Russian fighter jets continue to target northwestern Syria
RUSSIAN fighter jets have continued to target Syria’s last opposition bastion, Idlib, as a solution to the decadeslong crisis seems out of reach, according to security sources.
Russian jets bombed rural Idlib, the sources told Daily Sabah and added that an observatory of the opposition determined that the attack was carried out by Russian SU-34 type fighter jets.
Idlib continues to suffer from the Bashar Assad regime and its backer Russia. Both are determined to recapture the last opposition stronghold and normalize political relations with regional countries, particularly within the scope of steps already taken with several Arab countries.
Attacks on civilians in Idlib almost continue on a daily basis and have caused the deaths of several children and women. Most recently on Saturday, three people died, among them a child, in another attack by Russia, the White Helmets civil defense group reported.
The attack took place in the outskirts of al-Jadeeda village west of Idlib and injured 13, including nine children.
The Idlib region is home to nearly 3 million people, two-thirds of them displaced from other parts of the country. Nearly 75% of the total population in the oppositionheld Idlib region depends on humanitarian aid to meet their basic needs, as 1.6 million people continue to live in camps or informal settlements, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
For years, the Assad regime has ignored the needs and safety of the Syrian people, only eyeing further gains of territory and crushing the opposition. With this aim, the regime has for years bombed civilian facilities such as schools, hospitals and residential areas, causing the displacement of almost half of the country’s population.
The situation for the people in Idlib worsened when the Assad regime, backed by Russia, launched an offensive on the province, causing the largest one-time displacement in the history of the Syrian civil war and a huge humanitarian tragedy, according to the U.N.
Frequent bombings and shelling have put nearly 50% of health facilities out of service, just as the Syrian people need them the most amid the coronavirus pandemic. Living in overcrowded tent camps or even out in the open in safe areas near the Turkish border, many are struggling to meet even basic needs.
A fragile truce was brokered between Moscow and Ankara in March 2020 in response to months of fighting by the Russiabacked regime. Almost a million people have fled the Bashar Assad regime’s offensive; yet, the regime still frequently carries out attacks on civilians, hindering most from returning to their homes and forcing them to stay in makeshift camps.
‘STEP FOR STEP’ APPROACH
A “step for step” approach is necessary to find a political solution to Syria’s decadelong crisis, United Nations Special Envoy Geir Pedersen also said Sunday.
Several rounds of U.N.-brokered negotiations in Geneva since 2019 between the regime and opposition aimed at forging a new constitution have so far failed.
“I think there is a possibility now to start to explore what I call ‘a step for step’ approach, where you put on the table steps that is defined with precisions, that is verifiable, that hopefully can start to build some trust,” he said after talks in Damascus with Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad.
“My message is that there is another possibility to start to explore possible avenues, to start to move forward on this process,” he told journalists.
Pedersen has toured all the main foreign players with a stake in Syria’s conflict.
With major fighting having subsided since 2020, Damascus has made inroads into easing its international isolation, especially with fellow Arab states.
“I think we should now analyze not only the Arabs but also the American position, the Europeans, the Turkish, the Russians, the Iranians,” the U.N. envoy said.
Throughout the civil war, the U.N. has been striving to nurture a political resolution. The U.N.-backed committee made up of 45 people – 15 delegates each representing the regime, the opposition and civil society – was created in September 2019 but has since made little headway.
Bashar Assad in July took the oath of office for a fourth term as Syria’s president, after winning 95% of the vote in an election dismissed abroad.
After clawing back large parts of the country from rebels with key Russian backing over the years, he vowed to make “liberating those parts of the homeland that still need to be” one of his top priorities. Endless rounds of U.N.-backed peace talks have failed to stem Syria’s war, which has killed around 500,000 people and displaced millions since it started with the brutal suppression of anti-regime protests in 2011. In recent years U.N. efforts have instead focused on the work of the constitutional committee.