Donations will help refugees, but won’t solve Syria’s political crisis

What Arabic-language writers are saying about the humanitarian crisis. Translated by Carla Mirza

A temporary refugee camp in northern Syria. (IHH via AP)

As the humanitarian situation in Syria grows more precarious, the international community has united in efforts to bring relief to affected regions. However, Arabic-language commentators have noted the impact of regional and international politics on the country has never been greater.

In the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat, Ma'moun Fandi observed that the donor conference that was held in London on February 4 had gathered about $9 billion (Dh33bn) to help the Syrian people.

The conference was “laudable for the amount of money collected but, above all, it must be commended because the West has finally supported a serious Arab initiative”, he wrote.

Noting that the initiative launched by Kuwait followed three previous successful conferences, the writer said: “The message behind this is that when Arab countries launch serious and successful initiatives, the world will not hesitate to embrace them.

“The new element in this conference is that the funds will be spent on education, training and health care for the youth and on the rehabilitation of refugees.”

Although $9 billion had been raised, there were 9 million displaced people within Syria and 4.5 million Syrian refugees abroad, out of a total population of 22 million.

The writer asked: “Is money an adequate solution to the Syrian problem? Money will definitely not solve a chronic political crisis such as the Syrian crisis, but it will contribute to solving the crisis for human beings who have sought refuge in camps inside Syria and in neighbouring countries.”

In Abu Dhabi's Al Ittihad, the sister newspaper of The National, columnist Abdullah Khalifa Al Shaiji wrote that "the Syrian crisis remains an open wound for the Arab nation, one that is most hurtful [and] heavily covered on social media and television channels".

He said it was a “great disaster, where suffering and loss know of no limits”.

The writer added that it was as though the Syrian people had been “destined to die by shelling, rockets, explosive barrels or chemical weapons, or by starvation”.

The Syrian regime and its allies had systematically brought the Syrian people down on their knees, he remarked.

“The number of victims has risen to more than 300,000 and the number of wounded exceeds a million, while over half of the Syrian people have ben turned into refugees or displaced persons,” he wrote.

The situation had been exacerbated by the participation of Russia in the conflict, and by the interference of the United States and many other countries before that.

He noted the battle against ISIL, “the mysterious organisation which grew its roots from Syria less than two years ago and has now claimed half the Syrian territory”.

“Everyone intervened on the pretext of fighting against terrorism,” the writer said. “Even Iran, its Revolutionary Guards and sectarian militias such as Hizbollah are all claiming to fight ISIL, which continues its expansion.”

All of these parties had “added more complexity to the Syrian crisis”.

“In the meantime, instead of trying Bashar Al Assad, his regime and his ‘shabihas’ [a reference to the mostly Alawite groups of armed militia that support the regime] for war crimes and crimes against humanity, Mr Al Assad is now being touted as the only alternative to terror and terrorist groups such as ISIL.”

Al Shaiji concluded: “Five years have passed since the beginning of the Syrian crisis and there seems to be no glimmer of hope when it comes to salvation for the grieving, oppressed, battered and homeless Syrian people. What is all-the-more hurtful is the international silence on the crime of the century.”

Writing in the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat, Elias Harfoush wrote that "it is with war planes and guns in Aleppo that Vladimir Putin replied to the political happenings in Vienna which have excluded those he and Bashar Al Assad have considered their opposition".

The writer said that Mr Putin’s response in Aleppo was also meant for Turkey, Europe and the Syrian opposition’s Arab allies, and was “a blatant statement to Barack Obama that Russia is the decision-maker in Syria”.

He said that even though Mr Putin’s intervention aimed to tip the balance in the region and redesign the Syrian map, one could not ignore the Syrians fleeing areas claimed by the regime and its allies.

He asked: “Would they flee if they considered that [the regime] represented them and protected them?”

Translated by Carla Mirza