{"id":281963,"date":"2024-12-09T12:00:36","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T12:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=281963"},"modified":"2024-12-09T12:51:38","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T12:51:38","slug":"armed-conflict-in-syria-again-outcome-uncertain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/12\/armed-conflict-in-syria-again-outcome-uncertain\/","title":{"rendered":"Armed Conflict in Syria again: Outcome Uncertain"},"content":{"rendered":"

5 Dec 2024 <\/em>– On 28 November 2024, troops opposed to President Bashar al-Assad advanced toward Aleppo, the second largest city in Syria and once its economic powerhouse.\u00a0 The armed conflict in Syria had been relatively quiet in comparison with Israel-Palestine and Lebanon, centers of deep turmoil in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

The anti al-Assad forces which have now taken control of most of Aleppo are led by the Islamic militia Hayat Takrir al Sham (HTS) – Organization for the Liberation of the Levant in English. The HTS, a tightly structured militia, is led by Abou Mohammad Al-Joulani.\u00a0 Another allied Islamist group the Syrian National Army calls its onslaught on Aleppo “Operation Dawn of Freedom.”<\/p>\n

Conflicts in Syria involve a large number of different armed groups who are known to have changed sides since the armed conflicts began in 2011 in Deraa with police repression of students who had painted graffiti on walls attacking al-Assad saying “Doctor, your time will come.”\u00a0 Bashar al-Assad had been a medical doctor trained in England before becoming a dictator following his dictator father.<\/p>\n

In 2011, after several months of non-violent, mostly student-led demonstration, military soldiers fled the army taking their guns with them. Armed violence began, and external governments became involved.<\/p>\n

Foreign states such as the Russian Federation, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United States all play a role and have supported different militias at different times.\u00a0 In addition, there is also an active role in the conflict of different Kurdish factions from Iraq and Turkey.\u00a0 The Iranian – backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah had been a strong backer of President al-Assad, but currently, its military and political forces have been severely weakened in Lebanon by Israeli action.\u00a0 Thus Hezbollah is less able to play a role in Syria today.<\/p>\n

Russian armed forces have been the strongest supporters of al-Assad since September 2015.\u00a0 Thus on 29 November 2024, the day after the attacks on Aleppo, al-Assad flew to Moscow to assure himself of continued Russian support.\u00a0 However, Russian soldiers are caught up in the war in Ukraine with few available for use elsewhere.\u00a0 \u00a0Nevertheless, Russian fighter aircraft are currently active in Syria.<\/p>\n

As fighting in Syria in 2011 started to grow and spill over the frontiers, the United Nations (U.N.) became concerned.\u00a0 Thus in March 2012, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was named as the joint envoy for the conflict in Syria of the United Nations and the League of Arab States. Also from March 2012, on behalf of the Association of World Citizens, I started meeting people in Geneva concerning a resolution of the Syria conflict.\u00a0 Kofi Annan had created a foundation for peacebuilding in Geneva, and I knew several of the staff.\u00a0 I also knew fairly well the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Nabil el-Araby, the long-time Ambassador of Egypt to the U.N. and often in Geneva.<\/p>\n

I raised with diplomats and others participating in negotiations in Geneva proposals for peace settlements, respect for human rights, and respect for international humanitarian law.\u00a0 As the U.N. human rights bodies meet in Geneva, the Association of World Citizens with other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) raised the large number of human rights violations including arbitrary arrests, torture, and imprisonment without trial of those accused of being in opposition to the government.\u00a0 There were also many human rights violations, violent shootings and torture carried out by opposition groups. These violations were\u00a0 also cited in the U.N. human rights bodies by NGOs.<\/p>\n

At the United Nations in Geneva, real efforts were made to create an atmosphere in which negotiations in good faith could be carried out.\u00a0 Good faith, alas, has been in short supply, and no permanent advances were made.<\/p>\n

Currently, it is hard to know how long the revival of fighting will go on and how far on the ground the fighting will go.\u00a0 Much may depend on how effectively the HTS governs its newly captured territory, especially concerning religious and ethnic minorities.\u00a0 Opposition troops seem to have taken control of Hama, a strategically important town half way on the road to Damascus.\u00a0 Syria is a situation to watch as closely as possible and to put forward proposals for a ceasefire and serious negotiations.<\/p>\n

______________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Ren\u00e9 Wadlow is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>. He <\/em>is President of the Association of World Citizens, an international peace organization with consultative status with ECOSOC, the United Nations organ facilitating international cooperation and problem-solving in economic and social issues<\/em>, and <\/em>editor of <\/em>Transnational Perspectives.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5 Dec 2024 – Conflicts in Syria involve a large number of different armed groups who are known to have changed sides since the armed conflicts began in 2011 in Deraa with police repression of students. It is a situation to watch as closely as possible and to put forward proposals for a ceasefire and serious negotiations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":250201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[703,2479,767,413,265,70,92],"class_list":["post-281963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-al-qaeda","tag-civil-war","tag-middle-east","tag-syria","tag-terrorism","tag-usa","tag-violent-conflict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281964,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281963\/revisions\/281964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}