The Syrian Civil War is no longer reported recently. Even if it is called a "civil war," most of the country is under the control of the Assad regime, and North Syria is dominated by Kurdish forces and partly occupied by Turkey. While the Assad regime and the Kurdish forces are in conflict due to their different positions over the presence of US troops, they have a common enemy, Turkey.
In addition, the dissidents supported by Turkey are also common enemies, and the opposition to the dissidents dominates almost the entire territory. Dissidents retain only a small territory in Idlib under the auspices of the Turkish army. While the war is stopping, Syria is being divided into various powers and the normalization of society is progressing. And it is quietly returning to the international community.
Syria seems to be locked out of the international community as the United States imposes sanctions on Syria, but it is gradually intensifying its diplomatic activities. It is a move to improve relations with Jordan. Beginning with practitioner-level talks, the Syrian state news agency reported that Assad and King Abdullah held a telephone talk on the 3rd.
Since the beginning of the civil war, Jordan has become terrible, including the expulsion of the Syrian ambassador, and has also participated in military operations against Syria as a member of the US coalition of the willing. It is a new memory for us that the Jordanian Air Force pilot was captured in the Islamic State and later released a painful burning video.
Jordan has switched to a realistic foreign policy now that the possibility of a regime change has disappeared. Jordan is a country with Syrian refugees, and in any administration, Syria's stability will reduce its burden. The two countries are also building cooperation to support Lebanon, which is suffering from economic hardship.
On October 6, Jordan hosted a conference on power supply to Lebanon. The southern border had already been reopened in 2018 after the Assad administration had regained it from dissidents, but was blocked last year by the spread of the new coronavirus. Again, at the end of last month, large-scale border functions were restored.
It has also decided to reopen Damascus and Amman direct airport buses, and plans to resume future air traffic. Syria is suffering from a chronic economic crisis due to the aforementioned US-led sanctions and sluggish wheat production due to the historical decline in drought and Euphrates river water levels. If the traffic between Jordan, people and things becomes more active due to improved relations, it will be possible to reduce the damage caused by sanctions.
Regarding the consequences of the Syrian civil war, improving relations with Jordan will give momentum to the process of approving the Assad regime. Ironically, it may also lead to the stability of Lebanon through Syria for the West, where the Assad administration is the cause of the Syrian turmoil. Western Syrian isolation policies are failing before the reality of regional politics.
Roni Namo
Ethnic writer living in Tokyo. Since he encountered the Kurdish problem while attending college, he has continued to cover and analyze political movements of ethnic minorities, mainly Kurds. He was taught Kurdish (Kurdish) by Kurds and is probably the only Japanese who can use Kurdish. He has completed the translation of a Japanese novel into Kurdish (unpublished). Currently focusing on learning Arabic. He has also learned Persian and Turkish. He is training to become a multilingual journalist.
