RNA - On Friday, foreign-backed militants also confirmed that a deal was reached with Russian and Jordanian negotiators to end the fighting in Dara’a province, and bring the region back under full Syrian government control. Under the deal, the national forces will take the border crossings, and will guarantee the return of displaced civilians and militants who want to end their opposition to government rule. The militants, aligned with ISIL and Al-Qaeda, will disarm in a series of stages as well.
Just as it is often said, in every bad there is a good. The Syrian conflict carried by foreign-backed terrorist groups and extremist forces was used by the US and company as a way of attaining a regime-change goal that failed. There were other reasons as well, including preserving the regional status quo for the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The war was particularly bad for the people of Syria because millions of innocent civilians as well as those who were the main cause of the war lost their lives or became homeless and refugees. The war created a devastated country and left many women and children to become widows and orphans with no one to care for them.
But that is all behind now – at least to a great extent. Syria possesses the ingredients for rapid reconstruction and development: underutilized land, energy resources, and a young labor force plus allies and international support. East to west, north to south, so much potential lies idle and all the country needs now is permanent peace and security to become productive and prosperous again.
According to Fars News Agancy, on the other hand, the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia want to make war. They all cherish a reputation for war-keeping, particularly in places like Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Lebanon and Gaza. It hurts and baffles them to discover how disliked they are regionally and internationally. Countries that they destroyed in order to “protect and democratize,” view them with hate, fear and suspicion. Since the terror campaigns in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya, the US and company have been on a constant war footing, labeled as defense and security, and they still seek to enter new conflicts.
It would be a major step, therefore, if the deal in Dara’a province went on to include the rest of Syria as well. It will create a significant change for peace throughout the country. As the world’s largest arms dealer, with war expenditure higher than the next 17 countries combined, America won’t be able to find new rationales for not ending its war on Syria as well.
Despite the ceasefire agreements and peace talks between the Syrian government and the opposition – even the Qaeda-linked militants – the War Party is still more or less a permanent war-friendly party to this conflict. Hugely expensive weapons and occupation projects that post-ISIL Syria doesn’t need, and the world doesn’t think will work (for regime change), are still being kept alive because they give a perfect rationale for the US to continue to bomb and occupy Syria, and weaponise its proxies.
It is against this backdrop that Syria, more than ever, needs peace. Those who have agreed to disarm in a series of stages have no taste for continuous conflict. They know full well that the pain of waging the US-backed war has been diverted to their families, communities, cities, and provinces. Now it’s up to them to pronounce the truth: The remaining warring factions should also scale down their attacks and disarm. They need to become peaceful in deed rather than just in speech if they want to save the devastated country from longer American war and occupation.
They can have no illusions at this stage. Peace and reconstruction is what Syria needs and it will be gradual and generational. The warring factions cannot afford to trumpet further bloodshed, seeing that it has also affected their own families and communities. One value that would be good to exterminate is their permanent wartime stance. If the pain of failure in their regime-change campaign is to have any lasting benefit, they should let it be a sensible move on their part in the direction of peace, security, reconstruction and prosperity for the country.
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