Syria is the Biblical land of antiquity and hosts the ‘City of Jasmine’ or Damascus, as the oldest capital in the world. Sadly, it is in the midst of war-ravaged ruin, earthquake-induced desperation and in a painful state of being abandoned and forgotten in the global imagination.

Tellingly, it was ranked last on the Global Peace Index from 2016 to 2018. Ironically, it is a rare Middle Eastern nation of immense cultural diversity that once hosted all three Abrahamic religions and Druzes, Alawites, Yazidis and regional ethnicities like Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrian, Armenians, Circassians, Albanians and even Greeks ~ all living relatively secularly.

However, civilisational and cultural bounty aside, it had two curses in modern history – firstly it had no major oil/energy resources, and secondly, it had an autocratic government (as is the case with all Arab nations) which was always on the wrong side of American preferences (despite its relative secularity).

The current government of the hereditary dictator Bashar alAssad continues with its Baathist anchorage, which is predicated on Arab Socialism and Arab Nationalism, which has historically made the ‘West’, Israel, and its beholden potentates in the region, queasy.

Additionally, had Syria sought to posture itself as the defender of the Palestinian cause by fighting directly with the Israeli forces (1948-49, 1967, 1973, War of Attrition i.e., 1982 Lebanon War etc.,) all of which didn’t help build bridges with Washington DC. Such a draw of cards also put Syria with the Soviet side, during the Cold war era.

Importantly, despite its sovereign positions on Palestine etc., it was never religiously extremist. If anything, it has been called out for its excesses on religiously extremist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood (1982 Hama Massacre).

However, similar (if not worse) excesses by other countries like Saudi Arabia or Turkey (on its own people seen to be opposed to their regime) was generously tolerated by the ‘West’. No similar laxity was afforded on Syria.

While the Arab Spring had shocked all Middle Eastern countries out of their stupor and resulted in reactive violence, only the likes of Syria were suspended from the Arab League (led by Saudi Arabia) in November 2011. Even though the hand of Saudi Arabia and Turkey is firmly established in supporting and arming various factions fighting in the Syrian war, it was the official Bashir-led Syrian government that was suspended by the Saudiled Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in August 2012 for, “deep concern at the massacres and inhuman acts”.

Duplicitously, no such suspension was initiated against Riyadh for supporting rebel forces in Syria and Yemen, where Riyadh was pitted against the Yemeni Houthi forces.

Like in Syria, the cause for the interference in Yemen was sectarian ~ Syria’s Bashar is a Shiite Alawite, just as Houthis are also Shiite (making them proIran). Clearly in the Middle East’s complex war of internecine and sectarian excesses from all sides, the ‘West’ has taken a selective side of the Sunni Sheikhdoms and only dialed up the excesses from the Shiite side.

Even though it was the combination of Syrian forces and the Iran supported militias (under General Qasem Soleimani) who had played a decisive role in the defeat of the dreaded ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant), it was Soleimani who was eventually killed by US forces.

The fate of Syria personifies the unhinged double standards and selectivity of lens when it comes to the ‘West’ as it remains indifferent to a nation that is on the brink of an unprecedented humanitarian disaster with its pummeled infrastructure, continuing wars and now the overall misery compounded by the recent earthquake. Targeted sanctions and its pernicious effects on Syria (just like for Iran) predates this earthquake as the passing of the Caesar Act in 2019 disallowed any individual or business that participated (directly or indirectly) in devastated Syria’s reconstruction.

Already reduced to a rubble and effectively balkanized, the levels of Western aid towards Syrian earthquake relief as opposed to that to Turkey has been glaringly meagre, even though Turkish President Recep Erdogan had spared no efforts to routinely abuse the West (the fact that Ankara remained a NATO ally and its other imperatives of scale, size and geography clearly helped).

However, within the Arab world itself there is a growing realisation that the Bashar regime is here to stay after having weathered various rebel militias, and that some sort of rapprochement and even reinduction into the Arab League may be preferable than to continue depleting coffers of the Sheikdoms uselessly. Post the earthquake, Bashar has made visits to both the United Arab Emirates and Oman (neither of which could have happened without the acquiescence of the Saudis) to ‘move forward’.

A lot will depend on how Bashar navigates the regional equations with his traditional allies in Tehran and Moscow. While pulling the plug on supporting anti-Bashar rebel militias may enable Bashar to reclaim territories held by rebel groups, Arab Sheikdoms will look to the dual benefit of regional peace and reconstruction boon that benefits their own economies. Meanwhile the West may continue to begrudge Bashar’s railing presence but an overall peace and stability in the region (guaranteed by the loosening purse strings of Sheikdoms) may be in the overall interest, even if it cannot be expressed overtly.

With Bashar ultimately reclaiming territory currently held by rebels, Iran and Russia could also claim moral victory over forces that had been inimical to their own regimes, for different reasons.

The earthquake has triggered an introspective conundrum in the West about the human and moral cost of their sanctions (practical inefficacy too), as also highlighted the inability to influence relief work on ground without working through Bashar in Damascus.

Policies of the West have come a cropper and produced embarrassingly negative and costly outcomes for itself, and it is time to put traditional politics on the backburner and use the earthquake tragedy as an opportunity to secure humanitarian assistance, reengage with Syria, and attempt to cool the region of unnecessary wars. Essentially forgotten and ignored Syria will go down in wounded history as yet another playing ground for global geopolitics with foreign powers recklessly interfering with selective morality and logic, to achieve very little on the ground. 

(The writer is Lt Gen PVSM, AVSM (Retd), and former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry)