Positive developments continue at the international and regional levels, and there are indications that they will soon be reflected on the Syrian arena. While the general tendency is still constantly moving towards further retreat of the Western powers, at the heart of which is the US, and with it the entire old world order, in parallel there is continuous progress of the rising powers that have taken significant steps in expanding their alliances as well as in working to settle regional crises that have been unresolved for decades, the Saudi-Iranian settlement being one example.

Press Statement

Moscow Platform

Representatives of the Moscow Platform for the Syrian Opposition in the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC) - Alaa Arafat, Youssef Salman, Sami Betinjane, Mohannad Dlykan - are heading to attend the SNC's next meeting on 2-3-4 June, in Geneva. This comes after an over 3.5 year interruption in the Platform's participation in any SNC activity, as a result of several pending controversial issues, especially since an arbitrary and illegal decision was taken against the Platform. The decision was to revoke the membership of one of the Platform's representatives in the SNC and its representative to the Syrian Constitutional Committee's Small Group, Mohannad Dlykan, after calling for transferring the Constitutional Committee's work to Damascus while securing the necessary guarantees for that, a position the Platform continues to see as the correct one and continues to demand it.

The draft program of the People’s Will Party (PWP) was published for public discussion in the last issue of Kassioun (No. 1123). The program will be presented to the PWP’s 11th Conference, the second one after being registered, and it will be one of the documents discussed by the Conference to be adopted.

The Syrian political, media, and general public circles are busy trying to understand the meanings of Syria’s official participation in the Arab Summit in Jeddah on Friday, May 19, after its membership was suspended in the Arab League for 12 years.

Last Wednesday, May 10, the quadripartite meeting of the foreign ministers of Syria, Turkey, Russia, and Iran was held in Moscow, after a series of meetings at lower levels.

The undersigned patriotic democratic Syrian opposition forces believe that the decision of the Arab foreign ministers for Syria’s return to its Arab surroundings, and resume its participation in the Arab League institutions, comes in the context of the return of an Arab role with a positive outcome within the Syrian file, in a way that serves the aspirations of the Syrian people, and preserves Syria’s sovereignty and independence.

The Arab foreign ministers decided, in their consultative meeting in Cairo, today, Sunday, May 7, to repeal the suspension of Syria’s membership in the Arab League, and for its delegations to resume participation in the meetings as of the date of the decision. This is taking place in parallel with preparations for the quadripartite meeting of the foreign ministers of Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Russia in Moscow in the coming days.

Over the last few days, the exchange rate of the Syrian pound against the US dollar in Syria has surpassed 8150 SYP to the dollar. A year earlier it was around 3900 SYP to the dollar and in April 2019 it was still under 600 SYP to the dollar. In parallel, the wages are still meager, and the prices of everything are rising at minimum at same percentage of increase in the exchange rate.

With the end of the first quarter of 2023, and since before the beginning of the month of Ramadan, Syrians have directly witnessed significant increases in the prices of various necessary basic commodities. The average cost of living for a Syrian family of 5 has increased according to Kassioun index for the costs of living to jump to more than 5.6 million Syrian pounds (the minimum has reached 3,546,083 Syrian pounds). All this is happening while the minimum of wages (92,970 Syrian pounds, i.e., less than $13 a month) is still very meager and insufficient to actually cover anything from the basics of life.

Sudan is once again drowning in a bloody internal conflict that has nothing to do with the interests of the Sudanese people. Rather, the conflict has to do with the interests of the influential few who are in control and are nothing more than a modified continuation of the previous regime. Naturally, the current conflict is linked to the interests of the interfering external powers, at least some of which seek to deepen the conflict and make it more vicious.