If Assad Guarantees Western Corporations Access to Resources, He’ll Remain in Power

According to The Telegraph, several Syrian rebels have defected back to the side of President Bashar Assad. The prolonged conflict has worn them out and they have begun to sense they are being defeated, the newspaper reported. In other words, the scales are beginning to tip, and likely in Damascus’ favor.

Commenting on the new developments in Syria is Aleksey Mukhin, the general director of the Center for Political Information.

The Syrian Public Has Turned Out To Be More Resistant to Propaganda than It Seemed at First

The situation in Syria is getting more and more interesting. A strange thing has become clear: The Syrian public, which at the beginning was split into opposing camps with the help of the mass media, has turned out to be more resistant to propaganda than it seemed at first. The Syrians who at first backed the rebels have now begun to contemplate their future. The precedent set by Iraq and Afghanistan may facilitate the unification of Syria. At present, Bashar Assad is the only leader around whom the public can rally, regardless of his faults and his team’s PR slip-ups. This, in my opinion, explains the revelation on the part of many of the rebels that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

The U.S. is not yet sure whether it is worth it to get involved in yet another armed conflict. On top of that, many Americans are demanding more transparency and coherence in the foreign policy arena. It has become evident during the Snowden affair that pacifists are well-represented in the U.S. armed forces today. Snowden’s case demonstrates that such sentiments are present even in the intelligence community, all the way up to the National Security Agency, one of the primary intelligence agencies.

In connection with this, Israel will soon begin looking for a way out of this dead end. Flexing its military muscles, it will try to seek peaceful alternatives or at least freeze the conflict. There are high hopes for the negotiations in Geneva. They promise to open the U.S. and European establishments’ eyes to an acute problem. On one hand, Bashar Assad needs to remain on the political scene in Syria; on the other hand, his surrender was the main demand of his opponents.

Some Are Trying To Sow the Seeds of Chaos and Panic; Others Are Determined To Stabilize the Situation

It seems to me that if Assad guaranteed American and European corporations access to Syria’s natural resources, he would be able to remain in power. It is true, however, that the U.S. is doing everything in its power to ensure that that does not happen. Ahead of the Geneva conference, the U.S. military announced that it was all but resolved to attack Syria, which is not likely to facilitate constructive dialogue.

Concessions need to be made from all sides, and I’m not saying that there are just two sides. From my perspective, there is a huge number of groups that are surreptitiously working inside Syria. Some are trying to sow the seeds of chaos and panic; others are determined to stabilize the situation. Many countries are experiencing economic hardships as a result of the Syrian conflict. These countries are located primarily in the Middle East. Some of them are brandishing their weapons, and others are keeping quiet. I reckon that many of these groups are conducting hidden negotiations and supporting the stance of Russia and China with regard to the conflict.

I believe that the allegation that chemical weapons have been used in Syria is a legend used by all the anti-regime forces with equal vigor. This is a big success for the propaganda machine that has been at trained at Bashar Assad. That machine has the world community convinced that if Assad has the ability to use chemical weapons — as the anti-Assad machine claims — then the rebels can use these weapons with equal force. Both of these possibilities have cancelled each other out.