, it would set an unhealthy precedent by which countries unilaterally absorb occupied territory without negotiation or international consent. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it would obviate the possibility of a peace accord with Syria for the foreseeable future. This could be an opportunity lost. For Assad, standing over a fractured and bleeding country, getting the Golan Heights back would be just the sort of slam dunk victory he needs in order to begin to rebuild his legitimacy with the Syrian people. With its “better the devil you know” mentality, Israel appears to have accepted Assad in power. Currently, it is allowing Syrian troops to re-establish authority along their side of the Golan. Going even further than that, returning the Golan under tight and reversible conditions could provide Damascus with the wherewithal for that which the Israelis most want: security.
The current ruling class in Syria is probably the last one where the loss of the Golan so completely framed their weltanschauung—and they are not getting any younger. On the other hand, the majority of the Syrian population is less than thirty years old. For them the civil war will forever rule their political psychology. And this generation, steeped in social media and the use of proxy servers, cannot be as brainwashed by government-controlled media or educational fiat as Syrians were in the past. The Golan could be seen by this younger generation as a bygone and misdirected obsession of their parents. Other things, such as the material and emotional rebuilding of the country, may be more important to them.
If a return of the Golan is delayed too much longer, any likely deal will be less generous to the Syrians. In turn, Assad will not be able to generate the internal support necessary to reduce the Iranian footprint. As much as the Russians might try, if diminishing Iran’s presence is not led by the Syrian government, it is unlikely to happen. Before the civil war, Assad showed on numerous occasions a willingness to counter Iran on important issues. It will be harder to do so now, which is why he needs lightning to strike. Assad’s views on this are worth exploring for both the Israelis and Americans. Certainly, any Syrian-Israeli agreement would asymmetrically demilitarize the Golan area in Israel’s favor, the parameters of which were agreed upon in the 1990s. With Assad remaining in power, this new approach to Syria could be a risk worth taking for Israel, but it can only do so if the Golan is there for the giving.
