US, Moscow broker shaky cease-fire in war-torn Syria

BY MAGGIE TROWE

A shaky “cessation of hostilities” brokered by Washington and Moscow took effect in Syria Feb. 27. The United Nations has slated a new round of talks in Geneva March 7 aimed at reaching a longer-term cease-fire and broader political deal. As things stand, the outcome could produce a situation where Moscow’s ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would control most urban areas, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) would control virtually all Kurdish areas, and various opposition forces could hold sway over some smaller areas they control.

The political bloc with Moscow and the “cessation” are the product of President Barack Obama’s administration’s “all-consuming mission since last summer,” when Washington reached its nuclear accord with Tehran, the New York Times reported.

Washington aims to stop the civil war in Syria, allowing it to restore some stability to defend its imperialist interests in the oil-rich region. The arrangement would also allow Washington and Moscow to organize a coordinated campaign targeting Islamic State, a brutal jihadist current that has controlled extensive areas of Syria and Iraq since 2014. The Pentagon announced it is working with Baghdad to organize to drive Islamic State out of the Iraqi city of Mosul.

In September Moscow and Tehran, with Washington’s acceptance, reinforced their ally Assad with heavy Russian bombing and Iranian ground troops. Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah fighters were already on the ground there. As a result, Assad regained control of much of western Syria, at the cost of massive death and destruction in opposition-held areas.

Hostilities began in Syria in 2011 when Assad responded to mass popular protests against his rule, modeled on the “Arab Spring” mobilizations in Egypt and Tunisia, with murderous bombings and sieges. An array of opposition forces — from former members of Assad’s Baathist government to leaders of the protest movement and of Islamist currents — formed armed groups to fight for his overthrow, getting funding from Washington, Ankara and Riyadh.

Millions of Syrians are in dire straits. Recent heavy Russian bombing around Aleppo has displaced tens of thousands, many of whom are massed at the Turkish border seeking entry. In the Syrian border town of Azaz, there are almost 50,000 families receiving no food or other humanitarian aid. To date, the Turkish government has accepted 2.6 million Syrian refugees.

While Washington and Moscow are pushing to drive the deal through, many U.S. government allies consider themselves weakened by the likely outcome, including rulers in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies and Israel. Riyadh sent fighter jets to Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base Feb. 14 and Turkish troops joined military exercises in Saudi Arabia.

Secretary of State John Kerry said Feb. 25 that Tehran has been pulling some troops out of Syria as part of the deal. Hezbollah forces remain in place.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Feb. 28 he welcomes the cease-fire, but called for “a halt to Iran’s aggression toward Israel from Syrian territory.” He said Israel would “not agree to the supply of advanced weaponry to Hezbollah from Syria and Lebanon” and “will not agree to the creation of a second terror front on the Golan Heights,” which Israel seized from Syria in 1967.

The Washington-Moscow brokered truce excludes any letup in attacks on Islamic State and al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. Some opposition groups said that since the cease-fire began they have been bombed by Damascus and Moscow. They also charged the government with delaying aid deliveries.

However, the U.S. State Department played down such reports March 1, saying it had received no reports of “significant” violations.

The YPG has expanded areas they control near the Turkish border with the aim of connecting the eastern and western Kurdish areas in northern Syria.

Imperialist-imposed agreements setting their “spheres of influence” after World Wars I and II denied Kurds a homeland. They were divided as new borders were drawn to create modern Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey. Ankara is determined to prevent a Kurdish-controlled state in Syria along Turkey’s border, fearing it would further fuel independence sentiments among some 15 million Turkish Kurds.

The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched a war against the population in the country’s majority-Kurdish southeast last summer in the name of fighting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an organization Ankara labels as “terrorist.” He sent 10,000 police and troops to the area and conducted airstrikes that have killed hundreds and displaced several hundred thousand.

Washington plans Iraq drive against Islamic State

Washington is looking at stepping up action on the Iraqi front in its campaign against Islamic State — seeking to take back Mosul, the largest city in IS’s “caliphate.” Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces captured Shadadi in northeastern Syria Feb. 19, cutting the reactionary jihadists’ supply route to Mosul.

“Momentum is now on our side,” Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in a Feb. 29 press briefing at the Pentagon, joined by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford. He pointed to the taking of Ramadi last December, the fall of Shadadi and Washington’s success in setting the “cessation” in Syria.

“The long fight by Iraqi security forces to take back Ramadi,” the Times reported March 1, “offers a preview of the battle to come over Mosul.”

“As difficult as that battle was,” the Times said, “the fight for Mosul will be much harder.”

Dunford said Washington will have to step up its military involvement. This means, the Times said, American attack helicopters would fly close cover for some 30,000 Iraqi troops.

Pentagon sources quoted by the Times said combatants at Mosul would include heavy participation by Iraqi Kurdish forces. Gen. Talib al-Kinani, commander of Baghdad’s Counter Terrorism Service, said Iraqi troop commanders have already been sent to areas next to Kurdish-controlled territory for final planning.

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