Communist party briefing nine BACKGROUND TO EVENTS IN Syria
go to communistparty.org.uk June 2014
War turns in favour of Syrian government but US continues to arm Free Syrian Army. Following relatively small ‘Arab spring’ pro-democracy’ protests in 2011, significant armed resistance began in 2012. It was mainly financed by Qatar (spending $3 billion in 2012), channeled through Turkey and principally conducted by mercenary forces. These military operations had US support. For the US the removal of the Assad government represented a major blow against the crescent of anti-US Shi-ite countries led by Iran and stretching through Iraq and Syria to Lebanon. Israel also saw this Shi-ite alliance, which included Hamas in Gaza, as its major strategic enemy. By the beginning of 2013 the Assad government had lost control of the border areas with Turkey and Iraq and much of Western Syria: 100,000 Syrians had been killed and three million sought refuge in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. In 2013 the course of the war turned.
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By the Spring of 2013 the mercenary forces of the Free Syrian Army (politically under the leadership of the Syrian National Council) began to lose ground to the jihadist and Al Quaeda linked and externally recruited volunteers of the Al Nusra Front and ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). This alarmed Israel and the US. In June 2013 Rouhani won the presidential elections in Iran and opened a dialogue with the US – gravely alarming the Saudi Arabian regime, already seriously concerned at the increasing dominance of ‘modernising’ Moslem Brotherhood governments in Turkey and Egypt and their support from Qatar. In July 2013 Saudi Arabian backed politicians ousted Qatari supporters from the Syrian National Council. Saudi Arabia then gave financial and military backing to Al-Nusra and more moderate jihadists in the Islamic Front. Also in July the Moslem Brotherhood government in Egypt was overthrown and replaced by army rule with some financial backing from Saudi Arabia. In Syria fighting broke out between the Islamic Front, the Free Syrian Army and ISIS. August 2013 saw the US make a final attempt to rescue the situation by proposing direct armed intervention by US and allied forces. The 30 August vote in the House of Commons against intervention put an end to this bid.
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By spring 2014 the war had moved strongly in favour of the Assad government. A presidential election was held June 2014. There was a 74 per cent turn out in elections declared free and fair by observers from 30 countries including Brazil, South Africa, Venezuela, Russia and India. El-Asad secured over 10m votes against 500,000 for his nearest rival. On 22 May 2014 Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council motion moved by France with US and UK backing which sought to refer the Syrian government to the International Criminal Court: the Russian Ambassador said the resolution aimed to lay the ground for further outside military intervention. US continues to provide lethal and non-lethal aid to the Free Syrian Army through Turkey including anti-tank rockets and machine guns.
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POPULATION 22,530,746 ETHNIC GROUPS Arab 90%, Kurds 9%, Armenians and others1% RELIGIOUS GROUPS Sunni Muslim 74%, Alawites 12%, other Muslims, Shia Druze etc5%, Christian (various denominations) 9%
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POLITICAL FORCES Pro-Government National Progressive Front is dominated by the Ba’ath Party. Its subordinate allies are mostly Arab nationalist (such as Nasserist) or Arab socialist parties, ideologically close to the Ba’ath’s pan-Arab vision. It also includes the country’s two communist parties. Members: Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, Arab Socialist Movement, Arab Socialist Union, Syrian Communist Party, Syrian Communist Party (United), Social Democratic Unionists, Socialist Unionists, Democratic Socialist Unionist Party, Arabic Democratic Unionist Party, National Vow Movement.
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