No Safety Before US Exit!

In this regard, the first thing to reflect upon is that the understanding of the new proposition within the previous coordinates, the coordinates of 4-5 years ago, is necessarily a wrong understanding: that is to say, talking about a safe or buffer zone, or whatever name it takes, in the meaning of a "no-fly zone", is an outdated talk, and has no place on the map of new realities, although some parties still dream of such a scenario, especially the US side and a party allied with it within Turkey, is still influential and effective though not decisive. Not only these, but some Arab parties as well as France, are still looking for a regional foothold in Syria by harmonizing with the introduction of a "safe zone" while trying to adapt it to serve their interests, although the weight of these is almost negligibly small.

If we leave aside the dreams and illusions of the different parties, and we put on the table the fundamental variables affecting the issue we will find before us the following picture:

First, the United States is forced to withdraw from Syria, and not too long, under the pressure of its multiple crises on one hand, and simply because it is putting a foothold in an environment full of enemies, so full that US will not know from where the "slap" will come, and it will definitely come.

Second, in trying to adapt the withdrawal, it tries to extend its presence as far as possible to ensure a form of withdrawal that leaves behind a sharp conflict between the trio-Astana and the components of the entire region. Therefore, US appears to be escalating the tension, whiled presenting under the table a series of conflicting plans and scenarios; for each party a plan.

Third, among the most important clefts that Washington is working on, is the cleft between Kurds and Turks, not as political parties, but as two nationalities. That is, US seeks to tilt the balance in favour of the extremists within Turkey who want long-term control over areas of Syrian territory, trying at the same time to tilt the balance within the Kurdish side toward those who cling to ideas which could be implicitly interpreted as seeking to separatism or federalism.

The solution of the issue passes through a single road that guarantees the Syrian Kurds their rights, protects them from any possibility of a Turkish invasion, protects the Turks – as a people – of US manipulation and separatist ideas, and protects the Syrians, the unity of their territory and state, and their sovereignty over them.

Only in this sense can the region be truly safe, through a series of understandings, the basis of which is the presence of the Syrian army along the Syrian-Turkish border, in parallel with the serious involvement of the political components of East Euphrates in the Syrian political process based on UNSC resolution 2254, beginning from its constitutional entrance, in a way  preserving the dignity of the people, and ensures a fair solution of the Syrian part of the Kurdish issue.

The possibility of removing the US mines, is a very high possibility, and the path to it is the consensus between the Trio-Astana on the one hand, and the Syrians assuming their national responsibilities on the other. Whatever the detailed form of the understanding that will not be so long time before reaching at, what it is certain is that the safety of the Syrian Northeast, as well as the safety of any other region in Syria, will not materialize before the US exit from it.

Kassioun Editorial, Issue No 897, January 21, 2019