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Kassioun Editorial 1162: Why Are They Celebrating the “Anti-Normalization Act”?
A few days ago, the US House of Representatives passed a bill titled the “Assad Regime Anti-Normalization Act”, which would guarantee preventing US federal officials from undertaking any activity that recognizes the Syrian government. The Act, which is still a bill that needs to pass the US Senate to become a law, would also expand and tighten the sanctions imposed on Syria.
The rejoicing and joy with which some of those considered Syrian opposition receive this bill brings to mind their rejoicing of the Caesar Act and how much they defended it and all the sanctions imposed on Syria by the US and EU. Those still insist on defending the sanctions, even though they have proven to be neither relevant to toppling the regime, nor to reaching a political solution. Rather, the sanctions are in place to achieve only two things:
First: Deepening the Syrian people’s crisis and suffering, bolstering the de facto partition, and reinforcing criminal activities in all their forms, all as part of working on the hybrid comprehensive chaos in Syria and the region.
Second: Utilizing “sanctions” as a tool within a process that does not aim to topple the regime or reach a political solution according to 2254, but exactly to “changing the regime’s behavior” within the framework of the “step for step” project, within which there is nothing relevant to the interest of Syria and Syrians – and implicitly the Syrian opposition – but the interest of Washington and its allies.
These same celebrants have always “preached” to us that the US possesses 99% of the cards, and they presented this as an axiom and something that goes without saying, which should be accepted as is. However, they did not explain why those who possess the cards need to resort to sanctions or the “Anti-Normalization Act”.
In any case, apart from the free elations by the US’s mouthpieces, which have always reflected more pain and suffering for Syrians, it is necessary to understand the actual context within which these American steps come.
The essence of the matter is still represented by the “step for step” and “changing the regime’s behavior” project, which does not change the distribution of tools between those used for enticement and intimidation, and those that constitute huge smoke bombs to cover up what is going on under the table.
What should be given real attention – in the bill under consideration, and in the overall American and European behavior over the past few years – is that the Western side is continuously shifting in how it deals with the Syrian issue, so the equation becomes limited to two sides only: itself (the West) and the regime. The tools of this equation are sanctions and anti-normalization on the one hand, and changing behavior on the other; and the equation’s solution is “step for step”, which means burying 2254 once and for all, and burying any hope of reuniting Syria and its people and removing foreign forces therefrom through radical and comprehensive political change by the Syrian people and in their interest. It goes without saying that the “Syrian opposition” is not a party to this “concoction”.
As the Syrian crisis became more complicated and deepened over two decades and more, the objective need has evolved over time from radical reform to radical change. In parallel, the mechanisms for solving the crisis have evolved from the possibilities of an internal solution to internationalization, and it has now reached a new situation for which the solution has become a real one that restores the country’s unity. This solution necessarily goes through ending whatever role the US has within the equation, primarily based on the interest of the Syrian people, as well as the overlap of that interest with the interests of Astana, China, and the main Arab countries.
