The United Nations is reporting a new exodus of tens of thousand of civilians from Syria, with appalling proportions of women and children amidst encirclement of Aleppo and violence in other areas of the bleeding country, even as international peace efforts, aimed at rescuing it from further bloodshed through political settlement, remain suspended.
While militarily, the Syrian regime’s encirclement of Aleppo – the ancient northern city at the end of the fabled Silk Road- strengthens Bashar al Assad and weakens rebels and moderates, the development has also has added another grim scenario to the humanitarian crisis. The UN says around 300,000 people could be cut off from essential life-saving aid supplies, and is appealing to Turkey – which is hosting more than 2 million refugees- to open its border to the terrorized people fleeing atrocities in Aleppo and other areas.
Meanwhile, ISIS – an offshoot of the Iraq war and Syrian civil war and now expanding to Libya – continues its campaign of violence with a car bombing in Damascus Tuesday that killed 10 people. Syria has been in the grip of civil war bloodletting since 2011 Arab Spring uprising with serious ramifications for the Middle Eastern, European and American security in the form of ISIS terrorist violence, large humanitarian crisis and refugees influx into Turkey and Europe. The U.S. has led a coalition of countries to destroy the ISIS while Russia has launched its own campaign of bombing against any Assad opponents including West-backed moderates.
But it is the civilians, who are paying a high cost in the conflict with Russia, Iran, and forces loyal to Assad defending the regime while militant organizations including ISIS and al-Nusrah Front as well as disparate groups of moderates supported by some Gulf and Western nations, trying do dislodge the Assad regime.
“I am gravely concerned by reports that over 30,000 civilians have been displaced from Aleppo City and other areas in northern Syria over the past week by heavy clashes and aerial bombardment by the Government of Syria, allied forces and armed groups,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien said.
“About 80 per cent of them are estimated to be women and children. We have reports that civilians have been killed and injured, and that civilian infrastructure, including at least two hospitals, has been hit,” he noted in a statement reported by the world body.
The UN emergency relief leader has called on the Assad regime and other parties to honor their duty to protect civilians, and allow safe access for aid as tens of thousands of people were reported to have been displaced from Aleppo and elsewhere in the war-torn country’s north by heavy Government bombardment, the world body said.
The official also expressed grave concern for people in other parts of the country, including in Dar’a governorate in the south, where intensified fighting has displaced thousands of people, killing or injuring civilians.
In one of the largest catastrophes in recent decades that has seen more than 250,000 people killed and nine million uprooted, Syrians are finding it hard to survive in abysmal conditions both at home and as refugees abroad.
Meanwhile, the UN-led peace talks plan faces an uncertain future, after they were suspended last week, soon after their launch. Special envoy Staffan de Mistura has claimed that negotiations would resume on 25 February but the parties to the talks continue to hold the other responsible for uncertainty.
A BBC report says the talks collapsed as the Syrian government said it had “dealt a major blow to the opposition by cutting a key supply route to the rebel-held city of Aleppo.” According to the Syrian state television, cited by the broadcasting service, government forces had broken the siege of Nubul and Zahraa, two towns north-west of Aleppo.
Backed by the Russian aerial bombardment and Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy, the Syrian regime forces have surrounded Aleppo – once the largest city and commercial hub of the country – and have this way severed supply routes form Turkey to the rebel-held areas of the city.
“Aleppo may prove to be the Sarajevo of Syria,” The New York Times columnist Roger Cohen wrote on Monday, invoking a reference to siege of the Bosnian capital between 1992 and 1996, which in the face of international inaction, saw around 14000 people killed in the longest siege in the history.
The UN, meanwhile, says while some people are able to stay with host families or relatives, displacement camps in the areas close to the border with Turkey are already full and running above capacity, with people urgently requiring shelter, food and basic household items.
“I urge the Government and other parties to this conflict to hold to their obligations under international human rights and international humanitarian law to protect all civilians in Syria and allow neutral, impartial humanitarian organizations safe and unconditional access to all people in need, whoever and wherever they are,” O’Brien said.
The fall of Aleppo would represent the biggest gain for the Assad regime, making it clear that the ruler – who has been using all kinds of violence and siege of towns to suffocate campaigns for change in Damascus – will continue to cling to power with the help of his Russian and Iranian backers. Russian military involvement is believed to have helped the brutal Syrian regime in targeting its opponents indiscriminately, and is seen as a game-changer.
The United States holds Moscow partly responsible for failure of the talks while France has accused both Russia and the Assad regime of undercutting the peace talks. Saudi Arabia, that along with Turkey, Qatar and some Western nations banked on moderate forces in rebellion for a regime change in Damascus – has threatened to send troops to Syria. Teheran has dismissed the thought of Riyadh attempt ground forces into Syria. Shiite Iran and Sunni conservative Saudi Arabia – the two bitter rivals for regional superiority – are locked in a ferocious political and diplomatic standoff. Their escalating war of words, support for regional governments along sectarian lines, and inhuman treatment of minorities has deeply hurt the region with sectarian and political rifts.
