Do you understand the Syria conflict?

 

 The Syrian conflict began in March 2011 and, despite initial hopes and predictions, has since devolved into civil war. Syria's leader, Bashar al-Assad, has doggedly clung to power. The opposition has splintered into rival groups. International powers have bickered and jockeyed. An end does not appear near. In 1982, Hafez al-Assad ordered the Syrian military to put down a brewing Muslim Brotherhood rebellion there. Some 10,000 to 20,000 people, most of them civilians, were massacred when they stormed the city. The event is now often cited as an example of the lengths to which the Syrian government will go to hold on to power. Hama has become a major opposition center in the current conflict and has been the target of several government assaults. Hafez al-Assad took the Syrian presidency in 1970, in an internal coup. His road to power was a series of such takeovers, beginning with his participation in a 1963 coup that brought his political party, the Baath party, to power. This was followed with a second coup, within the Baath party, that made Hafez al-Assad defense minister. A third coup, again within the party, made him president. Bashar al-Assad came to power in 2000 in an unopposed election, upon his father's death. He had not been his father's first choice for the job – Hafez al-Assad had planned for Basil, his eldest son, to have the job, but Basil was killed in a 1994 car accident. At that point, Bashar was recalled from London, where he had been training as an ophthalmologist, to be groomed as his father's heir apparent. It is often said that Bashar never planned, nor wanted, to participate in political or military affairs. Based on the 1925 Geneva protocol ban on chemical weapon use in war and the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention's ban on stockpiling and producing the weapons, President Obama established the so-called “red line” in the Syrian civil war to be the use of chemical weapons – meaning that the US would be forced to intervene if the war escalated to this level. By the time the Syrian government did so, in August 2013, more than 100,000 people had already died in the conflict. The Congressional Research Service reports that Syria's chemical weapon stockpiling most likely traces back to its collaboration with Egypt, ahead of the 1973 war with Israel. Syria is a signatory to the 1925 Geneva protocol, which prohibits the use of poisonous gas and biological weapons, but it has not signed the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention treaty. Russia has repeatedly blocked the US’s efforts to coordinate through the UN various measures on Syria, including, most recently, a UN statement that would have condemned the Syrian government for dropping bombs on civilians. However, in what seemed an attempt to stall a possible US push for military action, should the US government reach consensus on the controversial idea, Russia was instrumental in brokering a UN agreement to rid Syria of its chemical weapons. In part, Russia’s pro-Syrian position can be chalked up to a power play against the US, pushing back against the exercising of US military might abroad. Russia also has significant material interests in its Syrian ally: Syria hosts Russia’s only naval base on the Mediterranean, and Russia pulls in billions from arms sales to Syria, and has even more billions invested in Syrian infrastructure. Russia also has fears that Syria could be become a stewing ground for Islamic radicalism that could seep over to Russia. Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group, has entered the conflict on the side of the government, against the mostly Sunni rebels. Hezbollah has long been an ally of the Syrian and Iranian governments. The Syrian National Coalition has attempted to establish itself as the official Syrian opposition government in exile, with limited success. Many Syrians, particularly among the armed groups, do not see it as the legitimate representative of the anti-government movement. ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ("Sham" in Arabic), is an Al Qaeda affiliate in operation in Syria. It has emerged as one of, if not the most powerful and extremist Islamist groups in Syria, drawing support away the Free Syrian Army and from moderate, domestic armed groups. Jabhat al-Nusra, or "Victory Front," an Al Qaeda affiliate, was one of the first Islamist groups to begin working in Syria after the uprising began. It quickly established itself as a rogue unit, targeting civilian areas and espousing a vision for a radical Islamic state. It has been designated a terrorist organization by the US, the United Nations, Britain, and others. Its relationship to the Free Syrian Army was at first cooperative, but has since become hostile. It was not among the seven, more moderate Islamist groups, called The Islamic Front, that banded together in fall 2013. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, the Al Qaeda-affiliated group, has said that Jabhat al-Nusra is its representative in Syria. Jabhat al-Nusra, though, has said that it is a separate organization, while reiterating its Al Qaeda allegiance, and recent reports have indicated that the two groups are in fact in conflict with each other. The Islamic Front is a group of seven Islamist rebel groups fighting in Syria that announced their union on Nov. 22, 2013. Islamic Front leaders have said the group was organized as an alternative to the western-backed Syrian National Council. Its end goal is an Islamic state. The two do appear, however, to share a common enemy in the more radical Islamist wings operating in Syria, though the Islamic Front has denied that it was formed as a rebuttal to such extremist groups. Hillary Clinton has stated that the Syrian National Council can "no longer be viewed as the visible leader of the opposition"?

Mrs. Clinton went on to say that the "opposition must include people from inside Syria and others who have a legitimate voice that needs to be heard," dismissing the opposition as out of touch with the on-the-ground rebel movement. The Syrian National Council was that month absorbed into the Syrian National Coalition, which became the Western-backed Syrian opposition. Former Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab is the high-ranking defector from the Syrian regime. Dr. Wael Nader al-Halqi has since replaced him. None of the other named Syrian officials have defected. """""""""

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