Ammon News - by Amer Al Sabaileh |JT
The coming days may witness a terrifying increase in the bloodshed in Syria, targeting civilians and seeking to destroy the image of the Syrian regime and expose it as incapable of controlling the country.
Increased violence in Syria is expected as a means to influence the discussion around the political exit plan that precedes the formation of the Syrian transitional government.
Russia, which has refused to discuss any proposal away from what was decided at the “Geneva Meeting”, could now face a real challenge in view of the changes in Syria.
The United States initiated the formation of a loyal cabal from among those who oppose the Syrian regime. The US affirmed full support for the so-called “unified Syrian opposition”, which was recently formed in Doha.
State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said: “We look forward to supporting the National Coalition as it charts a course towards the end of Assad’s bloody rule and the start of the peaceful, just, democratic future that all the people of Syria deserve. We will work with the National Coalition to ensure that our humanitarian and non-lethal assistance serves the needs of the Syrian people.”
It is clear that Washington is trying to remould the political settlement in Syria through the creation of a new opposition, which will be marketed as the sole representative of the Syrian people.
This will put an end to the Russian-backed plan outlined at the Geneva Meeting, and will consequently give the Americans a real political victory in Syria.
Russia responded by hosting some groups from the Syrian national opposition in Moscow, in order to provide a realistic vision to stop the violence, to accomplish a political transition and, above all, to maintain the Syrian state.
This Russian vision is reflected in the words of the chief of the national coordination forces for peaceful change abroad, Haytham Manna, who is promoting the idea of a “Geneva II”.
Manna considers this to be key to building a position which might be approved by the five permanent members of the Security Council, especially, the United States and Russia.
At a press conference on November 29, Russian delegate to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said that the time has come for a new meeting of the working group on Syria. He also asserted that “the continued escalation will only lead to more damage, stressing that “we are trying to put pressure on the government in Syria to convince them that there is no military solution to the crisis and the need for them to sit at the negotiating table with the opposition”.
On the same day, Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN envoy to Syria, reaffirmed the validity of the so-called Geneva Communiqué as the basis on which a solution to the conflict in this Arab country should form.
The current battle in Damascus may be the final stage before a ceasefire. Some reports say that fighters in Syria received very sophisticated communication and jamming technology. This might explain the opposition’s recent significant progress on the ground.
Other reports are talking about the ambiguous role of the Syrian internal security forces in facilitating the entry of weapons and militants.
Targeting Damascus International Airport sends a clear message that confrontation inside Syria will be fierce and it may mean that entry to and exit from Syria is no longer easy.
With this in mind, what happens in Damascus nowadays could change the shape of the political settlement.
The cost of maintaining the current Syrian political system has become too high, for both the allies of Syria and the Syrian army.
Therefore, moving forward in the political process might be the first step on the road to stop the violence in Syria.
The writer, http://amersabaileh.blogspot.com, political analyst and expert in intercultural studies, is lecturer at the University of Jordan. He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.
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