How Assad constructed a humanitarian crisis

Arabic-language writers look at the reasons why the Syrian civil war has lasted for five years

The regime of Bashar Al Assad has taken an unprecedented approach in its attempts to sap the Syrian revolution, according to Palestinian columnist Majed Kayyali in the pan-Arab London-based daily Al Hayat.

“The regime began by undermining the credibility of the revolution, claiming that is a conspiracy plotted by terrorist groups, that it follows a sectarian and religious course and is backed by foreign powers,” the writer explained.

By doing so, it had undermined the revolution’s national and political legitimacy and overlooked the right of Syrians to make the transition to a democratic state where citizens enjoy freedom according to its slogan: the Syrian people are one.

“It is obvious that the regime has taken advantage of the absence of leadership for the revolution and of the confusion reigning over its discourse,” Kayyali said. “That stands to reason.” He noted that some members of the opposition, particularly members of militias, failed to understand the significance of such a strategy.

“On the contrary, they went on to serve the regime and promoted its version by choosing the religious discourse over the national one and by gravitating towards religious fanaticism.

“This has weakened the credibility of the revolution in the eyes of its people and in the eyes of the world.”

On another note, the regime had opened Syria’s doors to Iranian, and then Russian, military intervention, while the so-called Friends of Syria were unable to provide a single anti-aircraft vehicle, impose an air embargo, establish a safe area or stop barrel bomb attacks.

“They were not even able to provide food supplies for the besieged, leaving the Syrian people without cover for the past five years,” Kayyali added.

The writer saw that the war had resulted in many Syrians crossing borders and seas, turning the revolution into a humanitarian disaster for neighbouring countries and for Europe.

“The regime has succeeded in its endeavours to turn a political conflict into a humanitarian cause, with millions of homeless and displaced people and with all the ensuing political, social, cultural and security repercussions, not to mention its attempts at branding it with the stigma of terrorism,” he concluded.

Writing in the Lebanese daily Al Mustaqbal, the columnist Wissam Saadeh tackled the distinctive characteristics of Mr Al Assad’s regime that had appeared in the past few years.

He said that the regime’s relationship with the civil war had become akin to the relationship of a fish with water. “It cannot go one day without war. It cannot afford a single day of truce after the Syrian people have broken away from it, after all that it has committed against them and after its factional identity has become swollen more than ever and in an increasingly bloody manner,” he said. The Assad regime had made good use of what it has: the factional bond between its key officers, the artillery and the barrel bombs. It has also made good use of what its opponents lack, by waging the war in the cities, instead of besieging them and cutting off the regime’s connections and exhausting it with the burden of supplying the residents.

“The result: a regime left with almost nothing other than its ‘connections’ – that is, its supply lines – and dependent on the displacement of the people.”

Another characteristic was that the regime had taken advantage of the anti-terror climate all over the world and had tried to justify its war on its own people under the pretext of terrorism.

“But at the same time, it is a regime that has condemned the world to remain incapable of any radical progress in its antiterror efforts so long as it continues to exist as a regime,” he concluded.