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Kassioun Editorial 1248: Trusting the Americans, An Illusion and Grasping at Wind!
The past ten months — specifically after the transitional president Ahmad Al-Shar’a’s visit to Russia on Wednesday, October 15 — make it possible to objectively assess of the American role in Syria. Despite the “sweet talk” and repeated promises, US policy toward Syria has been clearly working against Syrian interests, and there has been no genuine intent among American decision-makers to give Syria a serious chance to get out of the quagmire in which the Americans themselves were openly a party to creating.
The American sanctions, which have harmed the Syrian people for years, remain for the US a key tool of political extortion through which it seeks to extract a list of gains at the expense of Syria’s stability and unity. Despite the repeated celebrations surrounding their supposed lifting, they remain in place and subject to bargaining, to the point that the real Syrian interest now dictates that we should not rely on sanctions being lifted once and for all, but instead search for solutions based on the assumption that sanctions will remain.
The continuation of sanctions and the accompanying extortion and deceit were not the only features of US conduct. The practices of the US special envoy for the Syrian file, Tom Barrack, became a driver of escalation and tension; he played a clear and direct role in setting “traps” instead of contributing to stability-building, leaving Syria more fragile over the past months, in addition to the clear American fingerprints on all the tragedies Syria has lived through for more than 14 years — and especially over the past ten months.
“To be a friend of the US is more dangerous than to be its enemy”, said former US National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger — not in a spirit of “self-criticism”, but in boastful confidence in the US’ ability to impose its will. However, this “omnipotence” has now become part of history; even its presumed “friends” and allies are peeling away from it — from Turkey to the Gulf states to India and Pakistan and others. Those are not driven by ideology but by practical experience. How are the Gulf states — which the US is supposedly committed to protecting — supposed to behave after the “Israeli” aggression against Qatar? Can the Americans be trusted after that?
The preservation of a unified Syria is a true interest of Syrians; its fragmentation and destruction is an openly declared “Israeli” objective. The American role has not been a deterrent but the opposite. Trump reaffirmed recognition of the annexation of the occupied Golan to “Israel”. Washington does nothing in response to the repeated “Israeli” assaults on Syria, and it supports the position of the aggressor Zionist entity across all arenas, including the UN and the UN Security Council.
The “Israeli” and American conduct does not target Syria alone, but is part of a broader effort to turn Syria into a tool to destabilize the region — including Turkey. Therefore, relations with Russia and China may become a necessity to balance the equation, if we wish to seek solutions outside of the American framework. Instead of waiting for a certificate of good behavior from Washington, Syria can today seize the initiative by building an external network of relations with actors who value the preservation of a unified Syria. This cannot be accomplished — nor can Syria be preserved — except by first strengthening our internal front, by holding a genuine national conference that can lead us to safety, and by crafting foreign relations that truly serve our national interests and put an end to any illusions about a positive American role in Syria.