Patriotic Syrians’ Wager

Among the events that this period has witnessed and is witnessing, is the meeting of the Western small group taking place on Monday, June 28, and this time will be expanded by adding G7 members in addition to Turkey and Qatar, also attending the conference of the coalition against ISIS. There is also the Astana meeting, which will take place in the Kazakh capital (Nur-Sultan) July 6-8. In addition to a number of meetings, moves, and statements that suggest there is something like a race or competition regarding the implementation of Resolution 2254, in parallel with the ongoing process of bilateral dialogue.

The Russia-US summit itself came only within a specific context – from the US point of view – which is Washington’s attempt to manage the process of its retreat in the international sense, and an attempt to delay or stop that retreat, if possible, within three main axes:

First: Attempting to reach deals that secure for it the least losses within the withdrawals it is making and will be making in the upcoming period, especially from our region. It is better – from the US point of view – to have in each of these deals a “Juha nail” (an Arabic proverb meaning having an excuse to always keep a foot in the door) that enables the US to return later, when it becomes able to do so (assuming that it will at some point overcome its crisis and general decline).

Second: The withdrawal processes are aimed at concentrating forces towards China, which represents the “greatest danger”.

Third: In the context of the withdrawal processes – which are forced in the historical sense – Washington is trying to make deals with the Russians in particular, within a vain hope that the Russia-China alliance will weaken or at least neutralize Russia in Washington’s conflict with Beijing. This delirious dream of some American analysts has reached the point of talking about the three countries getting to the point where they stand at equal distances from each other.

The above general logic applies to the way the US deals with the Syrian file as well, and with the implementation of Resolution 2254, where Washington is trying to undermine the essence of the resolution represented in implementing the right of the Syrian people to self-determination, by reaching a deal that includes one or more “Juha nails”, knowing that the solution in Syria has become a necessity, whether in the internal, regional, or even international sense (a necessity for Russia and the US alike, each for reasons differing from other’s to the point of contradiction).

In this sense, the possibilities of opening the door to implementing Resolution 2254 in the near future are valid. The US-Zionist bet, and by engaging – directly and indirectly – with extremists and warlords from the Syrian sides, is to implement 2254 the American way, that is, in a way that undermines its essence by creating an explosive structure for the forthcoming Syria; meaning, a weak, corrupt, and economically dependent structure, predisposed to subsequent disintegration.

On the other hand, patriotic Syrians’ bet is primarily on the Syrian people, and on themselves, and on the overlap between the interests of the Syrian people and the interests of the internationally-rising powers, which are intensified by the necessity of real stability in Syria. The bet is to implement 2254 in its text and essence, and in a way that all mines are removed, or reduced to a minimum. It is this path that patriotic Syrians from all sides must unify their efforts to build and on which they walk to the end for the benefit of Syria and the Syrian people. This will not be the first test that Syrians will pass successfully in their patriotic history.

(Arabic version)