It’s fantasy to think Syria is on the road to peace

The international community will now work to bring peace to Syria, start the rebuilding process and encourage millions of refugees to return. At least that’s what the leaders of Russia, Turkey, France and Germany, pictured holding hands at last month’s meeting in Istanbul, wanted us to think, said Christian Böhme in Der Tagesspiegel (Berlin). But the show of unity was bogus, the fine words wishful thinking. Just how far Syria is from peace was underlined the next day, when Turkish forces unleashed a furious assault on the Kurdish YPG militia in the north, which is supported by the US but which President Erdogan views as an existential threat to Turkey. Vladimir Putin wants to consolidate Russia’s victory over the rebels by stabilising Bashar al-assad’s rule, and getting Europe and rich Gulf states to pay for reconstruction – the sole reason Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron were invited. But they won’t provide funds until a political settlement is achieved.

The four leaders agreed that a constitutional committee – representing the Syrian government, the opposition and the UN – should lay the groundwork for one, said Libération (Paris). But because Assad refuses to talk to the UN, that won’t happen any time soon. If Putin respects his agreement with Erdogan to hold back from an assault on Idlib, the last big rebel stronghold, there’ll be stability of sorts. Yet with Assad bent on reclaiming the whole country, violence is likely to return. And don’t forget that Putin likes to play the “refugee card”, said Marwan Kabalan on Al Jazeera (Doha). Indiscriminate Russian bomb attacks have flooded Turkey and Europe with fleeing Syrians, thus forcing those countries to reconsider their support for rebel groups. Now, by hinting that military action against Idlib is still on the table, he’s at it again. He also knows that the idea of repatriating Syrians is popular in Germany putting pressure on Merkel to cooperate.

But Syrians will hardly dare return, said Golineh Atai on Tagesschau (Hamburg), while they hear reports of properties being confiscated by regime officials, and of generals in Damascus declaring that unwanted “disloyal” Syrians will be “filtered out” on their return. In any case, the political process makes no sense without the involvement of the US and Iran, neither of whom were in Istanbul, said Osama Al Sharif in The Jordan Times (Amman). True, America since Trump took office has all but abandoned its traditional role in shaping events in the region, but tensions between Washington and Moscow could still hamper an agreement. As for Iran, the ongoing build-up of its military presence in Syria threatens the stability of the entire region. The leaders meeting in Istanbul claim to have achieved something, but all that unites them is “fatigue and a recognition that the conflict must end soon”.