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An open-ended transition
The transitional government has formed a preparatory committee to organize the National Dialogue Conference, made up of 7 people, including 2 women. We still don’t know the date of this conference, which everyone is hoping and praying for. Everyone hopes to see a perfect representation of Syrian society, although no information has been given on its composition, except that the Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria will not be invited.
A first meeting of the preparatory committee was held in Homs, bringing together 400 participants to discuss six major issues: transitional justice, the drafting of the new constitution, institutional reforms, public and political freedoms, the role of civil society and economic organization. It should be noted that the committee’s powers are purely consultative, and its recommendations will be forwarded to the government.
Transitional justice with blurred outlines
February saw the resurfacing of the Tadamon massacre of April 2013. Tadamon is a district of Damascus where almost 500 civilians, including a number of Palestinians, had been coldly pushed blindfolded into a pit before being executed by gunshot, all filmed by the perpetrators of the crime. On February 8, a controversial visit to the crime scene by three of the massacre’s masterminds – amnestied in exchange for their collaboration – accompanied by two General Security officials, provoked a demonstration by several hundred local residents revolted by the presence of their executioners. Then, 10 days later, three executors were arrested. The fate of the main perpetrator of the executions, who had admitted the facts to a journalist, remains unknown.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Embassy in Damascus, long criticized for its complicity with the Assad regime, has just made public a list of 1,794 names of Palestinians from Syria, Gaza, Jordan and Lebanon who disappeared under the dictatorship. The aim of this publication is to help the new authorities gather information on their fate, although it is not known how the embassy obtained these names.
The issue of foreign prisoners and fighters, revealing the challenges of the proxy war
Algeria has entered the dance of diplomatic negotiations with Al Sharaa, after having been reluctant to congratulate the new strongman in Damascus on his appointment. Long a supporter of the Assad regime, it is now demanding the release of 500 Polisario Front militiamen captured in Aleppo during the liberation of Syria in early December. The Polisario Front is the armed faction supported by Algeria in its conflict with Morocco over Western Sahara. The presence of its fighters in Syria is explained by the fact that they were trained there by Iranian forces…
In Lebanon, several hundred Syrian prisoners are the subject of negotiations between the two countries. More than 2,000 Syrians are imprisoned in Lebanon, most of them arrested under the “anti-terrorist law” because of their real or supposed affiliation with the Free Syrian Army. A hundred of them have gone on strike to demand their extradition to Syria.
Finally, and this is a major issue for the security situation in Syria and neighboring Iraq, thousands of Islamic State fighters and their families detained in the Al-Hol and Al-Roj camps are being gradually repatriated to their native Iraq. This is in addition to the thousands of Shiite fighters from Afghanistan and Pakistan belonging to the pro-Iranian Fatemiyoun and Zaynabiyoun militias who have taken refuge in Iraq since the fall of the regime, and whose presence there could become the justification for further violence or foreign air strikes on Iraqi territory.
Kurds under pressure from all sides
While the control and resorption of prison camps in eastern Syria remains the sole responsibility of Kurdish militias, this issue has been at the heart of intense negotiations with the new regime in Damascus for the past two months. The risk of deflagration in the form of revolts or mass escapes by Islamic State prisoners is imminent, especially after Trump foolishly suspended all US humanitarian aid ($460 million in 2024).
This week the two sides moved closer to an agreement for the integration into the New Syrian Army of fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), as well as for the exit of their foreign fighters. Nothing is clear, however, about the fate of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) and Rojava’s democratic and feminist project at the end of these agreements, which seem to imply a forced renunciation of federalism, autonomy and popular self-defense in the face of Turkish imperialism, nationalism and conservative Islamism.
Iraqi Kurdish leader Barzani, along with France and Germany, have pleaded with al-Sharaa for the protection of Kurdish populations, but we know how much more important diplomatic and economic compromises are to them than the popular emancipation project carried by the Kurdish left. Many of the latter are awaiting the advice and directives of the Kurdish leader Öcalan, who now seems to be authorized to transmit messages to his supporters and followers from his prison in Imrali.
And the Zionist colony continues to spread…
Every week Israel advances into Syrian territory, visibly seeking to seize all the region’s water resources (Mount Hermon, Yarmouk Basin, Al-Mantara Reservoir). Seven new villages were occupied and the occupying army set up six additional military posts. At the same time, the air force bombed the Syrian military airport of Khalkhala and an ammunition depot south of Damascus, allegedly used by Hamas. This grotesque allegation completely ignores the Syrian situation and the complex relations between Hamas and the new Syrian authorities: the bigger the better, especially in the face of an international community now accustomed to letting the pyromaniacs Netanyahu and Trump do as they please.
The Arab League is due to hold a meeting in Cairo on February 27, with a view to developing a joint Arab strategy to counter the expansionism and ethnic cleansing of the United States and Israel…