How Bashar al-Assad 'won the war'

[Gabbar Singh]

Quote a turnaround by Assad. Thanks primarily to Iran and Russia. He’s no angel, far from it - he has blood on his hands however it’s nice to see the world and regional powers leave Syria with egg on their face.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.al...th/opinion/assad-won-war-171101114949181.html

 

[blackanhyellow]

If the choice is between Assad (as bad as he is) and Daesh, it really is a no brainer.

 

[90MPH]

Assad is a war criminal - end of.

 

[KingKhanWC]

The Syria mega thread on PP is a great resource.

Russia drew a line in the Syrian sand, since then it was for certain Assad would win.

Assad is a war criminal but so are the Americans who openly supported terrorists against his regime.

 

[Madplayer]

If you are fair and unbiased, you will conclude that everyone involved in this chaos is a war criminal irrespective of what nation he comes from.

I agree with Putin when he said if anyone wanted Assad to go, they should have tried to support and strengthen a legitimate democratic opposition rather than arming rebels and trying to enforce a regime change in a violent manner.

 

[Gilly]

I agree with Putin when he said if anyone wanted Assad to go, they should have tried to support and strengthen a legitimate democratic opposition rather than arming rebels and trying to enforce a regime change in a violent manner.

Crimea says hello.

 

[Madplayer]

Crimea says hello.

I was talking about the message more than the messenger.

 

[LongHorn]

Granted that there were foreign sponsored terrorists such as ISIS in Syria, but was Assad really that popular?

It took the Syrian army+Hezbollah+Russian airstrikes+ Iranian guards + Qassem Soleimanis planning + merceneary Afghans sent by Iran to overcome the rebellion ........

All these powers had to operate to cruch a rebellion, so a substantial number of Syrians did not like him, but have accepted the status quo as they are fed up of violence....

 

[carbon11]

Assad has won nothing the whole country has been destroyed it's a complete travesty of human suffering

 

[Saeed]

Won what, the ruins of Aleppo, Deir ez Zor, Homs and Hama? This is who “won” the war, certainly not Chemical Assad.


Russian invaders will leave one day. Hopefully they will be able to fund the reconstruction before they leave.

 

[Stewie]

Russia is hellbent on beating Americans at their own game. The sort of tactics they used to start the gulf war by getting saddam to invade Kuwait, put in is using similar tactics to get a foothold is n the ME and stop the US juggernaut. It’s almost as if he determines his actions based on what US is doing, just go against the US.

But I agree with those who say nobody won this war. The people of Syria and Syria itself were/are the ultimate losers. They are all war criminals and have the blood of millions of innocent people and children in their hands. I sincerely hope bashar burns in hell and so do all those foreign tricksters who caused this mess..

 

[Raja Sab]

Money won as always

 

[saeedhk]

NSA secret documents show Saudi Arabia ordered attack on Damascus in 2013, provided rebels with 120 tons of explosives.

 

[Gabbar Singh]

Half a million dead Syrians later........

Syria: Assad has decisively won his brutal battle

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/30/syria-year-cemented-assad-victory-trump-us-troops

It's interesting that some Arab nations are now changing their positions too.

UAE re-opens embassy in Syria as Arab leaders begin to welcome Assad back from the cold

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...bassy-syria-arab-leaders-begin-welcome-assad/

Arab League set to readmit Syria eight years after expulsion
Gulf nations bloc moving to welcome Syria back into the fold after Bashar al-Assad’s brutal repression of protests

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-to-readmit-syria-eight-years-after-expulsion

 

[shaz619]

I don't think anyone can truly claim victory in a war like this

 

[CricketCartoons]

God save the world from american peace and liberty.

 

[Saeed]

ISIS is the biggest winner, especially since U.S. is withdrawing. It will be interesting to see regime controlling the desert area between Syria and Iraq once American troops leave.

 

[Madplayer]

ISIS is the biggest winner, especially since U.S. is withdrawing. It will be interesting to see regime controlling the desert area between Syria and Iraq once American troops leave.

Circumstantial evidence says that US and Israel did a lot to keep ISIS alive. Not sure if US withdrawing from Syria is done because US really thinks it has defeated ISIS there. Or whether its part of the plan. However, Erdogan is now free to launch an offensive against Kurds so there is a hint. Perhaps a secret deal between US and Turks.

 

[Varun]

How many countries have gone to pieces in the 2010s? :

Syria
Iraq
Egypt
Libya
Venezuela
Yemen

All of them are in or near the Middle East, and the US has had a hand in each of them.

 

[Varun]

How many countries have gone to pieces in the 2010s? :

Syria
Iraq
Egypt
Libya
Venezuela
Yemen

All of them are in or near the Middle East, and the US has had a hand in each of them.

Consider Venezuela economically close to the Middle East because of their oil production and OPEC link.

 

[Pakpak]

Half a million dead Syrians later........



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/30/syria-year-cemented-assad-victory-trump-us-troops

It's interesting that some Arab nations are now changing their positions too.



https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...bassy-syria-arab-leaders-begin-welcome-assad/



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-to-readmit-syria-eight-years-after-expulsion

I guess all the Arab worshipping Pakistanis will now start to like Assad again.

 

[Gabbar Singh]

ISIS is the biggest winner, especially since U.S. is withdrawing. It will be interesting to see regime controlling the desert area between Syria and Iraq once American troops leave.

ISIS are a shadow of what they formerly were - they've lost 95% of the territory they claimed in 2014 and are down to less than 2500 fighters now spread amongst several countries, a few years ago that was in the high tens of thousands and some said 100k+. They won't go away completely but even with this American withdrawal they are not winning anything or coming back to anything like they were.

People who say there have been no winners in this are correct however the biggest winners from the upcoming American withdrawal are surely the Syrian regime and their backers in Tehran and Moscow.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

I guess all the Arab worshipping Pakistanis will now start to like Assad again.

Only the atheist ones in my opinion. Most Arab worshipping Pakistanis do it on the basis of religion, and of course Assad's regime is atheist.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

ISIS are a shadow of what they formerly were - they've lost 95% of the territory they claimed in 2014 and are down to less than 2500 fighters now spread amongst several countries, a few years ago that was in the high tens of thousands and some said 100k+. They won't go away completely but even with this American withdrawal they are not winning anything or coming back to anything like they were.

People who say there have been no winners in this are correct however the biggest winners from the upcoming American withdrawal are surely the Syrian regime and their backers in Tehran and Moscow.

If the Syrian regime is the biggest winner, along with their allies, the biggest losers are the Syrian population which has been bombed to smithereens or forced to flee to all corners of the globe as refugees. If that is victory then it reflects badly on mankind that it's one that is considered acceptable.

 

[Pakpak]

Only the atheist ones in my opinion. Most Arab worshipping Pakistanis do it on the basis of religion, and of course Assad's regime is atheist.

Not really, they are a different sect of Islam. Pakistani Arab worshipers simply take the Saudis side, hence why they are up in arms over Syria but nothing on Yemen where there is devastation. An example is an Arab worshipper like you.

The real victims are ofcourse the Syrian people, who have been killed and slaughtered by everyone.

Also nice try bringing atheism in, try this pathetic mud slinging with Indians. Welcome to my ignore list.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Not really, they are a different sect of Islam. Pakistani Arab worshipers simply take the Saudis side, hence why they are up in arms over Syria but nothing on Yemen where there is devastation. An example is an Arab worshipper like you.

The real victims are ofcourse the Syrian people, who have been killed and slaughtered by everyone.

Also nice try bringing atheism in, try this pathetic mud slinging with Indians. Welcome to my ignore list.

Assad is a member of the Baath party as far as I'm aware, they are irreligious, hence atheist. If he is representing whatever sect you are referring to, then provide details and we can have a look at it. I think if you read back through the thread, you will see that the only mud-slinging is being done by you, (Arab worshipper) whereas I was talking about atheists in a general term, never directed it personally at you.

 

[Pakpak]

Assad is a member of the Baath party as far as I'm aware, they are irreligious, hence atheist. If he is representing whatever sect you are referring to, then provide details and we can have a look at it. I think if you read back through the thread, you will see that the only mud-slinging is being done by you, (Arab worshipper) whereas I was talking about atheists in a general term, never directed it personally at you.

He is an Alawite. Which are part of Shia Islam, its basic knowledge no offence.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

He is an Alawite. Which are part of Shia Islam, its basic knowledge no offence.

None taken. So is his govt run along religious beliefs of Shia/Alawite principles?

 

[Pakpak]

None taken. So is his govt run along religious beliefs of Shia/Alawite principles?

According to its Constitution yes which states a President must be a Muslim. The war having a Sunni vs Alawite angle is pretty known. Just like Saddam brutalised non Sunnis, Assad started doing the same to Sunnis.

 

[Pakpak]

None taken. So is his govt run along religious beliefs of Shia/Alawite principles?

Otherwise there is no reason for such an 'atheist' government to not to pander to Israel. It being a branch of Shia Islam is also why Hezbollah and Iran support it over anything.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

According to its Constitution yes which states a President must be a Muslim. The war having a Sunni vs Alawite angle is pretty known. Just like Saddam brutalised non Sunnis, Assad started doing the same to Sunnis.

What I have read is that the Assad family ran their govt along Baath Party principles, basically socialist Arab Nationalists along secular lines. Therefore you wouldn't see Shariah law play any part, hence 'atheist'. Beyond that, you could argue that the Syrian govt is about as secular as Israel's or India's, i.e. there is a deep vein of religious bigotry which taints their version of secularism. But back to your original point, I don't think Pak Arab worshippers would see Assad as a role model.

 

[Pakpak]

What I have read is that the Assad family ran their govt along Baath Party principles, basically socialist Arab Nationalists along secular lines. Therefore you wouldn't see Shariah law play any part, hence 'atheist'. Beyond that, you could argue that the Syrian govt is about as secular as Israel's or India's, i.e. there is a deep vein of religious bigotry which taints their version of secularism. But back to your original point, I don't think Pak Arab worshippers would see Assad as a role model.

No they wouldn't, but no Pakistani speaks up on the carnage in Yemen because the Saudis are in it. I'd imagine this anti-Assad hate would fade as well when he's accepted in the Arab League again. Rest of your post I agree with, but they're not really atheists by any mean. No non-muslim can be Syrian president.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

No they wouldn't, but no Pakistani speaks up on the carnage in Yemen because the Saudis are in it. I'd imagine this anti-Assad hate would fade as well when he's accepted in the Arab League again. Rest of your post I agree with, but they're not really atheists by any mean. No non-muslim can be Syrian president.

Plenty of Pakistanis speak up on it on here, Saudis come in for more criticism than Syrians I would say. As for being a Muslim President it is in name only, their ethos is socialist Arab nationalism, they are allied to Russia for that reason. Assad has been bombing Muslims specifically in fact, those that make up the majority in Syria. I would say he is more atheist than he is Muslim, but if you can show me which parts of Syrian constitution are based on religious texts, then we can reassess.

 

[Pakpak]

Plenty of Pakistanis speak up on it on here, Saudis come in for more criticism than Syrians I would say. As for being a Muslim President it is in name only, their ethos is socialist Arab nationalism, they are allied to Russia for that reason. Assad has been bombing Muslims specifically in fact, those that make up the majority in Syria. I would say he is more atheist than he is Muslim, but if you can show me which parts of Syrian constitution are based on religious texts, then we can reassess.

I literally gave you the President one. Assad has been bombing Sunni Muslims, not Shias. There is a massive distinction as Sunnis make up most of Syria, just like Saddam ruled over a minority.

There is literally no evidence of him being an atheist and you saying ''I would say he is atheist'' is not evidence. They are allied to Russia to save his skin, just like now there are rumors they will ally with Saudis and UAE to fend off the massed Turkish force on their border. Will that make them Wahabi?

 

[Pakpak]

Plenty of Pakistanis speak up on it on here, Saudis come in for more criticism than Syrians I would say. As for being a Muslim President it is in name only, their ethos is socialist Arab nationalism, they are allied to Russia for that reason. Assad has been bombing Muslims specifically in fact, those that make up the majority in Syria. I would say he is more atheist than he is Muslim, but if you can show me which parts of Syrian constitution are based on religious texts, then we can reassess.

Syria has 2 laws, one says freedom of religion the other says also all law must have basis in Islamic literature and a Syrian leader must be Muslim to be a President. It runs 2 systems one strictly Islamic, for all Muslims in Syria. Other is non Islamic: for Jews, Christians, etc.

I don't know about you, but I doubt any atheist nations would have even one religious law.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

I literally gave you the President one. Assad has been bombing Sunni Muslims, not Shias. There is a massive distinction as Sunnis make up most of Syria, just like Saddam ruled over a minority.

There is literally no evidence of him being an atheist and you saying ''I would say he is atheist'' is not evidence. They are allied to Russia to save his skin, just like now there are rumors they will ally with Saudis and UAE to fend off the massed Turkish force on their border. Will that make them Wahabi?

Syria has 2 laws, one says freedom of religion the other says also all law must have basis in Islamic literature and a Syrian leader must be Muslim to be a President. It runs 2 systems one strictly Islamic, for all Muslims in Syria. Other is non Islamic: for Jews, Christians, etc.

I don't know about you, but I doubt any atheist nations would have even one religious law.

One religious law could be just a token thrown in there to cause confusion. If you are saying Assad represents some Shia sect, you would expect there would laws and practices which supported that. For example, I doubt anyone would argue that Iran isn't a theocracy, they clearly are. Syria isn't, hence in my view it is far closer to atheist constitution than any theocracy I can think of.

 

[Pakpak]

One religious law could be just a token thrown in there to cause confusion. If you are saying Assad represents some Shia sect, you would expect there would laws and practices which supported that. For example, I doubt anyone would argue that Iran isn't a theocracy, they clearly are. Syria isn't, hence in my view it is far closer to atheist constitution than any theocracy I can think of.

Whatever Assad's regime represents, the vast amount of Islamic laws and literally the fact their leader cannot be a non-Muslim, these two things alone mean they aren't even close to any atheist nation. In any atheist nation religion would have no rule in public matters. These two things alone mean they are as much atheist as Pakistan.

Though you can continue convincing yourself otherwise, that's fine by me. I am sure next you'll argue India is atheist, though you have conveniently slithered out of that view above.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Whatever Assad's regime represents, the vast amount of Islamic laws and literally the fact their leader cannot be a non-Muslim, these two things alone mean they aren't even close to any atheist nation. In any atheist nation religion would have no rule in public matters. These two things alone mean they are as much atheist as Pakistan.

Though you can continue convincing yourself otherwise, that's fine by me. I am sure next you'll argue India is atheist, though you have conveniently slithered out of that view above.

Technically you would qualify as a Muslim. If you were made President of Syria, you could hang every Muslim in the country and close down every mosque, by your argument that would be an Islamic regime.

A theocracy is not about putting a nominal head as leader of a regime, it is about the laws and constitution, and you know it fine well. Now if you want to actually provide some examples that the Syrian constitution is based on Islamic laws then please go ahead. Apart from the one about as long as the guy has a nominal Muslim name which you are clinging to somewhat desperately.

 

[Mages]

UAE flag raised over reopened embassy in Damascus

The embassy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Syrian capital Damascus was reopened Thursday afternoon and the UAE flag was raised over it, for the first time in seven years.
The reopened embassy marks the first state of the Gulf Cooperation Council to resume diplomatic work in Syria.
Hamzeh al-Dawalibi, drector of Protocol Department of the Syrian Foreign Ministry, as well as Iraqi and Sudanese ambassadors and diplomats from the Tunisian and Algerian embassies, showed up at the embassy where an opening ceremony took place inside.
Xinhua reporters on site heard a burst of hand-clapping, which was followed by the hoisting of the UAE flag.
Abdul-Hakim al-Nuami, the UAE charge d'affaires, was cited by the pro-government Sham FM radio as saying that the return of the UAE embassy is a prelude for the return of other Arab embassies to Syria.
He added that Syria will strongly be back to the Arab world.
Iraqi Ambassador Saad Muhammad Rida told reporters upon leaving the opening ceremony that the raising of the UAE flag and the opening of the embassy in Damascus is an invitation to all Arab countries to return to Damascus.
"Syria is a country in the heart of the Arab world and it's an indescribable country in the Arab world and this is an invitation to the Arab countries to return," he said.
Sources familiar with the situation told Xinhua that the Syrian employees have started their jobs at the embassy on Thursday.
Local reports said that some maintenance work was carried out inside the embassy ahead of its opening.
In his recent remarks, Syria's deputy foreign minister said: "We welcome any step for the return of all Arab embassies to Syria."
All Gulf states had closed their embassies in Damascus after the Syrian crisis erupted in 2011.

http://www.china.org.cn/world/2018-12/28/content_74320766.htm

 

[Gabbar Singh]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/...-hospitals.html#click=https://t.co/pW0TzDL0Qb

 

[sweep_shot]

Defeating militants in Idlib is the key to ending Syria's eight-year-old civil war, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Tuesday on his first visit to the embattled northwestern region since 2011.

“The battle of Idlib is the basis for resolving chaos and terrorism in all other areas of Syria,” Assad's office quoted him as telling troops in the frontline town of Al-Hbeit.

It published a picture of the president surrounded by troops dressed in military fatigues, with maps hanging behind them.

His comments came as Syrian troops continued to deploy in parts of the north where they are supporting Kurdish forces to contain a Turkish invasion, according to state news agency SANA.

Assad denounced Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan as a thief for attacking the northeast of his country and reiterated a pledge to retake all areas lost to Damascus in years of civil war.

“Erdogan is a thief and is now stealing our land,” state media quoted Assad as saying.

After turning the tide of the war, Assad's forces now control around 60 per cent of the country and the president has repeatedly vowed to return all of it to his control, including Idlib.

The Idlib region, which has some three million residents, half of them displaced from other parts of the country, is the last major rebel bastion in Syria.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — an alliance led by Syria's former Al Qaeda affiliate — extended its administrative control over the whole of Idlib in January, but other rebel factions remain present.

In April, the Syrian government and its Russian allies launched an intensified bombardment of the region.

In August, government troops began a ground offensive that saw them retake several areas in southern Idlib, including the town of Al-Hbeit, which was among the first to fall.

An August 31 ceasefire brokered by Russia largely halted air strikes and clashes with heavy weapons, but skirmishes persist, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Take a look: Who is fighting who in Syria?

While the Idlib front has been relatively calm, Syrian troops this month deployed in the northeast as part of a deal with Kurdish forces to protect them from a Turkish invasion.

The deployment is the army's most significant in the Kurdish-controlled north and northeast since it pulled back from the region from 2012.

The Syrian war has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since it erupted in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1512299/idlib-front-is-main-battle-to-end-syria-war-assad.

 

[MenInG]

The uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been sentenced to four years in prison by a Paris court for money-laundering.

Rifaat al-Assad was convicted of embezzling Syrian state funds to buy homes and offices worth €90m (£80m) to build a French property portfolio.

The 82-year-old former vice-president denies any wrongdoing. His lawyers say he will appeal.

His property assets in Paris and London will be seized, the court ruled.

Assad, who was hospitalised with internal bleeding in France in December, was not in court for the ruling and is unlikely to serve his sentence due to his age. His London property is believed to be worth €29m (£26m).

Who is Rifaat al-Assad?

He was once the second most powerful man in Syria - the military commander at the right hand of his brother Hafez, who led Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000.

Rifaat is known as the "Butcher of Hama" by some Syrians because of his alleged role in the bloody suppression of an anti-government uprising in the city in 1982 but he has denied any responsibility for the massacre. Between 10,000 and 20,000 people are estimated to have died.

Since 1984, when he led a failed coup against his brother, Rifaat has mostly lived in exile in France and Spain.

After Hafez died in 2000, Rifaat proclaimed himself his brother's legitimate successor. But Bashar became president.

When Syria descended into civil war in 2011 he called on his nephew to step down.

His lawyers say his political past is irrelevant to an investigation into his financial activities.

What is the case about?

Rifaat al-Assad has been under investigation in France since 2014, when the legal NGO Sherpa, which defends victims of alleged economic crimes, filed a complaint saying the value of his property empire far exceeded his known income.

Five years later, the French judicial authorities decided that he should stand trial for crimes allegedly committed between 1984 and 2016, including organised money laundering, aggravated tax fraud and misappropriation of Syrian state funds.

The trial opened on 9 December last year. Assad denied the charges, saying he was given gifts by the Saudi royal family.

His reported French fortune includes two Paris townhouses, a stud farm, a chateau and 7,300 square metres of office space in Lyon. Several luxury properties have already been seized by French authorities.

Assad and his family also have a portfolio of 507 properties in Spain valued at around €695m (£585m).

The properties were seized by the Spanish authorities in 2017 as part of a separate investigation into alleged money-laundering activities by Assad and 13 other people, who have again denied any wrongdoing.

This is the second trial of a member of foreign ruling family in France on charges of "ill-gotten gains".

In October 2017, Equatorial Guinea vice president Teodorin Obiang received a three-year suspended jail term after being convicted of using public money to fund a lavish lifestyle.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53077818

 

[Firebat]

No sweet victory for Assad as economy collapses and U.S. sanctions hit

BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) - Just last year, President Bashar al-Assad seemed on the brink of crowning military victories by easing his diplomatic isolation and recovering more of Syria without a bullet being fired.

Not only had U.S.-allied Kurds invited government forces back to the northeast, but businessmen from the once hostile United Arab Emirates visited Damascus to scout out investment opportunities and regional trade had started to pick up.

Thanks to intervention from Russia and Iran on his behalf, nearly all of Syria’s main cities and towns are under government control, with rebels who fought since 2011 to overthrow Assad now confined to a patch of territory near the Turkish frontier.

But today, the mood in Damascus is gloomy.

Assad’s hopes of rehabilitation have been put on ice by new U.S. sanctions that will likely scare off all but his closest friends and deter the investment he needs to deliver on promised reconstruction.

The economy, already ravaged by a decade of war, is in deep trouble, hit not only by sanctions but also by the fallout of a financial meltdown in neighbouring Lebanon that has choked off dollars.

While sanctions alone seem unlikely to bring down Assad, experts say they will make it harder for him to consolidate gains and rebuild patronage networks in loyalist areas that paid a heavy price in battle.

With Syria split in three, heavily sanctioned and governed by a pariah, comparisons are being drawn with Iraq in the years between Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled him.

“The cascading effect of the sanctions could undermine Assad’s ability to re-extend or maintain control over much of the country. I don’t think it will overthrow him in the near-term, but it will restrict his ability to maintain control,” said David Lesch, a Syria expert and Middle East History professor at Trinity University in Texas.

Spoiler

NO “MAGIC WAND”

The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced more than 11 million from their homes, around half the pre-war population. The once productive economy has suffered hundreds of billions of dollars of destruction.

As Assad steadily recovered ground, Syrians in government areas had been hoping for better times.

But their already battered purchasing power has been demolished this year by a collapse in the Syrian pound. The currency, steady at around 500 to the dollar for several years, began falling last year and hit a low of 3,000 this month.

Assad is counting on the allies that saved him in battle - Russia and Iran - to help him again. But with both sanctioned themselves, neither has the wherewithal to offer the investment Damascus had hoped would flow from countries such as the UAE, China and India, which now run the risk of U.S. sanctions if they deal with Syria.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem told a Damacus news conference on Tuesday the aim of the new U.S. sanctions imposed in a law called the Caesar Act was to create hunger and instability.

Syria could depend on its friends and allies, he said: “This needs a bit of patience. It’s been a week since Caesar was passed. No one has a magic wand to say Russia has to give this or Iran that.”

Syria’s allies in an Iran-backed alliance known as the resistance axis are looking for ways around the sanctions, a regional official told Reuters. Iran has provided Syria with credit lines and oil during the war. “The resistance axis will work on opening gaps,” the official said.

UNDER PRESSURE

Washington, which once armed some of Assad’s enemies, says the goal is to hold Damascus to account for war crimes and deter it from pressing the war. The sanctions exempt humanitarian aid.

Washington will this summer apply “unprecedented political and economic pressure on the Assad regime to return to the political process”, U.S. special envoy for Syria Joel Rayburn has said. Sanctions are not Washington’s only tool.

Though President Donald Trump last year ordered U.S. forces to withdraw, they remain in the east, denying Assad control of oil fields and farmland and providing a security umbrella for a Kurdish-led autonomous zone. Turkish forces in the northwest also obstruct Assad’s recovery of the last rebel stronghold.

Assad’s grasp over some recovered areas is shaky, including the south which is still restive two years after the defeat of rebels. The dire economy recently triggered protests in Sweida, a loyalist area in the south.

The financial problems led the state to seize vast assets held by Assad’s cousin Rami Makhlouf, formerly a pillar of the ruling elite.

“Assad’s strategy and the promise he has been selling to his supporters has always been that we have to win this war militarily ... and be patient and then eventually the Americans and Europeans are going to tire and sanctions would be lifted or eased,” Aron ****, a fellow at The Century Foundation, said.

“If poverty turns to extreme poverty and hunger turns to famine over time and the patronage network ... starts to weaken and wither away, we could start to see different threats rising that could be really, really severe for Assad.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...collapses-and-u-s-sanctions-hit-idUSKBN23V1OL

 

[Last Monetarist]

Syria's President Assad and his wife test positive for COVID-19

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-syria-assad/syrias-president-assad-and-his-wife-test-positive-for-covid-19-idUSKBN2B018K

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma have tested positive for COVID-19 after showing minor symptoms, his office said on Monday.

The Syrian leader and his spouse, who announced her recovery from breast cancer in 2019, were in good health and would keep working in isolation at home, the statement said.

Syria has seen a sharp rise in infections since mid-February, a member of the government’s coronavirus advisory committee told Reuters last week as the country kicked off its vaccination campaign.

Health and aid officials say it remains difficult to gauge the full size of the outbreak given the lack of testing facilities in a fragile health system devastated by a decade of war.

As of Sunday, the health ministry reported 10,374 infections and 1,063 related deaths out of a population of around 18 million.

Assad joins a growing list of world leaders who have tested positive for COVID-19, alongside Britain’s Boris Johnson, France’s Emmanuel Macron and former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Health workers said the authorities underplayed the size of the outbreak for most of last year, when official figures remained low as hospitals were overwhelmed and death notices appeared in newspapers.

The government denied undercounting the figures and has acknowledged in the last two months the country could be on the verge of a major spike. It has urged people to wear face masks, take sanitary measures and avoid crowded areas.

Officials and businessmen say the sanctions-hit government can ill afford a full lockdown given the dire state of the economy and growing poverty.

After a decade of war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and uprooted millions, Assad’s military has reclaimed most of the country with Russia and Iran’s help.

 

[Last Monetarist]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/04/meeting-between-saudi-and-syrian-intelligence-chiefs-hints-at-detente

Saudi Arabia’s intelligence chief has travelled to Damascus to meet his Syrian counterpart in the first known meeting of its kind since the outbreak of the Syrian war a decade ago.

The meeting in the Syrian capital on Monday is being seen as a precursor to an imminent detente between two regional foes, who have been at odds throughout much of the conflict.

Ties between the two countries were severed during the crackdown against the 2011 popular uprising against the country’s leader, Bashar al-Assad. But officials in Riyadh said the normalisation of relations could begin shortly after the three-day Eid al-Fitr festival next week that will mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

“It’s been planned for a while, but nothing has moved,” said a Saudi official who asked not to be identified. “Events have shifted regionally and that provided the opening.”

Such a move would be a significant boost for Assad, who has clung to power with the backing of allies Russia and Iran as Syria has crumbled around him. It would also be a landmark moment in regional diplomacy, nominally allying Riyadh with Tehran in one of the most bitterly contested corners of the region, where both countries have clashed with each other through the use of proxy forces.

The Saudi delegation was led by Gen Khalid Humaidan, the head of the country’s General Intelligence Directorate. He was received by Syria’s Gen Ali Mamlouk, the architect of the push to crush the early years of the anti-Assad revolution and the key interlocutor with Russian forces, which took a significant stake in the conflict from September 2015.

Two years earlier, Riyadh had been central to a plan to oust Assad by arming anti-Assad forces near Damascus and encouraging defections to nearby Jordan, from where the Saudi leadership had expected Barack Obama to launch a push by US proxies to take the Syrian capital.

Such a plan never materialised, and when the US president opted not to authorise airstrikes after the sarin attack on the outer areas of Damascus in 2013, Riyadh shifted the focus of its involvement in the conflict from using proxy groups to supplying guided missiles to vetted opposition groups that decimated Assad’s armour corps in the country’s north-west.

By August 2015, the missile programme had led to the near collapse of key elements of the Syrian army, leading to Iranian general Qassem Suleimani flying to Moscow to seek Vladimir Putin’s intervention – an event that turned the course of the war and led to Riyadh steadily disengaging.

Ever since, Riyadh had taken a back seat in the conflict, as its two regional allies, Egypt and the UAE, moved to consolidate ties. Abu Dhabi reopened its embassy in Damascus last year.

Saudi officials see Assad as a key backer of Hezbollah, which is directed by arch-regional foe Iran.

In late March, Iranian officials passed a message to the Saudi leadership through an Iraqi envoy, suggesting their country wanted to end friction with the kingdom, starting with Yemen, where a war initiated by Riyadh against Houthi rebels had led to it being bogged down on its eastern border for the past five years. De-escalating tensions in Iraq and Syria had also been tabled during talks between both sides.

 

[Napa]

Crimea says hello.

They tried democracy in Crimea, but street mobs which had the neo-Nazi Svobda overthrew a democratically elected President.

 

[OMB]

Bashar Al-Assad Re-Elected As Syrian President For 4th Term

The parliamentary speaker announced Thursday that Assad garnered 95.1 percent of the votes cast, trouncing two virtually unknown challengers.

Damascus, Syria: Bashar al-Assad has been re-elected for a fourth term as president of war-ravaged Syria, official results showed on Thursday, despite Western accusations the polls were "neither free nor fair".
The controversial vote extending Assad's stranglehold on power was the second since the start of a decade-long civil conflict that has killed more than 388,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country's infrastructure.

The parliamentary speaker announced Thursday that Assad garnered 95.1 percent of the votes cast, trouncing two virtually unknown challengers.

Standing against him were former state minister Abdallah Salloum Abdallah and Mahmud Merhi, a member of the so-called "tolerated opposition", long dismissed by exiled opposition leaders as an extension of the regime.

On the eve of the election, the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy said the poll was "neither free nor fair", and Syria's fragmented opposition has called it a "farce".

But few doubted that the 55-year-old Assad, an ophthalmologist by training, would be re-elected.

In the last multi-candidate poll in 2014, Assad won 88 percent of the vote.

Huge election posters glorifying Assad had mushroomed across the two-thirds of the country under his control in the lead-up to Wednesday's poll.

Before the election results were announced, tens of thousands of Syrians gathered Thursday in various cities to celebrate, waving Syrian flags and carrying pictures of Assad, state media reported.

The festivities broke out after the election committee, quoted by local TV, said "the ballot counting process has been completed in the majority of Syrian provinces".

"Tens of thousands of people in Tartus province gathered at the city's seafront to celebrate" Assad's expected win, according to state news agency SANA.

Some danced and beat drums, footage broadcast by Syrian television showed.

Thousands of other Syrians rallied in the coastal city of Latakia and in Umayyad Square in the capital Damascus, which along with Tartus and Latakia are bastions of the regime.

Celebrations were also underway in Aleppo and in Sweida, in Syria's south, where a crowd gathered in front of city hall, state media said.

Houwayda al-Nidal, a 52-year-old doctor, told AFP that Assad's victory "carries two messages".

The first is that of a leader who has won the war and will lead the reconstruction, he said, and "the second is intended for foreigners to show who will lead the political talks after the end of the fighting on the ground."

- Economy in free fall -

The election was held Wednesday in government-held areas, and state media showed long queues forming outside polling stations, which remained open five hours past the planned closing time.

The vote took place amid the lowest levels of violence since the war erupted in 2011 -- but with the economy in free fall.

More than 80 percent of the population live in poverty, and the Syrian pound has plunged in value against the dollar, causing skyrocketing inflation.

Assad's campaign slogan, "Hope through work", evoked the colossal reconstruction needed to rebuild the country, requiring billions of dollars in funding.

He was first elected by referendum in 2000 after the death of his father Hafez al-Assad, who had ruled Syria for 30 years.

The UN's Syria envoy, Geir Pedersen, noted the polls were not held under the political transition called for by Security Council Resolution 2254 which provides for free and fair elections.

"What is required is a Syrian-led and -owned political solution, facilitated by the United Nations and backed by constructive international diplomacy," he said.

In rebel-held northwestern Syria, home to three million people, hundreds took to the streets to protest on Wednesday, an AFP correspondent said.

PromotedListen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.com

They carried posters saying: "No legitimacy for Assad and his elections."

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/bashar-al-assad-re-elected-as-president-of-syria-for-4th-term-western-countries-call-it-neither-free-nor-fair-2450897

 

[Last Monetarist]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/17/syrias-president-assad-sworn-in-for-fourth-term-with-95-of-vote

President Bashar al-Assad took the oath of office for a fourth term in war-ravaged Syria on Saturday, after officially winning 95% of the vote in an election dismissed abroad.

It was the second presidential poll since the start of a decade-long civil war that has killed almost half a million people and battered the country’s infrastructure.

Shortly before the ceremony, rockets fired by pro-government forces killed six people including three children and a rescue worker in the country’s last major rebel bastion of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

An AFP correspondent in the village of Sarja saw men work hurriedly to remove bodies from the rubble of a collapsed home, before carrying one away in a red blanket.

Assad, 55, was sworn in on Syria’s constitution and the Koran in the presence of more than 600 guests, including ministers, businessmen, academics and journalists, organisers said.

The elections “have proven the strength of popular legitimacy … conferred on the state”, Assad said in his inauguration speech.

They “have discredited the declarations of western officials on the legitimacy of the state”.

On the eve of the 26 May election, the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy said the poll was “neither free nor fair”, and Syria’s fragmented opposition has called it a “farce”.

Syria’s war has displaced millions of people since starting in 2011 with the repression of anti-government protests. Assad called on “those who bet on … the collapse of the state” to return to “the homeland’s embrace”.

With his campaign slogan, “Hope through work”, Assad had cast himself as the sole realistic architect of reconstruction.

In his speech, he said the focus was now on liberating areas still beyond government control and boosting the economy and people’s livelihoods.

After a series of victories against jihadists and rebels with key backing from allies Russia and Iran, government forces today control two-thirds of Syria. Syria’s former al-Qaida affiliate runs the opposition bastion of Idlib in the north-west, where Turkish-backed rebels are also present.

A Turkish-Russian ceasefire has largely held in Idlib since March 2020, after halting the latest deadly government offensive on the region of about three million people. But violations of that truce have increased in the south of the bastion in recent weeks, the Britain-based observatory said.

Kurdish-led forces control much of the oil-rich east after expelling the Islamic State jihadist group from the region with US backing. And Turkey and its Syrian proxies hold a long strip of territory along the northern border.

Assad pledged to wrest remaining Syrian territory from “the terrorists and from their Turkish and American sponsors”.

Assad takes his oath as the country faces a dire economic crisis. More than 80% of the population live in poverty, and the Syrian pound has plunged in value against the dollar, causing skyrocketing inflation.

In recent weeks, the government has hiked the price of petrol, bread, sugar and rice, while power cuts can last up to 20 hours a day because of fuel shortages. Nationwide, 12.4 million people struggle to find enough food each day, the World Food Programme said.

The Damascus government has blamed the country’s economic woes on western sanctions and a deepening crisis in neighbouring Lebanon.

Banks in Lebanon have for more than a year forbidden depositors from withdrawing their dollar savings, affecting Syrian clients. “The biggest obstacle now is the Syrian funds frozen in Lebanese banks,” said Assad, estimating them to amount to tens of billions of dollars.

Syria’s war has cost the country $1.2tn, the World Vision charity estimated.

After the swearing-in ceremony, Assad met the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, making the first visit by a high-ranking Chinese official to Syria since early 2012. The two men discussed Syria possibly taking part in China’s Belt and Road infrastructure and trade initiative, the presidency said.

Assad was first elected by referendum in 2000 following the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who had ruled Syria for 30 years.

 

[Last Monetarist]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/29/syria-assad-attacks-former-opposition-stronghold-with-missiles-and-artillery

Bashar al-Assad has attacked a former opposition stronghold with missiles and artillery shelling in an attempt to crush a simmering insurrection, in an unprecedented development in Syria’s decade-long war.

Deraa al-Balad and its surrounds, a district of Deraa city in the southern province of the same name, was targeted with heavy weaponry in tandem with a ground push on three axes from two Syrian army divisions and allied Iran-backed militias early on Thursday morning, in a large offensive which continued throughout the day.

In response to the shelling, rebel gunmen launched counterattacks across the Deraa countryside, killing at least eight pro-regime fighters and capturing dozens of combatants at several military positions and checkpoints, local sources said.

At least four civilians in shelled areas have been killed, according to residents, and large numbers of people have begun to try to flee. There are no medical facilities in the targeted areas.

The violence is the worst fighting to hit Deraa – the birthplace of Syria’s 2011 Arab spring uprising against the regime – since the area was “reconciled” with Damascus in a Russian-brokered deal three years ago.

“We woke up to the attacks at 7am. We are under complete siege, there is indiscriminate artillery, mortars, everything,” said Abu Ahmed, a resident in Deraa al-Balad. “Civilians repelled the ground push to stop the tanks and soldiers entering the town but we have no real armed resistance. There is no water, no power, and we are lacking food.”

Unlike other opposition areas won back by Assad with the help of his allies in Moscow and Tehran in the July 2018 surrender deal, the majority of Deraa’s inhabitants remained at home rather than being bussed to Idlib province, on the Turkish border. Instead, Moscow oversaw the recruitment of Deraa’s rebels into a new local security force known as the Fifth Corps, created to help the exhausted Syrian army in the battle against Islamic State.

Since Isis was driven from southern Syria, an uneasy status quo has emerged: the Fifth Corp are paid salaries by Moscow and are supposed to follow Russian orders, but have managed to retain a degree of autonomy, barring the military and secret police from areas under their control, sheltering people wanted by the regime, and safeguarding large street protests against the government’s handling of Syria’s struggling economy.

Titfortat bombings and assassinations between former opposition figures and regime forces have since become routine. But mindful of the potential for military escalation if Iranian and Hezbollah forces were to fully embed so close to Israel, Russia has largely frustrated the regime’s attempts to stamp out the fledgling insurgency.

The situation in Deraa deteriorated sharply when the local population decided to boycott May’s fraudulent general election, in which Assad was returned for another seven years in office with 95% of the vote. Regime soldiers began blocking roads and turning off water and power supplies to neighbourhoods home to about 50,000 people, leading to shortages in food and medicine.

Several negotiation attempts between a government security committee and tribal representatives from Deraa al-Balad focused on giving up light weaponry and installing new checkpoints over the last month have failed, leading Damascus to send military reinforcements to the area earlier this week.

The pro-government al-Watan newspaper called events in Deraa the “start of a military operation against hideouts of terrorists who thwarted a reconciliation deal”.

There were unconfirmed reports by Thursday evening that the Fifth Corp – which has stayed out of the fighting – is mediating a ceasefire deal. Residents reported, however, that fierce fighting has so far continued.

“The escalation in Deraa al-Balad represents a breakdown of negotiations between the leaders of the ‘reconciled’ rebels and the regime, mediated by Russia. Assad is now implementing the ‘solution’ it wanted to impose on Deraa all along – forcing complete surrender and displacement of those who refuse to act as loyal subjects of the Syrian regime,” said Elizabeth Tsurkov, a fellow at the Newlines Institute with extensive knowledge of southern Syria’s dynamics.

“Unless Russia intervenes to put an end to the fighting and broker a ceasefire, the fighting will result in even more civilian deaths and displacement, and likely the subjugation of Deraa al-Balad under full regime control.”

 

[Last Monetarist]

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/syrian-army-steps-up-offensive-restive-southern-city-2021-08-01/

Syrian troops stepped up shelling of an opposition enclave in the southern city of Deraa in a bid to assert control over an area that has defied state authority since it was retaken three years ago, witnesses, the army and residents said.

An army assault on the old quarter of Deraa suffered a blow on Thursday when rebels mounted a counter-offensive across the province, capturing dozens of troops.

The army has since sent hundreds of elite troops, dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles to storm the enclave where peaceful protests against Assad family rule began in 2011 and were met by deadly force before spreading across the country.

The rebels disrupted traffic along the Damascus-Deraa highway leading to the border with Jordan, which closed the crossing point on Sunday.

The Syrian army, aided by Russian air power and Iranian militias, retook control of the province that borders Jordan and Israel's Golan Heights in 2018.

Russian-brokered deals at the time forced rebels to hand over heavy weapons but kept the army from entering many towns including the old quarter of the provincial capital known as Deraa al Balaad.

The Syrian army on Sunday blamed what it called terrorists for foiling several rounds of negotiations with opposition figures since last week to allow the army to set up checkpoints in the enclave.

The opposition insist the agreement allowed only civilian control, local officials say.

"The regime wants to end what they see as a living symbol of the revolt against it. If they silence it by returning the army they will subjugate the whole Hauran region," Abu Jehad al Horani, an opposition official, told Reuters from inside the enclave.

Damascus-based relief bodies said at least 2,000 families fled their homes since the fighting began on Thursday.

 

[SpiritOf1903]

Ranks alongside Pol Pot, Stalin and Mussolini

 

[Last Monetarist]

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/arabs-ease-assads-isolation-us-looks-elsewhere-2021-10-10/

While Bashar al-Assad is still shunned by the West who blame him for a decade of brutal war in Syria, a shift is under way in the Middle East where Arab allies of the United States are bringing him in from the cold by reviving economic and diplomatic ties.

The extension of Assad's two-decade-old presidency in an election in May did little to break his pariah status among Western states, but fellow Arab leaders are coming to terms with the fact that he retains a solid grip on power.

The chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has firmed up a belief among Arab leaders that they need to chart their own course. Anticipating a more hands-off approach from Washington, now preoccupied by the challenge of China, Arab leaders are driven by their own priorities, notably how to rehabilitate economies hammered by years of conflict and COVID-19.

Political considerations also loom large in Arab capitals such as Cairo, Amman and Abu Dhabi. These include their ties with Assad's most powerful backer, Russia, which has been pressing for Syria's reintegration, and how to counter the influence carved out in Syria by Iran and Turkey.

Turkey and its support for Sunni Islamists across the region - including a swathe of northern Syria that remains outside Assad's grasp - is of particular concern to Arab rulers who can make common cause with Damascus against Islamist groups.

But while the signs of Arab rapprochement with Damascus are growing - King Abdullah of Jordan spoke to Assad for the first time in a decade this month - U.S. policy will remain a complicating factor.

Washington says there has been no change in its policy towards Syria, which demands a political transition as set out in a Security Council resolution. U.S. sanctions targeting Damascus, tightened under President Donald Trump, still pose a serious obstacle to commerce.

But in Washington, analysts say Syria has hardly been a foreign policy priority for President Joe Biden's administration. They note his focus on countering China and that his administration has yet to apply sanctions under the so-called Caesar Act, which came into force last year with the intent of adding to the pressure on Assad.

After being warned against dealing with Damascus by the Trump administration, Arab states are pressing the issue again.

"U.S. allies in the Arab world have been encouraging Washington to lift the siege on Damascus and allow for its reintegration into the Arab fold," said David Lesch, a Syria expert at Trinity University in Texas. "It appears the Biden administration, to some degree, is listening."

It marks a shift from the early years of the conflict when Syria was expelled from the Arab League and states including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates backed some of the rebels that fought Assad.

The decade-long conflict, which spiralled out of a popular uprising against Assad during the "Arab Spring", has killed hundreds of thousands of people, uprooted half the population and forced millions into adjacent states and Europe as refugees.

Anti-Assad rebels still have a foothold in the north, with support from Turkey, while the east and northeast is controlled by Kurdish-led forces backed by the United States.

But while the conflict is unresolved, Assad is back in control of most of Syria thanks largely to Russia and Iran, which were always more committed to his survival than Washington was to his removal, even when chemical weapons were fired on rebel areas.

Jordan, Syria's neighbour to the south, has been leading the pack on the Arab policy shift with an ailing economy and a rocky patch in relations with its wealthy Gulf neighbour Saudi Arabia.

The border between Syria and Jordan was fully reopened for trade last month, and Amman has been a driving force behind a deal to pipe Egyptian natural gas to Lebanon via Syria, with an apparent U.S. nod of approval.

"When Jordan breaks these barriers and establishes ties and it's at this pace, there will be countries that will follow suit,” Samih al-Maaytah, a former Jordanian minister and political analyst, told Al Mamlaka, a state-owned broadcaster.

The crossing was once plied by hundreds of trucks a day moving goods between Europe, Turkey and the Gulf. Reviving trade will be a shot in the arm for Jordan and Syria, whose economy is in deep crisis. It should also help Lebanon, now suffering one of the sharpest economic depressions in modern history.

"I’m absolutely sure the Jordanians feel that the U.S. will not sanction them," Jim Jeffrey, former U.S. Special Envoy for Syria under Trump, told Reuters.

"There’s a tremendous buzz among media, among friends in the region, that the U.S. is no longer aggressively sanctioning Assad under the Caesar Act or other things."

The mood was reflected at last month's U.N. General Assembly, where Egyptian and Syrian foreign ministers met for the first time in a decade, and at the Expo 2020 Dubai exhibition, where the Syrian and Emirati economy ministers discussed the revival of a bilateral business council.

The UAE had invited Syria to Expo 2020 despite attempts to "demonise the regime", said Syria's ambassador to the UAE, Ghassan Abbas, speaking to Reuters at the Syria pavilion where the theme was "We Will Rise Together".

"Is there a new approach in dealing with Syria? Yes."

Aaron Stein, Director of Research at Foreign Policy Research Institute, said the Biden administration "isn’t interested in expending diplomatic capital to prevent regional governments from doing what they think is best vis-a-vis the regime".

U.S. policy in Syria is now focused on fighting Islamic State militants and humanitarian aid, he said.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said: "What we have not done and will not do is express any support for efforts to normalise or rehabilitate the brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad, lift a single sanction on Syria, or change our position to oppose the reconstruction of Syria until there is irreversible progress towards a political solution."

While many U.S. allies in the region pursue fresh ties with Damascus, regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia still appears hesitant.

"The big effort is to get Saudi Arabia and Syria into some kind of reconciliation, and I think Saudi is coming around, they are just waiting for the U.S.," said Joshua Landis, Syria specialist at the University of Oklahoma.

 

[Last Monetarist]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/syrias-rebels-hail-ex-officers-conviction-want-justice-go-higher-2022-01-14/

Syrian rebel and opposition groups said Germany's conviction of a former Syrian intelligence officer for crimes against humanity this week was welcome but was only a step towards holding to account President Bashar al-Assad and his top aides.

The conviction of Anwar Raslan, who defected to Syria's opposition in 2012 before securing asylum in Germany, marked a landmark ruling related to state-backed torture committed during Syria's decade-long civil war.

But opponents of Syria's government said cases against lower ranking officers should not distract from more senior targets.

"We welcome the justice of the German court ... but we also warn against the selective justice that pursues small killers and fugitive criminals from the network of terror and authoritarianism," said Mustafa Sejari, a rebel commander and former detainee.

"Justice begins by holding and pursuing Assad and his top henchmen, aides and supporters of his crimes," said Sejari, head of the political bureau of the Syrian Front for Liberation, a mainstream rebel group operating in the last rebel enclave.

Raslan, 58, was convicted on 27 out of 58 counts of murder, rape and sexual assault carried out at a Damascus prison run by a unit of the security services he led. He denied the charges.

Syria's Information Ministry did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on the Raslan case that was sent during the Syrian weekend, which starts on Friday. There was no immediate sign of any official reaction in Syrian media.

The Assad government routinely denies torturing prisoners and says its forces have been waging a fight against rebels and Islamists who it accuses of terrorising the population.

Fadel Abdul Ghany, head of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, which helped prosecutors and compiles casualty lists, said the conviction showed "these are crimes of a systematic widespread nature that cannot be carried out by individuals without being a central policy of the Syrian regime".

Mohamad Sabra, a former opposition negotiator, wrote on Twitter: "It's a victory for the principle of accountability and a small step ... on the path of holding to account all perpetrators of war crimes and violators of human rights in Syria."

Syria's conflict began with protests against Assad's regime in 2011, when uprisings flared across the Middle East against authoritarian leaders. It swiftly descended into all-out war.

Assad has now regained control of much of the territory initially lost to rebel and Islamist fighters, helped by Syria's ally Russia. Rebels still hold out in a small, northern area.

Millions of people have been displaced in the war, tens of thousands have died and cities and towns have been devastated.

Raslan's trial was held under Germany's universal jurisdiction laws, which allow courts to prosecute crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.

"The verdict will not heal the wounds in the heart of a mother who lost her son under torture or ease suffering endured by a detainee but it's a chance to renew the hope the Syrian regime will fall," said Omar al Shughri, an activist for detainees with the Syrian Organisation for Emergencies.

Raed Al Saleh, head of the opposition-run Syrian civil defence service known as the White Helmets, said the trial would have had more impact if it could have been held in Syria.

"The trial was under international jurisdiction but what about the tens of thousands who disappeared in Assad's prisons and who were tortured every day," he added.