Expected Saudi-Turkish reconciliation, any implications for Syria?
Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, with the Saudi Foreign Minister, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud (Anadolu Agency)
Enab Baladi – Jana Alisa
The Syria issue has often been a point of disagreement or reconciliation on the table of negotiations between influential actors. Recently, several questions have been raised about the expected Turkish-Saudi reconciliation and its implications for Syria on various levels, notably militarization since the two countries support different Syrian military groups.
After four years of severed Turkish-Saudi ties, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, on 10 May, paid a two-day visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Posted by Scott Lucas | May 19, 2021 |
White Helmets rescuer carries an injured child after Russian-regime attacks on western Aleppo Province, January 16, 2020
The UN assesses that “millions of children in Syria remain trapped in a high-intensity protracted conflict and continue to endure a shocking level of violence, with little support available to survivors”.
The summary is in the third report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, covering the country from July 2018 to June 2020.
The inquiry says 4,724 “grave violations” have been documented, but the actual number is believed to be far higher.
The Assad regime and Russia have been responsible for more than 90% of the killings of civilians in the 122-month conflict, but the UN says an increasing number of parties now at least 32 have committed violations against youth.
May 14, 2021
ALEPPO, Syria The water level of the Euphrates River in Syria continues to decline, causing the riverbed to narrow with the decreasing levels of water flowing downstream from Turkey, falling below 200 cubic meters per second. This dramatic drop in the river’s water level is expected to cause serious economic and environmental disasters.
The Euphrates River in Syria separates between the lands under the control of the Syrian government and the territories held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Syrian government controls the areas located south of the Euphrates and overlooking its right bank, including the areas extending to the southern countryside of the provinces of Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor and Manbij in the countryside of Aleppo. Despite scarcity in water flows, the government continues to operate water pumps and irrigation projects and systems.
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It is unlikely to last, but it is hard to remember the last time the Middle East has been as calm, relatively speaking, as it is today.
Consider where we were just over a year ago. Some 3 million displaced Syrians huddled together in Idlib province, the last rebel-held territory, as the world feared the humanitarian catastrophe likely to result from a Russia-backed offensive by President Bashar Al Assad.
In Libya, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s massive military campaign neared Tripoli, where his Libyan National Army readied for the battle of the century against the Government of National Accord. In Yemen, efforts to reach a political settlement had again failed and violence escalated sharply in early 2020, with fighting on several fronts.