Hitting the last rebel strongholds in Hama, Idlib and Aleppo provinces, the Syrian army, with Russian air support, pounded rebel positions in the last pockets of resistance in Syria. When Russian President Vladimir Putin joined the fight with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Sept. 30, 2015, the six-year-old Saudi-U.S.-Turkey-backed proxy war turned in al-Assad’s favor. Despite efforts by Geneva-based U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura to end to end the conflict, the Syrian Army and Russian Air Force worked relentlessly to break the Saudi-backed insurgency, started March 15, 2011 at the height of the Arab Spring. Saudi’s 56-year-old U.S.-educated Foreign Minister Abdel al-Jubeir once said the his government would never give up in their effort to remove al-Assad from power. With most Saudi-U.S.-backed rebels losing ground, few believe that the seven-year-old proxy war can succeed.
Saudi’s High Negotiation Commissions spent years pretending with de Mistura that they could negotiate a settlement for al-Assad’s departure from Damascus. Why the Saudi’s thought they could eject a head of state without a fight is anyone’s guess? De Mistura wasted countless hours and resources placating al-Jubeir and the High Negotiation Committee that he could work on a deal to remove al-Assad from power. As al-Assad with Russian and Iranian help pushed insurgents out of Syria, it became clear that he’d regained control over his sovereign territory. Whatever the international press or relief organizations say about the Syrian civil war, it’s largely a mop up operation. Various rebel groups backed by Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and Turkey have all failed to get rid of al-Assad. Any more rebel casualties Hama, Idlib and Aleppo are entirely the rebels’ fault at this point.
Rebels at various points in the seven-year-old proxy war have been given safe haven to leave various strongholds over the last two years. If rebels choose to remain and fight it’s at their own risk. Calling the latest casualties a “massacre,” no longer commands any serious PR clout for rebel leaders. U.S. and Untied Nations officials should putt rebel leaders on notice that they continue to fight at their own risk. Abu al-Baraa al-Hamawii called the 29 deaths in Hama a “massacre.” It’s time for the U.N. to say to rebel leaders to throw in the white towel. Calling the latest Syrian tactics “psychological media war against the people,” Al-Hamawi doesn’t get that he’s lost the war and must get out of harm’s way. Why should al-Assad show any mercy on remaining rebel resistance when they’ve been give them safe passage off the battlefield, recognizing the civil war was over.
Still getting arms-and-cash from Saudi Arabia, it’s time for Foreign Minister Mohammed bin-Salman to admit defeat and pull the plug on the seven-year-old proxy war. We’re “ready to repel any possible attack by regime forces. The will be taught a lesson the won’t forget Idlib is different to other regions,” said Al-Hamawi, continuing the same propaganda to win international support. European Union officials must step up and tell al-Hamawi and other rebel leaders to give it up. There’s zero excuse for more carnage because rebels have been told to get out long ago but choose, for whatever reason, to continue the failed civil war. Speaking for Jaish al-Nasr rebel group, Maohammed Rasheed said Syrian or Russian forces haven’t yet moved on Hama province. Whether that happens soon is anyone’s guess. What’s clear is that rebel leaders have been told to get out.
Terrorist groups are often reported by anti-al-Assad press as “rebel” groups, refusing to admit they’re terrorists threatening al-Assad’s sovereignty in Damascus. Al-Assad permitted various anti-Damascus insurgent groups to aggregate near the Northwestern Syrian border with Turkey. Because it’s only a matter of time before the Saudi-backed rebel groups are driven out of Syria into Turkey, the U.S., U.N. and EU should declare the Syrian Civil War over. U.N. bureaucrats like de Misstura perpetuate the carnage by lending support to the war. Rebel group leaders can’t admit that any hope of toppling al-Assad has long since vanished, prompting Western powers to pull its backing for the seven-year-old civil war. Whether admitted to or not by al-Assad, his government has every right to continue to wipe out remaining pockets of resistance anywhere inside Syria’s borders.
Time has come for Western powers to end their seven-year-old proxy war against al-Assad’s Alawite Shiite government. With Russia’s help, al-Assad has beat back a seven-year-old proxy war funded primarily by Saudi Arabia but also backed by the United States and Turkey. Rebel leaders must be put on notice by the Western alliance that they no longer support any effort to topple al-Assad’s sovereign government. At no time during the seven-year war did the U.N. pull al-Assad’s membership in 193-member United Nations. Preparing to wipe out remaining rebel strongholds in Syria, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights sees “preparation for a offensive” by al-Assad’s regime. Instead of pretending that the rebel insurgency’s viable, the U.S., U.N. and EU should immediately call on Saudi Arabia to cease backing rebel groups seeking to topple the al-Assad regime.
