“The popular movement is an objective and positive phenomenon that expresses at the core the needs and requirements of a society, which would not have appeared with such intensity at times had it not been for the delay, failure, and arrogance in admitting to the size of the accumulated problems”.

The living expenses of a family of five in Damascus have increased in mid-2021 to reach 1240 thousand Syrian pounds. That is according to Kassioun’s index based on 8 basic needs: food, housing, transportation, healthcare, clothing, education, household furniture, telecommunication, in addition to a proportion of 8% for other emergency needs.

The production of electricity in Syria is becoming an important indicator of the level of economic deterioration. While those concerned with the energy sector (producing and generating oil and gas) talk about prospects for the future amidst deterioration, indicators related to the political economic structure of contracts and partnerships limit the serious possible improvement in the situation of electricity production.

Although during the past ten years there have been some who sought to exclude the issue of the occupied Syrian Golan from the Syrian crisis scene, the realities during these years and the many preceding decades reaffirm that this issue is fundamental to the Syrian issue as a whole.

If there is a victory worth being called a victory in Syria, it is the imminent one, because the current “victories” claimed by the extremists from the regime and opposition are those of their selfish and narrow interests, they are neither victories for Syria nor the Syrian people. Instead, they are the extremists’ victories in that they were able – thus far – to stay in their positions of economic plundering and political sabotage, at the expense of Syrians, their lives, and their growing and aggravating suffering. For this very reason, they are “victories” of the type that will soon vanish.

There are still some, governed by a narrow self-interested vision, who view UNSC Resolution 2254 and the political solution in general, as a mere tool for a political struggle for power.

Statements on Syria by each of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during the last few days have been the center of political discussion in and about Syria.

“We believe that this resolution (i.e., UNSC Resolution 2585 on aid) will contribute to achieving a political settlement in this Arab Republic (i.e., Syria) as soon as possible and to stabilizing the situation in the Middle East in general”.

Last Friday, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2585 on delivering humanitarian aid cross-border and cross-line. Kassioun had noted in the last issue’s editorial, prior to the resolution, that “There is no doubt that among the Syrian, regional, and even international parties, there are those who are not at all pleased by the prospects of a Russian-American consensus, as this means getting closer to a solution and thus to change, and those rely on the fact that if a dispute occurs on this issue, it will allow for the creation of an atmosphere that undermines any consensus that took or will take place. This matter is far from reality”. That is exactly what happened.

On Friday, July 9, 2021, the UN Security Council adopted unanimously a resolution, UNSC Resolution 2585, on the delivery of humanitarian aid into Syria through border crossings and “to all parts of Syria without discrimination”.