Fearing another humanitarian disaster as Syrian forces gear up for an all-out assault on terrorist havens in Idlib province, the U.N. Director of Humanitarian Operations John Ging warned of a massive refugee crisis. With Idlib home to some 3 million Syrians, including al-Qaeda and other rebel groups, Ging said Idlib “has the potential to create humanitarian emergency at the scale not yet seen” since the Syrian War began March 15, 2011. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has put terrorists on notice that he will drive every one of them out of Syria. Seeking refuge in Idlib province, al-Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] and what’s left of U.S.-backes Syrian Democratic Forces face extermination in safe havens. U.N. officials seeking peace in Syria, led by 71-year-old U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura, has insisted for years that al-Assad agree to leave Damascus.
Backed by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, al-Assad has not relented one iota in his mission to clear Syria of various terrorist and rebel groups. Al-Assad doesn’t care whether or not the rebel groups are homegrown or foreign Islmamist fighters. Al-Assad has given the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army and Syrian Democratic Forces safe passage out of prior safe havens in Aleppo, Raqqa and Mosul. Al-Assad has warned terror and rebel groups taking safe haven in Idlib to prepare for all-out war. U.N. officials don’t admit that they turned the situation more lethal by allowing terrorist and rebel groups to relocate to Idlib province. Seeing “a further deterioration of the humanitarian situation,” Ging expects a Russian bombardment happening soon. Before rebel groups would leave a particular region, the Syria Army, with RussiaN, Iranian and Hezbollah suppirt, would continue their assault on Idlib until every terrorist, rebel or insurgent was driven out of the region.
U.S. Syrian policy under former President Barack Obama backed rebel groups seeking to oust al-Assad’s Damascus regime. Obama gave U.S.-backed rebel groups arms-and-cash to oust al-Assad, only to end badly when Russian President Vladimir Putin joined the fight Sept. 30, 2015 to keep al-Assad in power. With nearly 500,000 estimated deaths and around 12 million Syrian refuges driven into neighboring countries and Europe, the seven-year-old Syrian War created the worst humanitarian crisis since WW II. If Obama had not backed the Saudi proxy war, Syria would have faced less death and destruction. When President Donald Trump took office Jan. 20, 2017, he pulled the plug on Obama’s proxy war, prompting harsh reactions from the late Sen. John McCain (R-Az.). McCain could not accept that Trump no longer backed Obama’s failed foreign policy in Syria.
McCain met in Syria behind enemy lines several times with the Free Syrian Army in 2012, 2014 and 2017, making promises about U.S. support. When Trump decided to end arms-and-cash to Syrian rebels, McCain went on the warpath against Trump. McCain, with Obama’s full support, believed wholeheartedly in the Saudi Proxy war against al-Assad. U.N. officials led by de Mistura, and European Leaders led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, also backed the same Syrian rebel groups looking for regime change in Damascus. Saudi’s U.S.-educated Foreign Minister Abdel al-Jubeir said the Kingdom would never accept al-Assad in Syria. Trump realized with al-Assad winning the war with Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah help, the Saudi proxy war against al-Assad had failed. McCain could never accept Trump’s different Syrian foreign policy.
Waiting for the final assault on al-Qaeda, ISIS and Syrian rebel groups, the U.N. now panics after backing the Saudi proxy war for seven years to get rid of al-Assad. All terror and rebel groups have been warned that there are no safe havens in Syria. When terrorist and rebel groups fled from Aleppo Nov. 28, 2016, al-Assad granted them safe passage on humanitarian grounds. He warned all groups that their presence would not be tolerated at any place in Syria. Now that they’ve aggregated in Idlib they face either extinction or the same prospects of getting safe passage to Turkey or some other country. Syria and Russia accused the U.K. of supplying chlorine gas to rebel groups in Idlib. Britain’s U.N. Amb. Karen Pierce called the claims “baseless,” warning al-Assad of using chemical weapons. Britain denies in the strongest terms it’s supplying chemical weapons to rebel groups.
Syria and Russia have warned Western powers to stop backing terrorist and rebel groups in Syria. With the Saudi proxy war failed, Trump decided that it was not in the national security interest of the U.S. to continue supplying arms-and-cash to various rebel groups, not sure in whose hand U.S. cash-and-weapons end up. Whatever certainty Obama and McCain had backing the Saudi proxy war to topple al-Assad, Trump feels equally certain the policy was an abysmal failure. Pierce, who now holds Security Council president, was asked about the plan to stop the expected carnage in Idlib. “The short answer is no, that that’s very sad,” said Pierce, admitting that the Russians no longer worked with the U.K. to resolve the situation peacefully. Having given terrorist and rebel groups plenty of time to leave Idlib, Syria, Russia, Iran and Hezbollah seem poised for the final assault to rid Syria of all terror and rebel groups.
