The political geography and the conflict of human groups over wealth and influence throughout history has imposed on the Eastern Mediterranean region to be always at the core of international events, and an arena of international conflict.
The debate has been getting more heated recently about the different perceptions for the new Syria. What this means with regards to the nature of the political system in Syria, and by implication the nature of the relationship among the three branches of government, as well as the question of the relationship between centralization and decentralization.
Among the six conditions he recently announced, James Jeffrey's third condition states the following: Ending hostile acts against neighboring countries.
Last Wednesday’s Astana Trio Summit Statement included 14 points, and it was distinct from the previous statements with broader coverage of the aspects of the Syrian issue.
The minimum wage in Syria has become the lowest in the world, when measured in dollars, and it may also be the lowest in terms of its purchasing power. Within two weeks, the costs of the basic food basket became 6.6 times the minimum wage – the latter is approximately 50 thousand pounds! This means that the cost of living for a family of five members has exceeded 550 thousand Syrian pounds, taking into account that food constitutes 60% of the cost of living in the current harsh conditions that constrain spending on other aspects!
Media platforms were frenzied over the past few days with the issue of Syriatel’s Chairman, Rami Makhlouf, and his failure to pay the financial dues owed to the state.
Extremism in the public political field can be simply defined as being detached from reality, manifested by insisting on raising unattainable slogans. The extremists, over time, reach a satisfactory and chronic state of denial. We can see this in the Syrian case with an endless number of examples and it does not stop at the limits of “settling matters” (as in the regime settling things militarily) and “toppling” (as in toppling the regime).
Since the moment of its issuance in late 2015, the UNSC Resolution 2254 has represented a condensed expression of two fundamental issues. The first is the new international balance of power by which the global US-Western bullying is over, which consequently means the end of the era characterized by imposition of the forms of governance and economy on independent states from outside, whether this was used to be done through direct traditional colonialism, various forms of neo-colonialism, or through variant and complex combinations of both.
The current global crisis continues to deepen, escalate, and become broader in its various dimensions – humanitarian, environmental, economic, and social. It is a crisis of a very specific and unique type, one that can change the course of history qualitatively, radically, and revolutionarily.
The second session of the Small Body of the Syrian Constitutional Committee begins in Geneva on Monday, November 25, after it passed its first exam during the first session, achieving some ice-breaking, and opening the door towards a real start of the political process of full implementation of the UNSCR 2254, despite a number of provocative statements and actions, through which extremists parties - formally contradictory and fundamentally consistent - are attempting to sabotage the work of this committee and downplay it.
