Federation in the wings for Syria?

A United Syrian Republic, rather than a Syrian Arab Republic, will be the new name of post-war Syria.

Ethnic lines are part of the new master plan being implemented by the 44 anti-Assad militias operating on the Syrian territory.

The Kurds, 16 per cent of the population, have been explicitly transparent in controlling and defending their Rajova region, exerting self-autonomy, in the northeast.

Kurdish fighters of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), made all efforts to have an ethnically homogeneous region by expelling Sunnis from the villages around Jarabulus and Azaz in the hope of creating a contiguous terrain to accommodate all Syrian Kurds from the northwestern enclave of Afrin to the northeastern villages controlled by their fighting women and militias.

The United States extended military help to the PYD in exchange for their fierce fight to defeat Daesh in Ain Al Arab (Kobani), near the Turkish border.

The Alawi community, 13 per cent of the population, has been lucky to have the Russian naval base in Latakia and the air base in Humeimeen, with its advanced S400 missiles, which is a strong deterrent against any intruder within a
range of 500km.

It is more than convenient to have Qirdaha as a capital for the confederated Alawite province with access to the Mediterranean, with its own airbase and naval port.

It cannot be a mere coincidence that the current fighting lines are adjacent to concentration of religious or ethnic communities.

The Druze, 4 per cent of the population, maintained their religious integrity in the southern part of Syria, in Suwayda, Quneitra and the surrounding villages.

The Syrian Christians, forming 5 per cent of the population, are dispersed in all cities, from the north to the south, in a way similar to the Sunnis who form 64 per cent of the society, and are scattered from Raqqa to Homs, Hama, Daraa and Damascus.

The Syrian Army controls less than 17 per cent of the terrain; the rest is controlled by the 44 rebel militias, including Daesh.

It is high time for the United States to change its declared position on Syria.

Pressure should be exerted by Washington on President Vladimir Putin to accept two cornerstones for a future federated Syria. 

One is a safe haven along the Turkish-Syrian border to accommodate some of those who flee areas of violence; the second is to impose a ceasefire with which Iranian and Syrian army fighters comply.

The Syrian people do not deserve the wretchedness they have been afflicted with. It is enough that there are already 5.2 millions of them refugees and 350,000 killed.