“What we see today in Syria is a sign of a collective failure to implement what has clearly been necessary for many years: a genuine political process to implement Security Council resolution 2254 (2015). “, said this Sunday, December 1, the UN special envoy for Syria, Geir O. Pedersen, in a press release. The fighting currently taking place in Syria between rebel forces and the regular army “has serious implications for regional and international peace”, he warned.
On Wednesday, November 27, a coalition of rebel groups, dominated by the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), launched a dazzling offensive against the forces of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. It seized dozens of localities before reaching Aleppo on Saturday, the economic heart of the country, which it took control of “without encountering significant resistance”. “The regime’s lines collapsed at an incredible pace, which took everyone by surprise,” Dareen Khalifa, an expert from the International Crisis Group, told AFP.
Bashar al-Assad promises a response with “force”
In Aleppo, rebels have imposed a 24-hour curfew until 5 p.m. this Sunday. “For the first time since the start of the conflict in 2011, Aleppo is out of the control of the Syrian regime forces,” confirmed to AFP Rami Abdel Rahmane, the director of OSDH, an NGO based in the United Kingdom. which relies on a vast network of sources in Syria. The rebels marched through the streets, installed their flag in front of a police station and tore down a portrait of Bashar al-Assad.
In response, the Syrian president promised to use “force” to eradicate “terrorism”, according to the official Syrian news agency SANA. “Terrorism only understands the language of force, and it is with this language that we will break it and eliminate it, whatever its supporters and sponsors,” he assured. According to the OSDH, the rebels have also advanced in the provinces of Idlib and Hama, a little further south. The Syrian army has reportedly strengthened its deployment around the city of Hama.
These fighting are the first of this magnitude since 2020 in Syria, where the civil war started in 2011, involving belligerents supported by different regional and international powers, and jihadist groups, left a country fragmented into several zones of influence. With crucial military support from Russia and Iran, the Syrian regime launched a counter-offensive in 2015 which allowed it to gradually regain control of a large part of the country, and in 2016 the entire city of Aleppo.
“Serious negotiations” wanted by the UN
More than 370 people have already been killed since Wednesday, according to the OSDH. This Sunday, Russian air strikes killed five people near the city’s university and four in Idlib, another city in the northwest. Faced with the risks that the fighting poses to civilians, the UN special envoy calls on Syrian stakeholders and international actors to “seriously engage in serious and substantial negotiations to find a way out of the conflict” and avoid bloodshed and focus on a political solution in accordance with the 2015 resolution. “I will continue to engage with all parties and am ready to use my good offices to bring international and Syrian stakeholders together in new comprehensive peace talks on the Syria,” added Geir O. Pedersen.
Iran “firmly supports the army and the government” of this country, affirmed its head of diplomacy, Abbas Araghchi, before leaving for Damascus. The King of Jordan, Abdullah II, indicated that he supported the “territorial integrity” of Syria. On Saturday, Tehran also called for “coordination” with Moscow in the face of this offensive. The White House, for its part, judged that the Syrian regime was suffering the consequences of “its refusal” to engage in political dialogue and its “dependence on Russia and Iran”.