It is impossible to read and understand the multiple, mounting crises unfolding in our country on various fronts without grasping the broader trends of the fierce and unprecedented conflict currently unfolding across the international and regional arenas, both in its scope and depth.

Whether we are talking about the Strait of Hormuz and the war against Iran, the renewed and escalating war against and within Yemen, or the intensifying conflict in Ukraine, the common underlying trends can be summarized as follows:

First: The Western and American decline is continuing and accelerating – economically, politically, and militarily. The crisis surrounding the upcoming elections in both the US and the “Israeli” entity is merely an indicator of a broader and comprehensive “crisis of governance”. This crisis is not confined to these two entities; it has spread, and will spread, across all the countries of the Western center, which is rapidly losing its global position and hegemony to emerging international and regional powers, foremost among them China and Russia.

Second: Within this broader process of decline, and as a direct consequence of defeat in the war against Iran, the US will withdraw militarily from our entire region within a relatively short period. This process has already begun in Iraq and several Gulf countries, taking the form of either full or partial withdrawals, or the suspension of activities at military bases that have practically become inoperative. This is not to mention the withdrawal of US forces from the seas and oceans to distances dictated by the range of Iranian missiles.

Third: In the context of the American withdrawal, the former regional order, governed by the West, the US, and “Israel”, is now effectively dead, and its burial is proceeding at full speed, in parallel with the emergence of a new regional order. The trilateral Mecca Agreement, on the one hand, and the Chinese and Russian mediation efforts on the horizon to address the war in Yemen, on the other, will serve as effective instruments in laying the foundations of this new regional order. It will be based on cooperation among the region’s major regional powers and against the “Greater Israel” project.

Where Does Syria Stand?

Against the backdrop of these broader trends, it becomes understandable why the “Israeli” side is acting with frenzied intensity to prevent the new regional order from taking shape. It is seeking to deliver blows with the greatest possible brutality against the region’s vulnerable flanks. Sadly, in its current state, our country, Syria, is one such vulnerable flank.

In this context, we can understand the unprecedented brazenness of certain figures in our region and our country who openly express their loyalty to the “Israeli” entity, and to Netanyahu in particular. Such conduct will burn their political prospects and destroy their political futures.

The same context helps explain the conflicts and internal explosions being deliberately provoked along sectarian, ethnic, and religious lines, such as those that took place over the past two weeks in the northeastern and central regions of the country.

It is a mistake to treat these events, and similar ones, as nothing more than an “external conspiracy”. Within the country, there are actors from all sides who work to fuel these conflicts and benefit from them, particularly the major corrupt figures and thieves, both the old guard and the newly emerged, who see Syrian people’s unity as the greatest threat they could face.

This framework also encompasses the general policies adopted by the authorities and by certain actors within them, particularly in the economic sphere. These policies tie the country and its future to external powers and their “investors”, treat the solution as lying outside the country rather than within it, and rely on and align themselves with foreign forces—all at the expense of the interests of more than 90% of impoverished Syrians, whose poverty continues to deepen day after day as a result of the policies being pursued.

This pattern of policies, in the context of such an explosive regional and international situation, means pushing the country toward an inevitable, all-encompassing explosion. It also means reopening the door to internal armed conflict, partition, and widespread destruction once again.

The solution has always been, and remains, primarily domestic and political. It rests on realizing the Syrian people’s right to self-determination, through fundamental and comprehensive change that genuinely puts into practice the principle of “power of the people, by the people, and for the people”.

The proper path toward a solution has always been, and remains, the formation of a national unity government tasked with convening a fully empowered general national conference, through which Syrians would rewrite their social contract and shape their future on the basis of equal citizenship for all Syrians, social justice, and human dignity.