In a country that’s lost 75% of its GDP, “reconstruction” is, for now, a pipe dream. The Open University, Queen's University Belfast, University of Salford, and University of Birmingham provide funding as founding partners of The Conversation UK. They said "Opening a front against the Syrian people and dragging Lebanon to war with the Syrian people is very dangerous and will have a negative impact on the relations between the two". [248][249] Israeli official position had until 2017 been neutrality in the civil war in Syria. Since September 2015, Assad’s fate has been tied even closer to Russian policy planning, and has forced the West to talk to Russia as a “Great Power”, one considered as much a shaper of the rules of international politics as the US. "[108] Chávez openly expressed his support for Assad's government while he was alive. The armed conflict in Syria has engaged the major global powers of the world in an intricate quandary with the situation in the war torn country worsening every day. [23] In April 2013, also in Jordan, the United States had set up a $70 million program in the country "that is training the kingdom’s special forces to identify and secure chemical-weapons sites across Syria should the regime fall and the wrong rebels look like getting their hands on them. [118], China vetoed a proposed UN Security Council resolution in tandem with Russia. [149] In August 2015, the US announced it would withdraw two Patriot missile-defense batteries from southern Turkey in the autumn that year;[151] also withdrawn were the German Patriots stationed in Turkey,[152] amidst concerns in the NATO military establishment that Turkey was intent on dragging NATO into the Syrian conflict. Iran acknowledged his death at the hands of the Israelis without further details. The battle lines may be continually shifting but the death toll keeps rising. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has tried to "cultivate a favorable relationship with whatever government would take the place of Assad. [138] The incident significantly raised tensions between the two countries. Several of the arms-supplying states mentioned in this article have ceased their involvement in the war, while others have since intervened via direct military action. "US Assistant Secretary of Defense tells Turkey only ISIS is a target, not Kurds", "Is Syria's Idlib being groomed as Islamist killing ground? If they are imposed, they will indirectly harm the Syrian people, and if they are lifted, they will indirectly revive the Syrian regime;" he attributed the sanctions to "political considerations, as the United States does not have weapons and tools in the Syrian file, and sanctions are its only means. [citation needed] The major Syrian Kurdish opposition group, the PYD, was reported to get logistic and training support from Iraqi Kurdistan. Mr Assad is Iran's closest Arab ally and Syria is the main transit point for Iranian weapons shipments to the Lebanese Shia Islamist movement, Hezbollah. [14], On 30 September 2015, with permission of the upper house of the Russian Parliament, Russia started a direct military intervention in Syria consisting of air strikes against ISIL, the Al-Nusra Front, and other perceived enemies of the Syrian government. This was particularly visible when Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, moved that the Afrin District, captured by Turkey and the Syrian Free Army from Kurdish forces, should be handed back to the Assad regime. City-zenship: What does a Brummie education look like? Following the incident, the Turkish government doubled the number of soldiers stationed at the tomb to 30, while Prime Minister Erdoğan warned that "the tomb of Suleyman Shah and the land that surrounds it are Turkish territory. There are also fears among some refugees that if they return to claim this property they will face negative consequences, such as forced conscription or prison. [119] In September 2012, China announced that it was "impartial" on the Syrian civil war, distancing itself from the Syrian government. [202], In 2014 and 2015, following the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, several sites in Syria were destroyed by the group as part of a deliberate destruction of cultural heritage sites. Sky Blue: Countries that have groups that support the Syrian Government. [183] It reported that Qatar was offering refugee packages of about $50,000 a year to defectors and family. Since 2011, Lebanon has absorbed Syrian refugees as well as provided humanitarian aid. Syrian communities were additionally facing an unprecedented levels of hunger crisis. Between July 2004 and May 2010, the British government issued five export licenses to two companies, with the last export license was issued in May 2010. [167] Israel refused to comment on its involvement in the incident. As of 2014, the Syrian Arab Air Force used airstrikes targeted against ISIL in Raqqa and al-Hasakah in coordination with the Iraqi government. Although Free Syrian Army Commander Salim Idriss denied receiving lethal aid, some analysts commented that information on US arms may not have reached Idriss due to poor communications as the Free Syrian Army command was based in Northern Syria whilst weapons were reportedly reaching rebel groups in the south. [176] U.S.-made BGM-71 TOW missiles are one of the primary weapons of rebel groups and have been primarily provided by the United States and Saudi Arabia. The rights organization billed that Syrian regime decimated 44 civilians, including six children, during the unprecedented times of Covid-19. [226][227], In July 2015, a raid by US special forces on a compound housing ISIL's "chief financial officer", Abu Sayyaf, produced evidence that Turkish officials directly dealt with ranking ISIL members. [99] Subhi al-Tufayli, Hezbollah's former leader, said "Hezbollah should not be defending the criminal regime that kills its own people and that has never fired a shot in defense of the Palestinians". The operation was effected at the request of Western governments as the lives of the White Helmets were considered to be in danger in view of the Syrian government's successful offensive in southwestern Syria.[257][258]. Rates of kidnappings increased as well. Here are some reasons why the conflict is so fraught: Assad became President in 2000 after the death of his father Hafez al-Assad, who ruled for 30 years. [113] According to the report, one such "shipment originated in the DPRK, was trans-shipped in Dalian (China), and Port Klang (Malaysia), and transited through other ports... en route to Latakia, Syria. Professor of International Politics, University of Birmingham, Professor of Peace-Building, Co-Director of Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University, PhD Candidate in Modern Languages & Politics, University of Birmingham, Visiting Fellow, Brookings Doha Center and Professor of Politics, Queen's University Belfast, Associate Lecturer, Faculty of Social Science, The Open University, Lecturer in Politics and International Studies, The Open University, Lecturer in International Relations, University of Salford, Lecturer in International Relations, Staffordshire University.