No knockout blows in Syria’s grinding conflict

What the Arabic-language media is saying about the endgame in Syria, featuring Asharq Al Awsat and Al Hayat.

With neither the Assad regime or opposition groups able to land a knockout blow in the conflict, stalemate seems likely. AFP

The conflict in Syria seems to have reached a stalemate, as the regime suffers a number of defeats and ISIL establishes strongholds in many areas.

Writing in the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat, Tarik Al Humaid said the Turkish-American coalition in Syria faces a dilemma.

In essence, the Americans will have to deal with pro-Turkish groups in Syria that are classified by Washington as terrorist groups, such as Jabhat Al Nusra, while the Turks will have to deal with allies of the United States in Syria considered to be enemies of Ankara, such as the Kurds.

Jabhat Al Nusra is targeting and weakening the allies of moderate powers in Syria as a way to prevent any shift in the path of Turkish operations in Syria.

This may result in a settlement or a compromise that may either annihilate Jabhat Al Nusra or give the group some space. Either way, Jabhat Al Nusra will not accept any competition or threat, he said.

“The dilemma is not limited to the Turkish-American coalition. It is one faced by everyone who seeks to free Syria from the grip of Bashar Al Assad and from that of terrorist groups, whether Sunni or Shiite,” he wrote.

“All this is the result of the absence of clear leadership in the Syrian crisis. While Iran leads the efforts on the ‘Assad-front’, no one knows who is behind the efforts for the victory of Syria.

“Facts tell us that leading from behind a closed curtain has never worked.”

Ghassan Charbel, writing in the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat, said the Syrian opposition cannot make any claims of victory.

“It has clearly succeeded in destabilising a regime that had governed the country for over five decades. It has put the regime into a corner of Syrian territory, but it did not succeed in uprooting it,” he wrote.

“The Syrian regime cannot speak of settlement. It mentioned it time after time but then retreated to 20 per cent of the country. Now that Syria has become an arena for foreign fighters and regional and international players, decision-making is no longer exclusive to the original opposition in its various regions, nor is it the prerogative of the regime in the regions it still controls.

“Anyone who saves somebody from falling, at the cost of blood and money, will definitely have a say in decision-making.

“Countries that supported the opposition may not speak of victory because the regime they have dreamed of ousting still stands, even though it is bruised.

“Neither can they deny that ISIL, Jabhat Al Nusra and similar organisations are a bigger danger than the Assad regime and its alliance with Iran.

“Striving to keep the structures of the regime from collapsing does not mean backing the Assad regime. Neither the Sunni nor the Kurdish groups would allow this.

“This state of semi-victory and semi-defeat will be difficult for the families who have lost loved ones to barrel bombs to hear of this, and also to those humiliated and scattered in camps in Lebanon and Jordan and Turkey, and those who continue to risk their lives in the conflict.

“But this is the picture – no one will strike a knockout,” he added. “The only sure thing is that Syria itself died during the war. It is the greatest of victims.”

Translated by Carla Mirza