MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : Special Dispatch No. 9222  MEMRI  10 March 2021

The election of Joe Biden to the White House sparked concern in the Syrian opposition, which fears the return of the lenient policies of the previous Democratic president, Barack Obama, towards both the Assad regime and Iran. According to the opposition, these policies were manifest in a failure to press Assad to reach a political solution in Syria, and in giving Iran a free hand in Syria as part of efforts to conclude the nuclear deal with it.  These fears were heightened when Biden – who was Obama’s vice president – announced his willingness to renew the nuclear deal with Iran, and removed the Yemeni Houthis from the list of terror organizations,  moves that were seen by the Syrian opposition as unearned concessions to Iran. Another source of concern was the minimal attention devoted to the Syria issue in Biden’s presidential campaign, and his failure to even mention it in his first foreign policy speech as president, on February 4, 2021. These facts strengthened the feeling in the Syrian opposition that the U.S. president had “forgotten” them and that resolving the Syria crisis is not a priority for the White House.

In this context, the joint president of Syria’s Constitutional Committee, Hadi Al-Bahra, tweeted on February 22 that Biden is continuing Obama’s policy of concessions to Iran, “which cost the Syrians dearly” at the time.

Al-Bahra’s tweet

Similar criticism of Biden was also expressed in articles by Syrian oppositionists. For example, intellectual Michel Kilo warned that, given the U.S. disregard of the disaster in Syria, its new deal with Iran will likely be at the Syrians’ expense, just like Obama’s deal. Journalist ‘Abd Al-Jalil Al-Sa’id likewise assessed that Biden’s silence on Syria indicates that he means to use the Syrian card in negotiating a deal with Iran. Journalist Ghazi Dahman assessed that the U.S. is not rushing to resolve the crisis in Syria since this crisis serves its interests: it allows the U.S. to maintain its presence in eastern Syria at no considerable cost, and to use it as a bargaining chip vis-a-vis Iran and Russia.    

(Source: Syriahr.com)

The following are translated excerpts from these three articles.

Michel Kilo: We Must Not Repeat The Foolish Actions Of Obama, Who Struck A Deal With Iran At Our People’s Expense

In an article in the London-based daily Al-Arabi Al-Jadid, Syrian oppositionist Michel Kilo attacked the Biden administration for ignoring the situation in Syria and for making concessions to Iran although past experience teaches that the Iranian regime takes advantage of this. He wrote: “Announcing [an intention] to reward Iran for its role in Yemen, the U.S. revoked the Houthis’ designation as a terror organization, on the grounds that the Yemeni people are starving and the administration of U.S. President Biden feels specifically responsible [for their fate]. [The Americans don’t care if this move eventually] leads the U.S. to provide the Houthis with everything they need in order to continue starving the Yemenis and in order to equip their people, who are responsible for deepening the suffering of the Yemenis, spilling their blood, occupying their homeland, destroying their homes and murdering their children. [The Houthis do this] with the active support of Iran,  the country that has established terror organizations in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, [organizations] full of murderers and mercenaries who fight [Iran’s] wars and who, as organizations established by [Iran’s Islamic] Revolutionary Guards [Corps], are in charge of expanding its influence and presence in one of the world regions most important to the West and to the U.S.

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