Last Wednesday, February 12, 2025, the Syrian presidency announced the formation of the Preparatory Committee for the “National Dialogue Conference” that included 7 members.
Topics such as civil peace, arms control, transitional justice, preparations for the national conference, the transitional government, political pluralism, democracy, the required constitution, and foreign relations of the new Syria occupy an important space in public debate among politicians, intellectuals, and the media. They are all, without a doubt, important topics for Syria’s present and future, and preoccupy all Syrians. However, they do not constitute, at this moment, the greatest obsession and concern for the overwhelming majority of Syrians.
On Wednesday and Thursday, January 29 and 30, 2025, Syrians witnessed two consecutive scenes that together form a single picture, the overall outcome of which could be positive and could promise good if implemented and invested correctly.
“A few days after Bashar al-Assad fled, attempts began to blow up civil peace in several places in Syria. The warlords of the last war, in their different forms, contributed to these attempts. There are certainly external hands, atop of which are the Zionist, trying to push things towards bloodshed. So far, the first attempt at blowing up things has been contained, and the first factor in preventing it was Syrians’ awareness, which they acquired and paid the price for with a lot of suffering and bloodshed, and their desire to end the fighting. However, these attempts will recur…”
“Did we win? ... Israel was defeated on October 7th... Now, when the jihadists, the haters of Israel, remember October 7th, they will celebrate, and Israel will mourn. This, by the way, is another indication of who won”.
The date of the national dialogue conference was announced to be postponed twice. Although this may seem negative for some, since Syrians have a great desire to launch a new phase in Syria, the title of which is Syrian people's unity and their effective involvement in rebuilding their country, nevertheless this postponement process can also carry positive signals about the conviction that the conference needs good preparation, and a wide participation and consensus among the various Syrian spectra and forces.
Many are trying to tell Syrians: “The revolution has triumphed, God bless you, your mission is over, so go back to your homes and sleep soundly!”
The struggles of the Syrian people, after nearly 14 years of continuous suffering, have achieved the first phase of victory, and complete victory is still a new wave of struggle away. The first wave, which began in March 2011, has ended. Now the new wave begins, laden with the experiences and lessons of the first wave. We still have a long way to go to complete the victory, and the Syrian people still have struggles that must be waged.
Today, a dark page in the history of Syria and the Syrian people has been turned; a page in which an entire people was squeezed into its narrow margin, suffering all kinds of torment, oppression, deprivation, pain, displacement, poverty, and detention centers, while the main page was occupied by tyranny, corruption, plundering, and encroachment on people’s rights and dignity.
Last Wednesday, November 27, during its press conference following its expansion with the addition of new forces, the Moscow Platform for the Syrian Opposition announced an initiative for a meeting between the opposition and the regime in the Russian capital, Moscow, similar to the “Moscow 1” and “Moscow 2” meetings that took place in 2015. At the time of issuing this call, the latest developments on the ground had not yet begun to appear, but they were nevertheless expected to some extent, and were one of the reasons for launching this initiative.
