*This is one of my opinion pieces (unedited) that first appeared in "The Express Tribune":
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2103457/6-great-game-syria/
Several regional and global players are involved in Syria to secure their national and strategic interests or to maintain the soi-disant “peace and stability” in the conflict-ridden country. Whatever are the motives behind foreign intrusions, the cost is paid – and paid heavily by the innocent civilians of the conflict-ridden country.
Since the civil war broke in March 2011, Syrian people have suffered from a grim and grisly array of violations including fatal torture, rape of men and women, forced marriage, internal displacement, relocation to contiguous countries and killing by barrel bombs, Scuds and chemical weapons.
Owing to the flagrant desecrations, which outstripped the ceiling of crimes against humanity, fell on deaf ears of international community that continues to remain muffled and a static spectator. This felonious kind of profound silence has exacerbated the humongous sufferings of millions of Syrian passive citizens.
Beneath the swarming bullets, missiles and fighter jets of government, opposition factions and international coalitions, seeking to compound their control and influence in the region – the civilian death toll in Syria has scaled up to 225,948 including 28,949 children and 28,011 women by September and there are no signs of stoppage anytime soon.
According to the data compiled by Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), the primary source of for the United Nations on all death toll-related statistics in Syria, the Syrian regime forces and Iranian militias were responsible for about 90% of civilian death toll. In its report in December 2018, the observatory group found that at least 560,000 people were killed in Syria including civilians and the parties fighting on Syrian soil.
Despite the reduction in violence in the war-trapped country in last one year, about 13.2 million people need health assistance, 2.1 million children are out of school and 33% are food insecure while 83% of the population is living below the poverty line besides 5.7 million refugees and 6.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs).
After Erdogan and Putin, with ratification from al-Assad, struck a deal on pushing back Kurd forces in northern Syria and to establish a buffer zone – and Trump also somewhat wiped off his embarrassment stemmed from Erdogan-Putin deal and crowed about the US biggest success of killing the brazen Daesh leader Abu Bakkar al Baghdadi – there was one glimmer of hope for Syrians that the rival countries would proceed for the restoration of peace and initiate steps for the rehabilitation of IDPs and evacuees.
But with the US to keep 600 military men to secure Syrian oilfields, Russia deployed troops and attack helicopters at an expansive airbase in northern Syria formerly held by the US and Turkey keen interest on creating safe zone and to send Syrian refugees back home – Assad regime is very likely to strengthen its foothold but the civilians would be embroiled in more tougher peace-fading conditions.
In addition, having obtained the control Syria’s largest and deep-water Tartus port for 49 years – Russia has ensured to keep its presence in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Since it is the only Russian naval facility in the region, the port is of a vital strategic importance for the Kremlin.
Flashback to 1971, Assad’s father Hafiz al-Assad signed an agreement with former Soviet Union to use Tartus port in return for selling advanced weapons to Syria. By 1990, Damascus had stacked up a debt of $13.4 billion to Moscow and eventually agreed to concede its control on the port following Russia wrote-off three-fourth of the debt in 2005.
As the US President Donald Trump said in 2017 that the United States had “very little to do with Syria other than killing IS” and vindicated his decision of troop withdrawal in December 2018 after defeating Daesh in Syria, he is not prepared to meet his promise to culminate the US “endless wars” despite killing ISIS top leadership.
Although United States has repetitively reprimanded Assad’s serious human rights violations in Syria but it has been disinclined to involve directly into the crisis except for firing 59 Tomahawk missiles on Syrian air base in April 2017 over suspected use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime forces.
Iran strongly supported Assad regime since the violence epidemic began eight years ago and provided extensive military aid to Syrian government in the form of training, weapons and intelligence sharing. Tehran also deployed its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and militias to fight the rebel sections in Syria and shield Assad regime.
On September 23, the International Coalition against ISIS entered its sixth year. Since the onset, it has relied on providing support to specific armed factions to gain influence and achieve objectives. Therefore, after five years of its military campaign, irrespective of the fact that Daesh has been completely eliminated or not, the international coalition controls about 70% of the oil and gas reserves in Syria and nobody cares for the civilians.
Accordingly, millions of Syrian inhabitants are trapped in the middle of the scrimmage between Syrian government and the rebels as well as are entombed amid the rivalry of geopolitical and strategic regional and global players.
The “great game” is, therefore, crucifying and routing the Syrians ordinary citizens as they become increasingly the victims of “national interests” of their own administration and foreign interlopers and continue to suffer from massive casualties, rapes, displacements, rising poverty and loss of access to basic human needs such as food, education and medical care.