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Portentous sign?

Aug 28,2016 - Last updated at Aug 28,2016

The recent evacuation of rebel fighters and their families from the town of Daraya, some eight kilometres from Damascus, after a four-year siege is an euphemism for ethnic cleansing.

Besides the last remaining fighters bussed out of the town and sent to rebel-held territory in Idlib, the remaining civilian population of about 8,000 was also evacuated, leaving the town empty.

Daraya was under the siege of forces loyal to Damascus for four years, during which residents came close to the brink of starvation, having been denied, like many other Syrians in similar situation, food, medicine and even water.

The deal that was struck to allow for the transfer of the residents of this town from the outskirts of the capital city Damascus may become a precedent to be followed elsewhere in Syria, and a prelude to the much-talked-about “partition” of the country along sectarian lines.

The exodus, a few weeks ago, of residents of the east part of Aleppo trying to escape the war and bloodshed may have marked the beginning of a process of mass movement.

The conflict in Syria took a sectarian direction, clearly and ominously. The Daraya narrative is indicative of that and could signal that unless the conflict comes to a peaceful resolution soon, more of the same could follow, with people of different faiths flocking towards their own, making partition easier later.

Hope pinned on any resolution the US and Russia might reach have been dashed.

While the talks US Secretary of State John Kerry held with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva were a good step, they did not come to fruition.

As Kerry said, they “have achieved clarity on the path forward” on ceasefire discussions, but “narrow issues” are yet to be resolved.

When superpowers take charge of a conflict without the direct involvement of the immediate parties to that conflict, the risk is that their decisions are not enduring or just.

The ideal situation would be to have Damascus agree to negotiate directly with the opposition, the moderate groups, of course, who only called for democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights.

But the Syrian regime has been obstinate from the very beginning, and it cannot be expected to change position now when it thinks military victory is possible for it.

Russian military presence in the west of the country, coupled with the existence of a small US military contingent in the east and now with some Turkish military deployment in the north that allowed for the creation of a limited safe haven for Syrians, is only expected to further complicate the situation in Syria.

Left to its people alone, Syria will disintegrate, prey to myriad domestic and foreign interests.

 

Unless a serious conference in which Washington, Moscow, Ankara, Damascus and the moderate opposition take part is held with the purpose of reaching a definitive solution, the future of Syria is bleak and the conflict will reach its implacable end: untold destruction, innumerable deaths and no more Syria as we knew it.

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