Nearly seven years of war in Syria caused over 300,000 civilian deaths, displaced over 12 million Syrians to neighboring countries and Europe, and drove the United Kingdom out of the European Union June 23, 2016, destabilizing the world’s largest economic bloc. Funded by Saudi Arabia, backed heavily by Turkey and the United States, the so-called Syrian Civil War began March 15, 2011 at the height of Saudi Arabia’s Arab Spring. If there were any popular uprising, it didn’t take long for the Saudis to suck Turkey and the U.S. into a proxy war to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Former President Barack Obama couldn’t say no the Saudis, looking ahead to Saudi support to fund his $2 billion presidential library. U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura asked opposition groups to face reality that they had not won the war to get al-Assad to leave Damascus.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei joined the fight Sept. 30, 2015, the war gradually turned into al-Assad’s favor. When Russian air strikes, Iranian and Hezbollah ground forces drove opposition groups out of Aleppo Dec. 21, 2016, the Saudi High Negotiation Commission lost all its leverage negotiating to get al-Assad out of Damascus. De Mistura’s Sept. 7 statement urging Saudi-backed opposition groups to get “realistic” that they had lost the war irked the Saudi High Negotiation Commission. “These statements are, to say the very least, shocking and disappointing,” said Nasr al-Hariri, head of the Saudi High Negotiation Commission in Istanbul. Expecting to resume peace talks next month, de Mistura wondered whether opposition groups accept the fact that al-Assad, with his Russian and Iranian backers, had won the war.
Resuming U.N.-backed peace discussions, de Mistura hoped the Saudi High Negotiation Commission would let go of its demands to see al-Assad removed from power. “Will the opposition be able to be unified and realistic enough to realize they didn’t win the war,” said de Mistura, hoping that the opposition would stop the Saudi-funded proxy war. Saudi’s High Negotiation Commission, led by Hariri, still insists that al-Assad leave Damascus. Getting the U.S. and Turkey to buy into the proxy war against al-Assad created the worst humanitarian disaster since WW II. Hariri’s insistence on al-Assad’s departure exposes for all to see that the Saudi-funded proxy war caused the mass deaths and refugee crisis. Hariri accused de Mistura of succumbing to Russian and Iranian pressure to leave al-Assad in power, insisting the Geneva process had lost credibility.
When you consider the death, destruction and humanitarian disaster caused by the Saudi proxy war in Syia you’d think the opposition would fold its tent and move on to something else. De Mistura finally gets that the Saudi High Negotiation Commissions isn’t concerned about the widespread damage from the seven-year-old-proxy war. Judging by Hariri’s disbelief, the Saudis can’t believe that their Arab Spring didn’t work in Syria. While now out of office, it’s ironic that the man who received the Nobel Peace Prize Oct. 9, 2009, former President Barack Obama, backed a seven-year-old Saudi proxy war to topple al-Assads. Obama’s insistence on regime change in Damascus sent U.S.-Russian relations spiraling to Cold War lows. Whatever the water under the bridge, Hariri wants to continue the proxy war to rid Syria of al-Assad, despite the widespread damage to the Mideast and Europe.
De Mistura, for the first time since appointed Special Envoy to Syria by former Secretary Gen. Ban Ki-moon July 10, 2014, has realized Saudi Arabia has funded the Syrian War since its outset March 15, 2011. Part of the Saudi Arab Spring to topple dictators around the Middle East, the Saudis added to the death, destruction and terrorism in Syria. Showing outrage toward de Mistura, Hariri mirrors Saudi King Salman’s position that al-Assad must leave Damascus at all costs. Instead of reevaluating a failed proxy war, the Saudis are more likely to continue fueling a guerrilla war against al-Assad’s Damascus government. Accusing de Mistura of selling out to Russia, shows the how the Saudis play the Cold War game with Americans, fanning the Russia hysteria sweeping Capitol Hill. Unlike Obama, President Donald Trump sees through the destructive Saudi proxy war.
Saying de Mistura and the Geneva Peace process was “losing its credibility because of the way it is being manipulated by some international parties, particularly Russia,” Hariri exposes the Saudi’s agenda in Syria for all to see. Calling de Mistura’s words the “defeat of U.N. mediation,” HNC Chief Riad Hijab showed no signs of giving up the Saudi proxy war. “Time after time, de Mistura implicates himself with unstudied statements that reinforce our call for a new U.N. approach on Syria,” said Hijab, showing how fast the Saudis throw de Mistura under the bus. De Mistura, after five rounds of peace talks, has placated the Saudis from the beginning. His statements today reflect the reality that the nearly seven-year-old Saudi proxy war has failed to get rid to al-Assad. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has no plans to support any Saudi-backed opposition groups fighting al-Assad.
