The biggest challenge facing Syria

There are several reasons why US President Donald Trump dared to recognise Israel’s grip on the Syrian Golan Heights, but what stands out is the fact that Syria is weak, dismembered, vulnerable to several forms of occupation or hegemony by foreign powers and, above all, bleeding from within.

Trump, along with Israel, must have decided that this is the time to dismember Syria even more by taking away from it the Golan Heights. Israel must have been behind this US perspective, as its planes have been striking at various Syrian targets with relative impunity day in and day out.

Of course what adds to the weakness of Syria is the continued absence of rule of law with the continuation of the same old phenomenon of arbitrary arrests and detentions of people right and left, of course, without a judicial warrant.

The weakening economy also provides a fertile environment for foreign interference in the country. It seems that Damascus has not learned a lesson from the past; it continues to rely on the policy of intimidation of its people into submission and counts on its various branches of internal security apparatuses to detain people at checkpoints in an arbitrary manner. Of course, corruption has become the mainstay of this absence of rule of law and accountability.

As long as Syria bleeds from within, its external enemies will not hesitate to snatch bits and pieces of its territory. When will Damascus learn from the errors of the past and start introducing the rule of law in an orderly manner, so that its people may begin to feel at ease and secure and start rebuilding their country is now the biggest challenge facing the Syria leadership.

News reports speak of continued random mass arrests, and detentions in Syria have become widespread and occur with impunity. When a country is weakened internally and is left to bleed from within, it is the right time for the enemies of the country to conspire against its territorial integrity. This is exactly what happened when President Trump decided last month to “grant” Israel sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

Damascus has provided the opportunity for this folly, and continues to offer its enemies with occasions to make threats against its internal and external security with relative immunity.