Syria has really twisted into an international quagmire due to it being the epicentre of intercontinental interests. The United States and major European countries are financing and arming the Kurdish parties of which Turkey is complainant. The US and the EU intend to have an independent Kurdish state keeping Turkish interests at bay. This divergent stance will further perturb Turkey which has also developed hostile relations with Russia.
The refugees are pouring into all the neighbouring countries including the European ones. In Syria, Saudi Arabia is pressing the High Negotiations Committee based on Syrian opposition parties to get the implementation of the UNSC Resolution 2254 for a ceasefire in the civilian areas. However, in the meantime, it is lavishly attacking the poor Yemenis. They are supporting a dictator in Yemen when most of the country’s population has rejected him. They are forcefully making him the legitimate president.
Syria has almost the same situation. A chunk of the country’s population is against President Bashar al Assad. But here, the Saudi alliance is arming the differed population against the president. Do national interests mean hypocrisy and double standards?
All anti-Assad forces have played a key role in creating and arming ISIS and other militant groups like the Al-Nusra Front. In the disguise of fighting against ISIS, they actually are trying to oust Assad. They are also arming other mild militant groups against the Syrian government. If this is the course taken, why do they object and blame Pakistan for its policy of good and bad Taliban? A terrorist is good because he is playing in your hands and he is bad because he has known your weak points and has gained enough strength in his feathers to challenge you. Make a group, use it and then let it spread barbarism. The social analysis of most of the militant groups shows that they were either forced to create or they were created for some specific, atrocious objectives. The proxy wars are fought on the shoulders of such groups.
Saudi Arabia has formulated a 34 members’ alliance explicitly to fight against the ongoing terrorism. This alliance is presently about to run military exercises with reportedly 350,000 soldiers, 20,000 tanks, 2,450 warplanes and 460 military helicopters. Reports of the credible research institutions show that most of the worldwide funding to the terrorists, extremists and non-state actors including ISIS, is majorly given by Saudi Arabia and its other allies. Most of the terrorists around the globe have both an ideological and financial lineage with the Gulf States.
Due the religious sanctities, these places should have been the abode of peace and role models for the whole world but unfortunately, the philosophy and teachings of Islam are hijacked. Does Islam preach monarchism, ancestral regimes or kingdoms? These are actually fiefdoms and have no relations with the Islamic political system.
If Saudi Arabia invades Syria along with Egypt and other monarchical puppets, will Iran, Russia and China remain silent? What moral grounds and legal cover do the attackers have? How far will the UNSC intervene or will it remain relevant? And will not Israel move ahead of the Golan Heights, which are also reportedly working as the hospitals of the injured ISIS terrorists?
Saudi Arabia and Turkey are seemingly waiting for Americans to join the Syrian invasion but the latter is in an election year and until the electionelection is over, it is not probable that it will directly enter into this conflict. If the Republicans win, the situation may turn into a war but the United States will hardly land its ground troops in Syria because of its aimed presence in Afghanistan. The only thing the United States has achieved so far in Afghanistan is devastation of the region. Is this war really against terrorism?
Turkey is facing challenges both on the economic and diplomatic front. It views the YPG of the PYD as a threat to its country but the EU and the US do not. The PKK is another major challenge for Turkey. Azaz, a frontier city in Syria, is very important both for Kurds and Turkey. If the Kurds capture it, they will have Kobane and Afrin along with Azaz but this will be a great blow for Turkey as it transports aid to the anti-Assad groups through this city. Interestingly, the Turkish government is fighting with Turkish Kurds, somehow supporting Syrian Kurds and has a good relationship with Iraqi Kurds.
The appeasement policy of the US and its Western allies is presently doing more harm than good to the Muslim countries but this is futile. A grave digger is one day also buried. Propagated media is a big tool to create international opinion. The deception and duplicity of the controlled international media is intercepted and proliferated by social media. Much of the gruesome plans of the different players have been unearthed by social media because of the open flow of information on it. It is clear who really is smudging world peace and who are the actual beneficiaries of the oil drilling from the areas under ISIS. A few months ago, Russia, with its entry into Syria, has changed the political course of the Middle East. Currently, it is a superpower of the Middle East.
No one has won in Afghanistan and no one is going to win in Syria. Instead, extremism, sectarianism, terrorism, refugees, IDPs, destruction and poverty will loom at large. Bashar al Assad will sustain for the time being. To stay for some more years, he will have to change his course. If he leaves, the country will fall into the hands of Saudi Arabia and Muslim extremists, which neither the Assad supporters nor the Kurds want.
The circumference of the war can expand but there is not going to be a WWIII. The Kurds will get more of a stronghold in some more areas but they will not be able to make an independent state in the coming years.
The saddest aspect of the entire story is that Muslims are killing Muslims at each others’ cost. The money used to wage this war can fully overcome the gravest poverty and mass illiteracy from the globe. The permanent solution of the Syrian conflict lies in the Russian and American consensuses.