Introduction: Prospects for Syria in light of elections and the Geneva talks
© Hassan Ammar/Associated PressA Syrian woman casts her vote at a polling station during the Syrian parliamentary election in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, April 13, 2016.
In Syria,
elections were carried out last Wednesday, quite free and fair in respect to the
primaries in the US. The numbers of
women, Christians, and Sunnis elected ought to dispel the calumnies of the Western press, that the Assad regime is strictly Alawite sectarian. (To begin with, Bashar al-Assad is married to a Sunni.) These elections
harbor a tenuous promise that is echoed by the semi-success of the Syrian ceasefire.
However, as the Geneva talks resume,
few have hopes for quick permanent fixes. The crucial parties to the negotiations have not yet been settled in a logical manner. Kurds have been sidelined and the Saudi-assembled
HNC have been included, and several foreign powers seem intent to pour fuel on the fire of still simmering tensions. Most manifestly, these naysayers and provocateurs include Turkey and Saudi Arabia, but the US and other NATO allies are also continuing their covert support for ISIS, al-Nusra and other terrorist factions.
They still want Assad out, and are happy to use the vilest means to get there.Sad to say, despite a tenuous but mostly successful 6-week ceasefire in Syria, the US and its allies also continue to talk out of both sides of their mouths, as they try to wriggle out of the corner into which they have been forced by the events of the last six months. Having been forced to acknowledge the success of Russia, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its Iranian and Hezbollah allies in mostly clearing the terrorists from the corridor of important cities in the west of Syria, the US now tries to claim credit for these successes as much as the gullible Western press will swallow that lie.
The US State Dept also continues to propose, or threaten rather, a literally and forthrightly divisive "Plan B", which is essentially the Western Plan A regurgitated in the wake of Assad's successes. This still envisions the fragmentation of Syria into minute and powerless statelets, including a tiny Alawite one for Assad (not recognizing that much of his cabinet, many of his generals, and most of his army are Sunni, or even Christian.)
The West continues to act in support of several opposing sides of the conflict; "their" Kurds and "their"
takfiri terrorists are now fighting each other with US arms, as I mentioned last time. Raytheon can't complain, but this does not seem just the usual omnivorous profit-seeking motive of the military-industrial complex. Rather,
it may reflect deep fissures in the Western alliances, and within the US power structure itself.
Comment: The US dollar appears to be in its death throes, see also:
Preparing for economic collapse? Fed issues ominous warning to JPMorgan Chase, leaders of world finance flock to secret meetings