Displaying items by tag: USA

Over the past few days, a number of significant US moves concerning the Syrian situation have taken place. These moves are naturally linked to Syria’s internal dynamics, but even more so to the broader, rapidly evolving regional developments—including major contradictions within the American and Western elite regarding war on Iran: between continued military mobilization on one hand, and negotiations and talk of a possible agreement on the other, which has even reached the point of announcing the possibility of a meeting between Trump and Khamenei.

Our region as a whole is living in a state of anticipation over the possibility of a new American–“Israeli” war against Iran, because such a war would inevitably affect all the countries and peoples of the region, whatever its outcomes might be.

On the surface, what happened in Venezuela appears to be a victory for the US—the strong, dominant power that strikes wherever and whenever it wishes and imposes its will by various means, including iron and fire, military coups, and criminality. At a deeper level, however, the real picture is exactly the opposite, and it can be discerned by considering the following coordinates:

Last Thursday, December 19, while celebrating “Hanukkah” at the White House, Trump made a number of statements regarding the occupied Syrian Golan, boasting that he had “given it to Israel”, describing it as land rich enough to be worth trillions of dollars. In doing so, he reminded everyone of the decision he took during his first term—specifically on March 25, 2019—when he signed a US presidential decree recognizing “full Israeli sovereignty over the Syrian Golan Heights”.

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.

About a week ago, Trump presented a “new proposal” containing 20 points to end the war on Gaza. Arab states accepted it before Netanyahu introduced amendments thereto. Hamas responded with a shrewd diplomatic reply that neither rejected nor accepted it, leaving the door open for negotiations and a possible agreement.

The last Kassioun editorial, titled “He Who Perseveres Wins... He Who Gives Up Will Be Defeated”, addressed the recent talk of a forthcoming “security agreement” with “Israel”. This talk intensified over the past week, coinciding with the UN General Assembly meetings, part of which were attended by the Syrian president. Multiple media sources, mostly Western and mostly “Israeli” in their orientation, confirmed that the agreement would be signed in New York or Washington, would include major concessions from the Syrian side, and that a Trump-sponsored meeting would be held between the “Israeli” occupation’s prime minister and the transitional Syrian president on the 29th of this month.

Official and journalistic sources, both Syrian and non-Syrian, are talking about the possibility of a US-sponsored “security agreement” with the “Israeli” entity soon. The discussions include various details about the nature of the supposed agreement. Regardless of the veracity of the rumors, what these discussions all have in common is that they all involve Syrian concessions and concessions to the occupier in exchange for “some sort of” security or non-security “guarantees”, as well as talk of lifting US sanctions, which have yet to be lifted despite all the hype surrounding their eventual lifting.

During the last week, two significant events have taken center stage for our entire region, in terms of their weight and impact on the various equations governing the conflict, including those that directly affect us in Syria.

In Tianjin, China, representatives from half the world gathered, and the leaders of the Eurasian countries, who today constitute the true center of the world and contribute at least a third of the global gross domestic product, stood on one platform. This summit could have been like its predecessors, but through the military parade that followed the summit, China presented itself as a military umbrella for the summit and its outcomes. It revealed a sophisticated military structure funded with a budget equivalent to a quarter of the US military budget, and made the US army appear as if it belonged to a previous era. This parade was further enhanced by the presence of both the Russian and North Korean presidents alongside the Chinese president in a rare and unprecedented moment, resembling the announcement of a tripartite alliance.