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AGAINST the backdrop of serious setbacks to the Iran-led so-called Axis of Resistance and destructive divisions in the Muslim world, Amnesty International has delivered a damning indictment of genocide against Israel.
Predictably, the Amnesty report that diligently documents evidence of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, drew cries of antisemitism from the US, Germany and other Western allies of Israel who have enabled mass murder by funding, arming and supporting both materially and diplomatically the Zionist state.
Given the unconditional support from Western powers that continues, despite the massive humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israel did not lift its foot off the accelerator and stories and haunting images of hundreds of victims of air strikes and military brutality continued to emerge.
As the so-called Abraham Accords suggested, the Muslim states of the region are now active participants in cementing Israel’s occupation of Palestine and seem content with subjugation and even annihilation of the Palestinians, some of the most brilliant and resilient people in the Middle East.
While the Iran-led alliance including Syria, Yemen’s Houthis and Lebanon’s Hezbollah offered some resistance and did whatever little they could, the overwhelming Western military and technological superiority on Israel’s side is proving to be decisive.
Having dealt massive blows to Hezbollah, the only force in the Middle East that has stood up to Israel’s aggression over the past 20 years, by decapitating its leadership and limiting its decision-making and communications capacity, the attention has now turned to Syria, which is the major supply route to Lebanon and Hezbollah.
The speed with which the Syrian Arab Army of Syria’s brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad has collapsed and conceded ground to HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) fighters led by former Al Qaeda commander Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, is shocking to say the least.
The opening of a new front in the Middle East has drawn attention away from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
But Jolani who has now trimmed his beard and started to sport even blazers instead of his usual baggy trousers and military fatigues and headgear in typical Al Qaeda style, has gone on record (quoted by Times of Israel) as saying his group “is open to friendship with everyone in the region including Israel”.
“We don’t have enemies other than the Assad regime, Hezbollah and Iran. What Israel did against Hezbollah in Lebanon helped us a great deal. Now we are taking care of the rest,” he added, in a reference to his group’s attempts to capture Homs in order to cut off one of the major Hezbollah supply routes and also sever the link between Damascus and the western coastal area around the port of Latakia, seen as an Assad stronghold.
At the same time as HTS advances in the northwest, which began with the fall of Aleppo, the CIA-backed Kurdish forces are moving southwards from their northeastern bastions not far from the Turkish border.
Some Damascus-based journalists and commentators, who are demonstrably pro-Assad regime, are posting on social media trying to downplay the debacles of the Syrian Arab Army and describing the news as part of the CIA-Mossad psywar.
But they have no explanation for the lightning assault by the Al Qaeda affiliate HTS and its capture within a few days of Aleppo and Hama and for how its fighters are knocking on the gates of Homs which, if taken, could deal a deadly blow to Damascus and render it vulnerable. Their argument of a strategic withdrawal to draw the enemy into a trap does not ring true.
Therefore, today’s Astana format talks between Russia, Iran and Turkiye on the sidelines of the Doha Forum assume great importance. Will Turkiye agree to rein in some of the groups it supports in Syria is a question that may be answered. Equally, the level of Russian and Iranian support to the Assad regime will also determine the outcome of the war.
A decade and a half ago when IS and other extremist groups threatened to overrun Syria, Russia offered solid material support, and its air force flew an untold number of ground support missions. It also moved its air defence missile batteries to Syria so Israel’s air force did not enjoy superiority over the Syrian skies to support the extremist groups.
But on the ground, the deployment of Hezbollah and other Iran-allied fighters helped turn the tide in favour of Damascus. Now with a weakened Hezbollah and an HTS that seems to enjoy the support of powerful quarters in the West, Israel and elsewhere, it is not clear how the Assad regime can be saved.
What the opening of this new front in the Middle East has also done is to draw attention away from the ongoing genocide in Gaza where heavy bombs, artillery, armed drones and starvation are being used in concert to clear the Strip of Palestinians, particularly in the north where Israel has determined great real estate development potential and also offshore oil prospects.
As the Amnesty report articulately presents evidence of a genocide, and even as Israel continues its mass murder undeterred, thanks to unconditional Western material support, the conflict in Syria is somehow pushing out Israeli occupation forces’ atrocities in Gaza and Tel Aviv’s ongoing expansionism in the West Bank from the headlines.
The talks in Doha will give an indication as to whether Russia is now so bogged down in Ukraine that it is unable to come to the aid of one of its oldest allies in the Middle East. It will also become clear whether Iran’s words were just words, after Israel claimed its last round of air strikes inflicted severe damage on Tehran’s defence capability, or if Iran still has what it takes to defend Syria and defy Israel.
More than the degradation of this so-called Axis of Resistance’s military capacity, the Palestinian cause has been damaged irretrievably by the duplicitous, despotic leaders of the Muslim world, most of whom have defied their public’s opinion. They may have said the right things but have done exactly the opposite.
The writer is a former editor of Dawn.
Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2024
