Fighting in Syria has failed to change the balance of power

What Arabic writers are saying about the fight against ISIL

Arabic News Digest

One doesn’t need to read the Washington Post editorial or any other American newspaper to come to the conclusion that the US strategy in Syria and the entire Arab region has failed, observed Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the Rai Al Youm news website.

“If the intensified US airstrikes are aimed at weakening ISIL before eradicating them once and for all, in reality, two months into the raids, ISIL continues to thrive and advance in various locations in Syria and Iraq,” the writer said.

ISIL’s siege of the Kurdish city of Kobani hasn’t eased despite foreign intervention. The group has also managed to capture one of the largest oilfields in Homs while its allies have taken control of the majority of Idlib.

“There is no doubt about the US bias for the armed Syrian opposition and its persistence to bring the Assad regime down. But the implementation of its policies on the ground has been consistently backfiring,” he added.

The US administration has weakened the armed opposition due to its miscalculations and misinterpretation of the opposition and its ideology, the writer said.

Raids on Jabhat Al Nusra positions along with ISIL positions had created a wide rift within the opposition. Many leaders of Islamic factions see the Free Syrian Army forces fighting in Kobani beside the Peshmerga and under the cover of US aircraft as agents for Bashar Al Assad’s regime.

It is a state of total disarray and frustration as the fighting in Syria has yet to bring about a change in the balance of power, the writer continued.

Meanwhile, the Assad regime holds on, the regular army is coherent, defections have stopped and US priorities have shifted from ousting the regime to eradicating ISIL.

The war on ISIL seems to have been focused solely on Kobani in Syria, observed the columnist Tariq Al Homayed in the London-based daily Asharq Al Awsat. The writer added that the world had turned a blind eye to ISIL’s crimes in Al Anbar district in Iraq.

“While the international community, led by the US, was making every effort to convince Turkey to cooperate to rescue Kobani. The Anbar tribes, mainly the Bounemr tribe, were calling on Americans and the Iraqi government to supply them with weapons and aid to prevent the region’s towns and cities from falling into ISIL hands – but to no avail,” he said.

The Bounemr tribe resisted as long as it could and until it ran out of ammunition. The tribal fighters have fallen prey to ISIL’s brutality, but the world continues to see only Kobani.

“It all happened under the gaze of the Iraqi government, which watched motionlessly despite warnings and intelligence from the Bounemr tribe about the terrorists’ locations. But, it was to no avail,” the writer added.

The Iraqi defence minister announced recently that Iraq would regain control over the Anbar region within a month, but despite all the massacres, the government didn’t come to the aid of tribes, not even by supplying weapons to allow them to defend themselves.

At the same time, Washington has only said it is thinking about sending experts to offer assistance – even though the Bounemr tribe, along with other Anbar tribes, allied themselves with the US against Al Qaeda in 2006-2007.

“Alas, the Bounemr tribe was defenceless and without any allies against ISIL forces,” Al Homayed noted. “They were ignored by Baghdad and Washington while the international community focused its attention on Kobani.

“America’s failure to come to the Bounemr tribe’s aid is indicative of the difficulty in trusting any alliance with Washington.

“This will have a serious negative effect on the required alliance to conquer ISIL and to end crises in Syria and in Yemen.”

The writer concluded: “Who is to guarantee that the US won’t turn its back on its allies during battles and amid such crises?”