After more than four years, the Syrian government forces have finally recaptured Aleppo from the Islamist rebel forces — armed, sponsored and supported by the western imperialists and the reactionary monarchies of the Middle East. Last Tuesday, BBC reported that the Syrian government forces had taken control of Aleppo’s historic old city after rebel fighters had withdrawn in the face of army advances for fear of being besieged.
East Aleppo fell to rebels in 2012 and has been under government siege since mid-July. More than 250,000 civilians were estimated to be in east Aleppo before the latest government offensive began in mid-November. The Syrian government meanwhile ruled out any further truces in Aleppo, and Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution for a ceasefire on Monday. Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, described all the remaining rebels in eastern Aleppo as “terrorists,” further saying that they had united around the jihadist group formerly known as al-Nusra Front.
Russia’s sudden decision in September 2015 to intervene militarily in Syria marked a decisive shift in the course of Syria’s protracted civil war. Putin’s decision to decisively back Assad with Russian military, political, and diplomatic support played a key role in reinvigorating and strengthening the depleted Syrian forces under the grinding pressure from an array of opposition forces, which comprised of vicious Islamic bigots — sponsored by autocratic monarchies in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE — the so-called liberal and secular imperialist stooges masquerading as democrats but hands in glove with the religious fanatical murderers.
But Putin is no Lenin and there is not the slightest inclination of any revolutionary intent. The aims of the Russian intervention were not for the salvation of the Syria’s oppressed but their own narrow nationalist agenda that Putin is now pursuing more vigorously for his domestic and international audiences. However, his proclaimed objective of “stopping the black flag” of so-called Islamic State (IS) from being raised in the Syrian capital is only partially correct. The threat posed by Islamic extremists is very real but strengthening Bashar al-Assad was a calculated move by Moscow. With this intervention, Russia has morphed into a leading player in Syria’s bloody war game that continues to reverberate throughout the Middle East and far beyond.
Russia’s assets in Syria centre on its port at Tartus, its only seaport along the Mediterranean, as well as its newly established Khmeimim air base and a military base in Palmyra after it was recaptured from the IS. Over the past year more troops and advanced missile systems, have been lunged onto the battlefield. Russian media reported the presence of Russian Special Forces as well as thousands of Russians working for military companies. In addition to Russians, Iran’s Mullah aristocracy and Lebanese Hezbollah are supporting Assad who is a shrewd operator and is playing his foreign friends off each other for his own vested interests.
Iran’s Mullah aristocracy’s interests are not much different domestically and regionally; preserving its land corridor and access to Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon, influencing Shia populations in the Levant, and consolidating its growing geopolitical sway across the region against Saudi Arabia. Speculations have been rife that Assad’s allies would eventually try to nudge him aside. But for now, it suits them to keep him in charge.
The fall of Aleppo is a serious setback for the western imperialists and gulf monarchies but this in no way signifies the end of the atrocious war or a breakthrough for peace. Assad told the al-Watan newspaper. “It’s true that Aleppo will be a win for us, but let’s be realistic — it won’t mean the end of the war in Syria.” Pockets of rebel-controlled areas may persist but chances of diverse rebel groupings regaining lost territory or annexing new areas are minimal in the short term. The fall and the collapse of the armed opposition in Aleppo have removed the major military threats to regime’s geographical gains.
After the death of Assad’s father, Hafiz al-Assad in 2000 the dismantling of the planned economy in Syria accelerated. Transport and oil were privatised, state subsidies were slashed and restoration of capitalism was initiated with state intervention in the economy and social sectors being reduced. Assad was trying to ape the Chinese model, whose increased growth rates under one-party rule were perceived to be a recipe for the burgeoning crisis. This created hardships and deprivation for the ordinary Syrians.
With the Arab uprising of 2011, the Syrian masses also rose up against Assad regime. However with a vacuum of leadership at the grass root level was filled by the Muslim Brotherhood along with other Islamists’ aided and abetted by the Saudis, Qataris evoked a bloody civil war. Western imperialists in their blind hatred and enmity against the Assad regime covertly supported the Islamic State and Al Nusra Front.
The deprivation and plight of the masses throughout the Arab societies are creating new contradictions and turmoil. There are bloody conflicts raging 11 out of 22 Arab states. Wars and fall in the oil prices and other exports have disrupted economic growth with a severe decline in conditions. Young people comprising 30 percent of the region’s population are the main victims of this grim situation. Unemployment among youths stands at more than 35 percent. Arab countries are faced with a painful inequality and youth living in slums and peripheral areas are being deprived of education and access to health services. These are recipes for a renewed class conflict erupting in the region in the coming period. The conflict and crisis have by-passed the boundaries carved out by the imperialists after the First World War. Now the fate of different lands in the Middle East is linked more closely than ever before. A resurgent movement from Israel to the Arabian Peninsula can overcome divisions and the prejudices of religion, sect, nationality, creed and race and can fight for their socioeconomic transformation. The victory of such a revolutionary movement with a Marxist leadership can emancipate the masses of this historic region from misery, oppression, wars and bloodshed leading to the creation of a united Socialist Federation of the Middle East with revolutionary impacts across the planet.
The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and International Secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at ptudc@hotmail.