March 15 marks the 12th anniversary of the Syrian conflict which started with unrest that later translated into a multinational standoff fanned by the collective West. Russia’s involvement turned the table on the war, disrupting the attempts to isolate Damascus.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad held talks on Wednesday, March 15. Assad is still at Syria’s helm despite the collective West’s bid to replace him with a jihadi proxy during a bloody civil war which erupted exactly 12 years ago.
Likewise, western governments have failed to isolate Damascus as talks are underway on Syria’s return to the Cairo-based Arab League, a voluntary association of independent North African and Middle East countries. The backing of Saudi Arabia has reinvigorated the talks: Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud made it clear last month at the Munich Security Conference that isolating Syria was not working.
“I think it’s not only Gulf States that have a new approach toward Syria, it’s also Jordan and some other Arab countries. After 12 years of the crisis without any political horizon for a solution, there is a deeper understanding in the Middle East, in the Arab countries, including the Gulf, that the Syrian crisis should reach an end. Otherwise, it will spill over to many other neighboring countries,”
Oraib Al-Rantawi, founder and director general of the Amman-based Al Quds Center for Political Studies and an established writer and columnist
“There is a new approach that has been adopted by many Arab countries, including Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, recently, before that Emirates, Bahrain and Oman. And also we have a new approach by Algeria, Tunisia, recently, most of the Arab countries are really adopting a new approach. Maybe there is a different motivation. Some want Syria to be closer to the Arab world rather than to be very close to Iran. Some want to balance their regional relations by including Syria in the formula of this regional relation. Some believe that Syria will witness an explosion because of the economic hardship in Syria itself that will revive instability in this country,” Al-Rantawi continued.
Source: Sputnik