The Syrian regime prepares itself to storm the city of Idlib.
By Victorios Shams
Meanwhile the leader of Nusra Front Abu Muhammad al-Joulani said that he and his faction would defend Idlib. Nusra Front no longer exists in other areas in Syria. Many similar Islamic factions handed over their weapons and left. His statement seems to give the pretext for the regime to attack the city due to Nusra Front classification as terrorist.
On August 22, the U.S. national security adviser John Bolton met the Russian Security Council Chief Nikolai Patrushev in Geneva. Later John Bolton stated that the Russians wanted to get the Iranian troops out of Syria, but he could not do so alone. Furthermore, he said that Syrian forces would not wage chemical weapons when storming Idlib as if allowing all weapons but the chemical ones.
On the other hand, the Russians are working hard to return the Syrian refugees from neighboring countries and Europe to Syria. That is why they are accusing some European countries of not willing to bring the refugees back. Certainly, France was one of the countries that officially rejected the principle of forcing refugees to return to Syria.
Why is Russia seeking to repatriate refugees? This is an important question.
Russia wants to show that it eradicated terrorism from Syria. The return of the refugees would endorse her claim that the problem was indeed terrorism. This is what Russia wants to show to the international community.
In the same fashion, the Syrian regime announced that they would revive Bosra Festival. It happened for the first time in 1978, yearly, until the advent of the Syrian revolution. It is an international festival that brings together folk arts from many countries the world. It will take place in the same old Roman castle where the regime has struck repeatedly along the revolution. Syrian activists demands the regime to be true to its speech by inviting artists who supported the revolution, such as Sameh Shoukir and others.
* Victorios Shams is a Syrian journalist. He writes a weekly report on the Syrian revolution for Socialist Review On The Arab World From A Workers’ Perspective produced by PSTU (IWL-FI Brazilian Section)
