A new effort to end the six-year civil war in Syria will be made this month in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, under the auspices of Russia, Iran, Turkey, and the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad. Turkey and Russia have taken the lead in this latest diplomatic attempt to find peace in this Mideastern nation, millions of whose citizens have become refugees from their war-torn homeland to seek new lives in Europe and elsewhere in the world.
President Assad has declared his readiness to negotiate on “everything,” including, he said, his position as president, but he quickly added that his position is linked to the Syrian constitution and any new constitution would have to be ratified in by the Syrian people in a referendum.
Assad is counting on the support of Russia and Iran whose military forces have been active in the civil war, along with his Lebanese ally, the Hezbollah. Russian planes bombing opposition defenses in Aleppo have been largely credited with the defeat of opposition forces in that ancient city in northern Syria.
Ranged against government forces are many groups that are themselves not united on many issues, only on the need to remove Assad. The main opposition groups go by the name “High Negotiations Committee,” but here is also a “Free Syrian Army,” there is the jihadist “Jabhat Fateh al-Sham,” and there is an alliance of militias, including Kurds, backed by the United States. At a peace conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2015, a “Syria National Coalition” was recognized by some Syrian opposition leaders, as well as by the US, the European Union, and the Arab League.
The involvement of so many forces on both sides of the war has been blamed for the continued fighting in Syria to this day. In the coming talks in Kazakhstan, it is not certain which opposition group will show up and take the lead.
“The million-dollar question is which of the opposition groups will be at the table – and I believe nobody knows yet,” according to a spokesman of Turkey’s Foreign Minister.
We in the Philippines continue to follow these events in Syria for many reasons. One is that the Syrian War is the cause of the worldwide humanitarian problem of refugees seeking new lives in Europe and elsewhere. Another is that one of the groups involved in the Syrian conflict is the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which today is seeking to establish a foothold in Mindanao. Syria has a special role in our Christian faith; it was on the road to Damascus in Syria where St. Paul heard the voice of the risen Christ and began his missionary work that eventually touched us.
Most of all, we are concerned with the war in Syria because any conflict in the world is bound to affect all other parts of our planet. It is, therefore, part of our hope for peace in this New Year that the talks in Kazakhstan this month will succeed where previous talks have failed.