In recent days, the Syrian president visited the United Arab Emirates. His wife also traveled with him, the first visit abroad since the start of the conflict. Abu Dhabi leads the policy of rapprochement of Damascus in the Arab world. The Arab League is also willing to discuss reintegration. The hundreds of phantom deaths in government jails.
Milan () – Oppressed, isolated, even fought with weapons in their own country, on their own territory, still today marked by a conflict that has been going on for 12 years at the cost of hundreds of thousands of victims and millions of displaced people. And today it has been rehabilitated, to the point that an agreement could soon be signed that -if it comes to fruition- would end up restoring the old ties between Damascus and the majority of the nations of the Middle East, which would also, and above all, limit the growing influence Iranian.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is currently on an official visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is working to forge a new diplomatic network with the Arab world, which is increasingly willing to welcome him back in a framework of alliances consolidated some time ago. A decision, explain Arab and European sources, which would guarantee more aid, subject to a series of requirements that the Syrian authorities would have to accept and respect.
post-earthquake diplomacy
Recently, the nations of the Arab world, led by Jordan, began talks proposing a billion-euro aid package to help Damascus rebuild a nation battered by internal conflict and hit by the poverty bomb. To this would be added intense diplomatic activity before Washington and Brussels, to obtain at least a relaxation of sanctions. In exchange, Assad would have to engage in serious talks with the opposition, host Arab troops on his territory to guarantee a safe corridor for the return of refugees (mostly in Turkey), fight against drug trafficking (starting with Captagon) and block the growing Iranian influence.
For now it is too early to speak of progress and the negotiations are still in an initial phase. The Syrian leader himself showed no interest in discussing political reforms or accepting foreign armies in the territory, multiple sources confirm. Similarly, the Western powers also seem unwilling to ease the pressure of sanctions until the human rights situation improves. However, the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6 may have unlocked a long-standing stalemate, offering Assad himself the opportunity to use the humanitarian catastrophe to reduce his international isolation, except with Russia, Iran and others. few states in the world.
Another key factor is the change brought about by Riyadh, long hostile to a rapprochement with the ruling Alawite leadership in Damascus. Last month, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan called for an end to the status quo on Syria, to allow for a response to the long-running humanitarian crisis; More recently, the Wahhabi kingdom reestablished relations with the Islamic Republic thanks to the mediation of China, showing itself open to a change of course in the regional balance. The Arab League itself, which groups 22 nations and suspended Syria in 2011 after the violent repression of street protests, is willing to discuss reintegration, an appointment set for the next summit that is scheduled for the end of the year in the same Saudi Arabia.
The role of the Emirates
Pulling the diplomatic strings to return Damascus to the orbit of the Arab world is the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a country that President Assad visited in recent days after previously visiting Oman. The sultanate is the only Arab nation that has maintained relations with the Syrian government even after the war, while Abu Dhabi is the first to normalize them in 2018, when the conflict had not yet ended. And it was also the Emirates that was the first to help Syria in the days following the quake, giving a new impetus to diplomacy that could prompt other Middle Eastern nations to follow suit. During the meeting, Assad praised his role in strengthening relations within Arab countries, attacking those who seek to break ties between nations that should maintain “fraternal” relations with each other.
Since the Arab Spring, the Syrian president has made few trips abroad, except to his allies Iran and Russia, and always alone. His wife, Asma al-Assad, also attended the visit to the Emirates, for the first time in a decade, which confirms the change in climate in the area, which is also evident in the reactivation of ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Assad himself called the turn in relations between the Wahhabi kingdom and the Islamic republic a “splendid surprise”, adding that “Saudi policy is taking a different direction with regard to Syria.”
Abu Dhabi pledged more than 100 million euros to help Syria in the post-earthquake emergency phase, by far the largest sum provided by a single nation, in addition to sending relief equipment and vehicles, tons of essential goods and medicines. . On the other hand, in February, the UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, visited the country, being the first and only senior Arab official to personally bring solidarity and closeness.
Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, an Emirati analyst, told AFP that the time has come for Abu Dhabi and “many Arab states” to “reconcile” with Assad and “allow Syria to return to the Arab League and the Arab fold”, turning “enemies of the past into friends of the future”. Various sources in the emirate agree that it is a priority to reach a “political solution” to avoid a new resurgence of terrorism and extremism, which have proliferated unperturbed for so long thanks to the conflict. Now it remains to overcome the wall built by the United States and Europe, according to which the earthquake does not represent a reason for a “radical change” in the policy towards Damascus, responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of Syrians and the use of chemical weapons. Finally, there is a resistance that also persists in the Arab world, particularly in the axis of Qatar, Kuwait and Morocco, which at no time sent aid to the government-controlled areas affected by the quake.
Assad’s prisons
There is a final, but not secondary, aspect to consider in the reintegration of Assad and the government (or regime, according to most) on the international scene. The violations of human rights that, according to reports from NGOs, continue to this day in the face of the silence of the international community. A report published by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) shows that at least 547 detainees died last year in government jails. Damascus has also reportedly “registered as dead thousands of forcibly disappeared people, including prominent activists who led the popular uprising” in the early stages of the protest. The activist group claims to have received more than a thousand death certificates between 2018 and 2021.
According to SNHR data, 1,069 people “disappeared in prisons between the beginning of 2018 and November 2022 were registered as dead” due to natural causes, including 24 children, 21 women and 16 doctors. Sources close to the opposition report that at least 500,000 people are still being held in jails or interrogation centers. Finally, there are also criticisms from Human Rights Watch (HRW), according to which resuming relations with Damascus without real changes, political reforms and civil rights would only be a free pass for the abuses committed by Assad in recent years.
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