By Robert Inlakesh

Coverage of Syria, both in the Arabic and English language mainstream media, has been abysmal to say the least. Some outlets perform pure propaganda, while others hide everything negative that is occurring.

It is fair to say that civil war still grips Syria long after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad. In fact, the country is now at a critical juncture that could end up dragging neighbouring nations into its own chaotic instability. Despite this, most media outlets are either covering the reality up, or are too scared to talk about it.

Syria today is a deeply divided country, even worse than it was this time last year. While optimism gripped a large segment of Syrian society upon the fall of its former President, Bashar al-Assad, last December, the public outlook has transformed to one of great pessimism.

When Ahmed al-Shara’a and his Party, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), took over Damascus, one of the greatest criticisms was over their track record with the nation’s various minority sects. After all, HTS was only a rebrand of Jabhat al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda’s Syrian wing and had committed heinous crimes against civilians throughout its role in the Syrian war.

Al-Nusra, before its makeover, had allied itself with ISIS in key battles and had taken medical, military, and financial backing from Israel. It also engaged in the recruitment of child soldiers, a practice which continued during its rule of the Idlib Province when it ruled the territory with an iron fist. The militant leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani transformed into the “moderate rebel” leader sporting a Volodymyr Zelensky style of dress, before putting on a suit and changing his name to Ahmed al-Shara’a.

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Although Idlib was technically supposed to have been ruled, prior to the December fall of the Syrian government, by a more liberal oriented Syrian government force, HTS was in fact the true ruling party that had its own secretive prisons and even provoked protests against its rule in the province. Yet, its success at seizing Damascus managed to kill much of the criticism for it, elevating al-Shara’a to the position of an idol late last year, amongst many Syrians.

However, al-Shara’a had long been an asset of the British MI6, and upon taking power in Damascus, he did almost exactly as all of his critics had argued he would. He immediately aligned himself with the US, EU, Gulf States, and Turkiye, each of which had its own goals inside Syria, which is why they had backed HTS and other opposition groups during the Syrian war.

Then came the nepotism, collaboration with some of the most corrupt elements of the former Syrian regime, promised economic projects that were either false promises from the outset or were never moved forward, combined with a total dissipation of the former State’s security apparatus.

President al-Shara’a disbanded the Syrian Arab Army and Intelligence Services completely, replacing them with ill-trained militiamen, many of whom constitute no more than sectarian death squads.

Despite promising amnesty to former officers of the SAA, field executions instantly began occurring, and the new gangsters who sported security force attire would frequently raid homes, producing drummed-up charges, sometimes not even offering as much as that.

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This was followed by the sectarian bloodbath along the Syrian Coast, where thousands of Alawite civilians were butchered by militia forces and when entire villages were wiped out. In some cases, women were kidnapped and forced to remarry extremist militants.

As the months went on and with the horrifying example of what occurred on the coast, communities across Syria decided that they would rather live under the security of local and tribal militia forces, who they viewed as better prepared to defend them and deliver security. Meanwhile, lawlessness raged on and a high daily murder rate continued, with periods of elevated bloodshed targeting minority groups like the Druze, Alawites, Christians, and Shia.

Although the new Syrian authorities pledged to create a system wherein only the State would possess its weapons, they didn’t even get close to this, focusing instead on disarming the south as its primary concern, with a special focus on Dara’a and Quneitra at the request of Israel.

Israel has continued to occupy more Syrian lands uncontested by the regime in Damascus, in fact it is being aided by the government and started setting up communications on “security coordination” only three days after HTS seized the Capital. The southern local militias, especially in Dara’a, have refused to hand over their arms and even clashed with Syrian State security forces several times.

Then we have the case of Sweida, where the sectarian violence from both the State’s security forces and Bedouin Tribal militias has isolated the Syrian Druze population that was once loyal to the State. In response, Druze militias began mobilising and attacking their Bedouin Tribal militia foes, which escalated to the brink of all-out war last month.

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Some of these Druze militias are now openly aligned with Israel, even coordinating military action with the Israeli army during their clashes with government and Bedouin militias. The flimsy ceasefire agreement, ordered by the United States, has given space for Israel to work on developing a public relations strategy that has convinced more of the Syrian Druze population to lean towards Israeli support for the creation of a separate pro-Tel Aviv Druze State surrounding Sweida.

Meanwhile, the Syrian government is now openly holding meetings with its Israeli counterparts. For context here, under all previous Syrian governments, this was considered an offense that carried with it the death penalty. Yet, Ahmed al-Shara’a has approved the handover of an Israeli soldier’s body that was captured in 1982, the personal belongings of infamous Israeli spy Eli Cohen, and has violently cracked down on the Palestinian resistance in Syria.

Many opponents of Bashar al-Assad had accused his forces of committing a “Sunni Genocide”. Now, the Syrian government run by HTS is openly collaborating with Israel while it commits a genocide against the almost solely Sunni population of Gaza.

There have also been clashes with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Syrian government forces in both eastern Raqqa and eastern Aleppo. A deal was supposed to be implemented months ago that would allow for the SDF to be integrated into the new Syrian Army, providing them with a special security role along the coast, which fell apart before it even started.

Israel has maintained connections to the SDF since 2015, and the principal backers of the Kurdish-led movement that controls north-eastern Syria are the US. Turkiye, another major backer of the government in Damascus, seeks to see the SDF defeated or at least their power be reduced.

State media reports indicate that Syria has amassed 50,000 soldiers, who will fight alongside the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) militias and tribal forces, to put down the SDF, awaiting American and Israeli approvals. This will be yet another sectarian bloodbath if it goes ahead and will lead to the mass slaughter of Kurds.

In addition to all of this, there have been clashes between militia forces, backed up by the Syrian government’s army, and Lebanese clans backed by the Lebanese Armed Forces. There are also frequent threats of cross-border operations against Lebanon.

Each one of these cases requires an article, each to begin explaining the ins and outs of the issues tied to them, yet I mention them all here in order to paint a picture of the chaotic mess that is currently Syria.

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The whole country has been completely destabilized, as Israel seeks to implement its “Greater Israel project”, a scheme that has been brewing for decades and was designed to create the exact scenario we see today in Syria. They seek to divide each State in the Arab World that ever contested them, through sowing sectarian hatred and creating chaos that leads to Balkanisation.

Right now, Israel’s so-called “David’s Corridor” is one of its goals, creating individual sectarian rump States that allow it access through southern Syria, up to the Euphrates, from where they will have allies in both Kurdish-dominated north-eastern Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan. In other words, a direct land bridge to Iran.

The conservative estimate is that at least 10,000 Syrians have been killed since December 2024, many by sectarian militias, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. However, some internal estimates suggest that 30,000 Syrian Alawites were killed during the sectarian coast massacres alone. While there isn’t evidence to support these numbers, whether they are true or not doesn’t even matter, because many Syrians believe this statistic and at the very least 3,500 were killed.

Syria as a country no longer exists beyond the geographical location and concept of a nation. It does seem like hyperbole to state this, but it is true. There is no real army or security forces to speak of, the government is incapable and only follows orders from foreign powers, making no decisions on its own. Syria doesn’t have sovereignty, is divided not only along sectarian lines, but even amongst villages and cities that have become enclaves separate from any major party or government control.

The further this chaotic situation escalates, the more likely the countless conflicts there are going to rope in neighbouring nations, especially Lebanon and Jordan, but also possibly Iraq and even potentially impacting Egypt.

Coverage of Syria, both in the Arabic and English language mainstream media, has been abysmal to say the least. Some outlets perform pure propaganda, while others hide everything negative that is occurring, deciding instead to craft fictional narratives in order to shelter their chosen side from culpability. This needs to change and soon, as it only helps further fuel the sectarian divides that are continuing to destroy what remains of Syria.

(The Palestine Chronicle)