Questions awaiting answers

Jordan met its end of the humanitarian bargain on rescuing the White Helmets from Syria by expediting the exodus of 422 of them on the understanding that they will be resettled in Canada, UK, Germany and other western nations within three months.

Officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have met the ambassadors from these Western countries accredited to Jordan to stay abreast of the remaining steps that should be taken to resettle these people in due course. What defies logic and remains incomprehensible, though, is why the receiving countries need three long months to resettle these people, while Jordan opened its doors wide open to them immediately without any question asked, simply because they are people who risked their lives in Syria trying to save lives of innocent civilians, including women and children, caught in the fighting between the Syrian armed forces aided and abetted by Russia and Iran.

Why it takes three months to process the resettlement of these agreed is a question that awaits an answer. Once the concerned Western countries accepted to settle the White Helmets in their countries, there is really no excuse to prolong the agony of their resettlement process by keeping them temporarily “settled” in a secluded area in Jordan. 

There is also another side to this humanitarian issue. While 422 of them were lucky to have been rescued, there are reports that there are hundreds others who are left behind without any plan to rescue them from the raging war in southern Syria. Neither Damascus nor Russia can be expected to extend to them any merciful escape, after having described them as terrorists or agents of external powers. In other words, there appears to be no contingent plan to save them from the wrath of the victorious Syrian army. It would seem that the humanitarian gestures taken by some Western nations to rescue the White Helmets from death are simply incomplete. 

US President Donald Trump has considerable leverage with Russian President Vladimir Putin, why not then intervene on behalf of the remaining White Helmet people still stranded in southern Syria and have them also transferred to safety. It is simply unfair to rescue some White Helmets while their brothers are left behind to face untold suffering, and possibly death.