After a multi-year long hiatus from the nation-wide chaos that engulfed Syria, since the beginning of the dirty war in 2011, the past few months have given rise to a number of concerning flare-ups on several axes. At the heart of each of these issues is the United States and their Western allies, that continue to impede a solution to the conflict and instead pursue the destruction of the nation economically.

Western media have been attempting to build a narrative that depicts the Syrian people as having risen up against the Damascus government again, driving an attempt to rekindle the horrific war that wrecked the Syria that the region once knew. The main areas of focus, where the Western media is blaming the Syrian government for the unrest, are in North Eastern Syria and the Suwayda governorate. Instead of taking responsibility for their malignant influences on the nation, via financing of human rights abusing proxy forces and the imposition of hardline sanctions, the US government points the finger anywhere else it can.

The protests that erupted in Syria’s Suwayda province, which are occupying much of the media's attention and are being compared to what occurred in Daraa back in 2011, were sparked for a number of reasons. There was the ending of subsidies in Druze-majority cities, which led to pressure on the average citizen when it came to purchasing the likes of fuel, while a number of other localized factors have also influenced the course of events there. Without undermining the multiplicity of the situation in Suwayda, which includes issues related to local leaders, newly formed militias and a recent Syrian crackdown on drug trafficking, none of the tensions recently witnessed would be possible without the horrifying policies of the West.

According to the United Nations, some 90% of Syrians in government-controlled areas are now living in what is considered to be the threshold for poverty. Despite the dire conditions endured by Syrians that live under the government’s control, in addition to the calls from UN experts for the West’s sanctions to be lifted for humanitarian reasons, there has been no sympathy for those under Damascus’s rule and all the focus is placed upon Syrians elsewhere.

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Following a near 2 week visit to the country, on a fact-gathering mission, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures and human rights, Alena Douhan, called for the immediate lifting of unilateral sanctions. “With more than half of the vital infrastructure either completely destroyed or severely damaged, the imposition of unilateral sanctions on key economic sectors, including oil, gas, electricity, trade, construction and engineering have quashed national income, and undermine efforts towards economic recovery and reconstruction”, Douhan said. She also stated that she was “struck by the pervasiveness of the human rights and humanitarian impact of the unilateral coercive measures imposed on Syria and the total economic and financial isolation of a country whose people are struggling to rebuild a life with dignity, following the decade-long war”.

These economic sanctions have not only prevented the transfer of key aid and prevented re-construction, but have served the strategic goal of the United States government in pressuring Damascus to submit to its will, or alternatively for the Syrian government to collapse from within. When protests broke out last year, in Suwayda, the US’s top Middle East ally, the Israelis, directly intervened. The occupation government delegated the spiritual head of the Druze community in occupied Palestine, Muwafaq Tarif, to convey demands including federalisation to Moscow; requests which were ignored by the Russians. It is clear that there is a push towards using language that speaks of a South Syria, separate from the rest of Syria that is under the control of Damascus; this would greatly benefit the Zionist regime if achieved.

Another interesting piece of information about the events ongoing in Suwayda, are the number of newly created militia forces there. An example of this is the Syrian al-Liwa Party, which was created in July of 2021 and was announced by the Syrian opposition. The Syrian al-Liwa Party has been connected with Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and is explicitly anti-government. The Party’s leader, Malek Abu Kheer, was allegedly in contact with the US international coalition forces in al-Tanf, during the latter half of 2020, and communicated with them a plan for the future of Suwayda. 

Both in 2022 and this year, during the Suwayda unrest, terrorist attacks from al-Qaeda linked takfiri groups operating out of Idlib, have occurred in tandem with the events in the south. In addition to this, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have also explicitly backed federalization in Southern Syria and are in support of anti-government protests. Why this is important is because it shows one thing clearly, the forces that the US has financed and used/uses as proxies, are rallying behind unrest in the South for their own political gains. Whether one chooses to view this as a Western orchestrated conspiracy, or that this is simply due to it working in the interests of each group involved, it again reasserts the reality that the US’s hands are not clean here. 

Similarly, when the Kurdish-led SDF recently triggered an uprising from the Arab tribes along the Euphrates, after arresting the leader of the Deir Ezzor Military Council and then murdering civilians during armed exchanges with local Arab militias, the US pretended as if it had no part in what was going on. This is despite the US having kept the SDF in power in North Eastern Syria, so that they can maintain an occupation of a third of Syrian territory - consequently where the most fertile agricultural lands and 90% of Syria’s oil is located - while turning a blind eye to frequent human rights abuses. The SDF have been responsible for severe economic mismanagement, there have been various reported cases of ethnically motivated crimes and they have even been caught forcing minors to become child-soldiers in their ranks. The US has not corrected the SDF over its poor record in North Eastern Syria, instead they continue to use them as a proxy force so they can deprive Syria of its wealth, as well as the breadbasket of the country. 

The US has created a reality on the ground, whereby Syria is internationally isolated, is in economic ruin, is splintered into various conflicting territories and all in the name of forcing the nation into complete submission. The US and its Western allies do not care that the majority of Syrians are suffering in poverty, they only care about combating Russian and Iranian influence, in addition to bringing Damascus to its knees, at all costs. What we see going on now is due to the sadism of the policy makers in Washington. The mere fact that Western media refuse to mention their direct impact on what is happening in Syria currently, amounts to enabling the criminality of the regimes under which they preside.