As the Syrian army clears
swathes of the country from the control of foreign-backed terrorists,
there are signs on the horizon that some countries who were previously
lending support to those terrorists have come to grips with reality that
the Syrian government is going to be there for the foreseeable future
and are accordingly changing course from hostility to recognizing the
sovereignty of Damascus.
In the latest development, the foreign minister of Bahrain’s Bahraini
Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa has
been seen in a friendly encounter with his Syrian counterpart, Walid
al-Muallem, at headquarters of the United Nations on the sidelines of
the 73rd annual meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York.
The video shows the rare encounter between the two ministers, who
hugged each other, shook hands and exchanged a few works as other
officials from both countries were watching the scene.
The encounter was the first of its kind since the Syrian crisis erupted in 2011.
The development is notable as Bahrain was one of those countries who
voted to freeze Syria’s membership at the Arab League in Cairo after
which, many Arab countries also recalled their ambassadors from
Damascus.
Another factor that makes the encounter one-of-a-kind is that
Bahrain, which has been also faced with an uprising by the country’s
Shia majority since 2011, owes its survival to Saudi Arabia’s help,
which send forces to the tiny Persian Gulf monarchy to suppress Bahraini
protesters. As a result, Manama has so far served as a Saudi stooge to
promote Riyadh’s political agenda on various fronds, including by
funding and abetting terrorist operations against the legitimate
government of Syria.
It is no secret that Saudi Arabia has spared neither effort nor money
in helping foreign-backed militancy in the war-ravaged Syria and
Bahrain, as one of its close allies, has been a tool in its grand plan
to topple the Syrian government.
Virtually all of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council states
supported various militant groups in Syrian over the past years. In
recent years, however, this unity has diminished and states’ priorities
have changed. Those countries that have invested the most in the Syrian
conflict, namely Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have fallen apart. The current
splits between Riyadh and Doha seem durable.
Other countries, including Bahrain, Kuwait, and the United Arab
Emirates (UAE), have toned down their rhetoric and reduced their support
for militants.
Unlike Saudi Arabia and some of its allies, Egypt has also repeatedly
expressed support for Syria's unity and the government of President
Bashar al-Assad.
Egypt condemned an April 14 missile attack by the US, Britain and
France against sites and research facilities near Damascus and Homs.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has said Cairo and Riyadh did
not share common views on the Syria crisis while Egyptian President
Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi stressed that he supported the Syrian army in its
war against terrorists.
Egypt sent a large delegation to the Damascus International Fair held on August 17-26, 2017.
Egyptian Charge d'Affaires in Damascus Muhammad Tharwat and the
delegation members stressed their support for the Syrian people and for
the Syrian government, and their desire for closer economic relations
and Egyptian participation in the rehabilitation of Syria.
In an interview with the Syrian government
Al-Watan daily,
Tharwat said, "Egypt's participation in this year's Damascus
International Fair is natural given the character of the commercial
relations between the two countries. We hope that this participation
will play a part in restoring the economic relations between the two
countries, and that we will play a part in the re-building [of Syria]."
Tharwat stated that, throughout the Syria crisis, Egypt maintained
its neutrality and "the Egyptian Embassy continued to operate and did
not close following the decision of the Arab League, at the start of the
crisis, to recall the ambassadors [from Syria]... [True,] we decided to
downgrade relations to the level of charge d'affaires, [but] we are not
the only country that did that."
Also in November 2016, Egypt reportedly sent 18 helicopter pilots to
Syria to support the war-torn Arab nation in its fight against
terrorism. Cairo’s decision to play a role on the battlefield against
terrorists, including the Takfiri Daesh militant group, in Syria came
at a time when Egypt is also battling the Takfiri outfit’s branch at
home.
Militants have been leading a deadly campaign of violence against
both Egyptian security forces and civilians in Cairo and the restive
Sinai Peninsula.
Meanwhile, Jordan has also said only a political solution would guarantee the stability and the territorial integrity of Syria.
"Continued violence will only lead to more violence, conflict,
fighting and displacement whose victim is the Syrian people," Jordanian
government spokesman, Mohammad al-Momani, who is also minister of state
for media affairs and communications, said in a statement on April 14
carried by state-news agency Petra.
In a surprising change of tone, Israeli minister for military affairs
Avigdor Lieberman, who has a long history of hurling threats of doom
and destruction against Syria and President al-Assad, last week
expressed readiness to reopen the Quneitra border crossing with Syria in
the Golan Heights.
“We are ready to open the crossing as it was before, and now the ball
is in the Syrian court,” Lieberman told reporters as he toured the area
on Thursday.
Lieberman added that Israel never wanted conflict with Syria and was
ready to ensure a 1974 armistice agreement between the two sides is
strictly observed.
The Golan Heights is a Syrian territory, which Tel Aviv has been
occupying since 1967 and claims as its own territory despite
international criticism.
In August, the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF)
returned to the border between Syria and the occupied territories, four
years after it was shuttered due to militant attacks.
Lieberman’s comments come against the backdrop of Syria’s major
victories against terrorists, drawing an outlook for the country that is
far more different than what Tel Aviv and its allies had hoped for over
the past years.
The apparent call for de-escalation could also be a product of strained relations with Russia.
Ties between Israel and Russia spiraled down to historic lows last
week, after Israeli fighter jets pounding Syrian government targets
misled the Syrian air defenses into shooting down a Russian surveillance
plane by using it as a shield.
While the US and certain governments in the region have been cited as
supporters of Daesh and other anti-Assad militant groups, it is common
knowledge today that Israel has also had its fair share in helping the
terror outfits survive.
Throughout their battles, Syrian army forces have time and again
discovered Israeli weapons and equipment in large volumes from terrorist
hideouts. Israeli hospitals have also taken in some of the militants
injured in Golan areas.
The Israeli air force has carried out regular airstrikes against the
Syrian army and government targets across the country, a trend that
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims are aimed at pushing
Iranian military advisers helping Damascus in its anti-terror fight out
of the country.
Moshe Ya’alon, Lieberman’s predecessor,
admitted last
year that Tel Aviv had formed a tacit alliance with Daesh, saying the
group had "immediately apologized" to Tel Aviv after firing "once" into
Israel.
French President Emmanuel Macron in June said his country no longer
deems the removal of al-Assad as a precondition for resolving the
conflict in the Arab country.
"The new perspective that I have had on this subject is that I have
not stated that Bashar al-Assad's departure is a precondition for
everything because nobody has shown me a legitimate successor," said
Macron on June 21 in an interview published in several European
newspapers.
While noting that global cooperation is required to solve the crisis
in Syria, Macron stressed that Russia's cooperation is “especially
needed” to eradicate Daesh.
US Ambassador to United Nations
Nikki Haley said
in March last year that the United States' diplomatic policy
on Syria for now is no longer focused on making al-Assad, leave power.
Syria has been gripped by unrest since 2011, when militancy first
began in the country. Foreign states opposed to President Assad have
since then been funding and providing weapons to anti-Assad militants,
among them thousands of paid foreign terrorists dispatched to help force
Assad out of power.
The Syrian government, however, has been fighting that militancy
back, aided in that battle by advisory military support from Iran and
Russia. Moscow has also been conducting an aerial campaign against
terrorist positions in the Arab country on a request by Damascus.
Syria has been struggling with foreign-backed militancy since 2011 in
a battle that has left large parts of the country in ruins, destroyed
most of its infrastructure and killed hundreds of thousands of people.
All in all, the sudden about-face more than anything else shows how
the Syrian government, with the help of its allies, has been able to
turn the tide against the foreign-backed militancy.
Source:
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/09/30/575676/Syria-Assad-Saudi-Persian-Gulf-US-Trump
Liberteon