The reconquest of Aleppo is a significant victory for the Syrian regime over the armed opposition which has now been confined to a few pockets in the east of the city.
But this victory is drenched in the bitter taste of defeat.
An impossible victory
This is a civil war where the balance of power shifts constantly, a conflict which no side can settle decisively or irrevocably, and a proxy war between many regional and international powers.
As a result of the complexity of Syria’s social fabric, political conflicts have assumed a sectarian and ethnic character. What began as a popular uprising against the dictatorship of one party rule, became a violent clash between Alawis and Sunnis, Arabs and Kurds, and Christians and Muslims, in a hideous spectacle of self-immolation.
The Levant’s sensitive geographic position has turned Syria into a battleground where international and regional players compete for control and influence. Behind each internal player lurks a foreign power with its own stakes and calculations, from Russians and Iranians, to Americans, Gulf countries and Turks.
The conflict in Syria began as a spontaneous revolution sparked by a sense of injustice and oppression and inspired by earlier popular eruptions in Tunisia, then Egypt in 2011. But this is not what we have today.
As new factors entered the equation, the popular uprising veered off course and turned into a brutal armed civil war. A noble struggle for freedom and human rights turned into an ugly scramble for power and dominance.
The ethnic and sectarian chasms within the fabric of Syrian society mean that neither the regime, nor his opponents can dictate the outcome of the ongoing conflict.
While the Alawite, Christian and religious minorities have rallied around the Assad regime, the angry Sunni majority has largely sided with the opposition. The Kurds have their own agenda which is increasingly enjoying international support.
Perhaps the most vivid embodiment of the terrible schism breaking Syrian society asunder has been the surreal images from east and west Aleppo, one of dusty, worn out, grief-stricken mourners lamenting their massacred loved ones, the other of jubilant crowds celebrating the forces responsible for the massacre.
Source: What Syria needs is a real political solution – Middle East Monitor
