BEIRUT, September 14. /TASS/. Ways of countering postwar challenges were high on the agenda of negotiations that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syria's leader Bashar Assad held in the Kremlin, Lebanese analyst Nidal Sabi, an expert on Syrian affairs, told TASS on Tuesday.
"Syria is in a very grave economic situation, which is fraught with dangerous consequences and may harm internal stability," he said. "In the meantime, the EU and US sanctions against Damascus impede economic reconstruction."
Russia, says Sabi, has urged the West "to participate in the reconstruction of Syria's war-ravaged economy and develop and launch a joint project equivalent to the Marshall Plan, implemented in Western Europe after World War II." However, this process remains stalled due to the US administration's attitude to Syria.
"The Arabs, too, prefer to stay loyal to Washington," the analyst said. "For this reason, the just-started normalization of relations between Damascus and the member-countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf has had a very moderate effect." Contrary to many forecasts, partnership with the Arab world failed to gain strength in 2021, he acknowledged.
The analyst pointed to the recent developments in Syria's southern provinces Daraa and Suweida, where assistance by the Russian military helped straighten out the situation.
"True, the risk of destabilization has been eliminated, but the state of affairs remains very serious. The people are tired of ruin and joblessness. They have suffered a lot and are now waiting for living conditions to get better at last," Sabi said.
Security measures on Golan Heights
Sabi said that Assad's visit to Moscow took place two weeks ahead of the sixth anniversary of Russia's military operation in Syria on the side of the Bashar Assad government (September 30, 2015).
"At the moment, Moscow and Damascus are faced with the task of taking the process of re-establishing the Syrian government's control of the areas in the north-east of Syria, still held by US-backed separatists, and resolving the problem of terrorist groups in Idlib Province," he said.
Sabi stressed that "Russia's and Syria's attention is "riveted to the situation on the Golan Heights, to a large extent still occupied by Israel."
"Russia has repeatedly condemned Israel's missile strikes against Syrian territory, some of them against the positions of Shiite groups fighting on the Syrian government's side," he said. "At the same time, Russia is against any threat to the Jewish state from the territory of Syria," Sabi recalled.
The analyst believes that in Syria "Russia is confronted with the difficult task of preventing a likely military escalation on the Golan Heights in the light of Israel's concern over the Iranian presence in Syria."
"The solution to the problem lies in devising security measures among all parties concerned," Sabi said. "Clearly, Russia, which maintains close contacts with Israel and Iran, has the key role to play in this process.".