Syrian school children run to get to their makeshift school in the northern town of Tadif, located about 32 kilometers east of Aleppo city, on Sept 26, 2022. (BAKR ALKASEM / AFP)
With the United Nations warning that Syria could return to large-scale combat, the international community should not forget the plight of the country as they focus on finding a way to end conflict between Russia and Ukraine, experts said.
Nagapushpa Devendra, a West Asia analyst and research scholar at the University of Erfurt in Germany, said that the Syrian economy “had already collapsed” due to the civil war, sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic, and that there had been a steep decline in its wheat harvest last year as the country had been dependent on Russia and Ukraine for their exports. The conflict between Ukraine and Russia, which broke out in February this year, has “disrupted this service”.
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The United Nations said earlier this year that 90 percent of Syrians lived below the poverty line and more than 80 percent were food insecure.
A protracted crisis like Syria is not receiving enough attention as the entire world is focusing on the new conflict in Europe. This may have far-ranging political and security implications for Damascus. It will also worsen the already grim humanitarian situation in Syria
Nagapushpa Devendra, West Asia analyst and research scholar
“The lives of Syrians are becoming direr and there is a growing resentment and restlessness among the Syrians as we speak,” Devendra said.
“A protracted crisis like Syria is not receiving enough attention as the entire world is focusing on the new conflict in Europe. This may have far-ranging political and security implications for Damascus. It will also worsen the already grim humanitarian situation in Syria,” said Devendra.
In his address to the 77th United Nations General Assembly’s annual high-level debate, Syrian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Fayssal Mikdad, blamed the Western countries that have implemented “straightjacketed agendas”, “invested in terrorism” and “put economies in a stranglehold” in the guise of “spreading democracy and human rights” while states have been destroyed.
He also accused the West of “economic terrorism,” as Syria, he said, had lost an estimated US$107 billion in oil and gas revenues since 2011, leading to further economic woes.
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The US plundering of Syrian oil resources, together with the suffocating unilateral sanctions imposed by Washington, has caused most Syrians to fall under the poverty line, experts have said.
Syrians have realized that the real purpose of US presence here has never been about fighting terrorism, but stealing resources and imposing its own vision of the future on the Arab country.
"The US role in Syria has been destructive, to say the least," political expert Osama Danura has said.
A boy spreads corn kernels in an agriculture field in the village of Jindayris in the Afrin region of Syria's northern Aleppo province, on Sept 29, 2022. (RAMI AL SAYED / AFP)
Also, Syria would continue to seek compensation for the lost revenues, while “doing everything possible” to improve the humanitarian situation on the ground, Fayssal Mikdad said.
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On Sept 14, the UN, through the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, warned that the Middle Eastern nation could return to larger-scale combat, citing fighting between Turkish and Turkish-backed forces and Kurdish-led forces in the north, among others.
In this Jan 20, 2017 file photo, residents walk through the destruction of the Salaheddine neighborhood in the eastern Aleppo, Syria. (HASSAN AMMAR / AP)
The international community needs to solve the root of the problem. Among the causes is the presence of foreign militaries in Syria, namely Turkey and the US, as well as the logistics that continue to flow to jihadist groups in Syria
Dina Yulianti Sulaeman, Director of the Indonesia Center for Middle East Studies
The armed conflict in Syria broke out in 2011, escalating into a full-scale war.
In recent years, delegations from the Syrian government and its opposition have engaged in rounds of peace talks in Geneva, but solutions have yet to be found.
In recent weeks, there have been flare-ups in the country, including alleged Israeli airstrikes on Damascus International Airport, which killed five soldiers, according to Syria’s Ministry of Defense.
The US Central Command also reported of a rocket attack being launched against the US’ military’s Green Village base in northeast Syria, Al Jazeera reported.
Khaled Almasri, a former dean of the Faculty of International Relations and Diplomacy at Al-Sham Private University in Damascus, said that things on the ground “are tense but not seriously dangerous”.
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“It is hard to say that Syria is going to see large-scale fighting because nobody has the interest to go through such situation,” said Almasri.
However, he added, the current alliances and shifting alliances “lead to more polarization and more serious risk to engage in a risky operation”.
“The international community needs to solve the root of the problem. Among the causes is the presence of foreign militaries in Syria, namely Turkey and the US, as well as the logistics that continue to flow to jihadist groups in Syria,” said Dina Yulianti Sulaeman, director of the Indonesia Center for Middle East Studies.
“Israel is also regularly bombing Syria, including blowing up airports that make it difficult for humanitarian logistics to enter. As long as the great powers are unwilling to take the actions they could have taken or even become the source of the problem, civilians will continue to be victims,” she added.
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The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that, from March 2011 to March 2021, 350,209 individual deaths were recorded as a result of the Syrian conflict, including 143,350 identified civilians.
While “the Syrian Government has control of approximately 70 per cent of the territory”, non-State armed groups control significant territory and population centers in the north and north-west of the Syrian Arab Republic, while “Israel, Turkey and the United States of America each retain effective control over parts of Syrian territory,” the report read.
Devendra, from the University of Erfurt, said compared to the development of peace in Yemen, Syria “is far behind”.
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“In Yemen, the international community has managed to make the parties accept a power-sharing agreement. Whereas, in Syria, the parties involved are reluctant to sit under the same roof and talk about political settlements,” said Devendra.
“For now, the Syrian peace is stagnated and the hopes for its resumptions look gray,” she added.
Xinhua contributed to this report.
jan@chinadailyapac.com