Talk about a “military council leading the transitional phase” is still going on in the media outlets and social media platforms. It is understandable that some Syrians, through their interaction therewith are expressing their urgent need to get out of the catastrophic and deadly swamp of the grinding crisis that has been going on for 10 years, even if by “clinging to invisible ropes”. However, what must be understood are the objectives of those who manufacture the invisible ropes and get people embroiled in clinging thereto.

In a few weeks, it will be ten years since the crisis exploded in the country, a crisis that multiplies in severity and pressure every year.

A few days ago, the Syrian Constitutional Committee wrapped up its fifth round of work, and as expected, without any results. It has become quite clear, through experience, what we have repeatedly emphasized, which is that the Constitutional Committee is merely a key to the political process, that is, a key to implementing UNSC Resolution 2254, and it cannot accomplish definitive results without achieving two things:

On Monday, the 25th of this month, the works of the fifth round of the Syrian Constitutional Committee – which has not accomplished anything significant up to the present moment – will begin.

Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Mr. Sergey Lavrov held talks with a joint delegation of representatives of Moscow Platform of the Syrian opposition and Cairo Platform of the Syrian opposition, today in Moscow.

On the surface, it seems as if the Syrian crisis will continue for many years to come. Of course, one cannot blame ordinary Syrians who believe this insinuation, for many reasons, including:

Statements by Macron, Merkel, and other European leaders regarding the “Black Wednesday” the US lived were not statements of “solidarity”, but rather an expression of panic and fear of the horror of the scene that threatens of the “water reaching their shores”.

With the dawn of a new year of the Syrian catastrophe, and because “your friend is one who is truthful with you, not the one who believes you”, we believe it is useful to share with the sides we believe have an interest in resolving the Syrian crisis, our views and observations about the stage the country has reached and the ways out of the disaster. We summarize this in the following messages:

Yesterday, Tuesday, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights published a press release on its official website, under the title: “US must remove sanctions and allow Syria to rebuild”.

A few days separate us from the end of a year that is, by all accounts, the most catastrophic for Syria and the Syrian people. While the world is preoccupied these days with counting its Coronavirus-related losses, the pandemic itself almost seems just a small detail in the long list of tragedies that Syrians are experiencing.