A war-torn Syria: Puts Assad under pressure as economic crisis widens

Demonstrations are back on the streets in southern Syria, where the civil war started against Bashar al Assad in 2011.

The number of protestors is not the same as they were in 2011. Still, the slogans and the spirit of the demonstrators are the same as earlier.

The old grievances are not easy to get off. This time the crux of the problem comes from a shortage of food.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees who are living in the highly densely populated camps, including children, are looking for food.

Also, the novel Coronavirus has further worsened the life quality in Syria. Idlib, the most affected and war-torn area, is encountering new infection cases.

Maram al sheikh, the minister of health in the Syria interim government, announced after the first infection was confirmed a couple of days ago, three more people have tested positive.

Thus, there are two ongoing crises: Coronavirus and Economic collapse as civil war are in the last phase. Public servant salaries are close to minimal and protestors have broken out against the falling living standards in the southern Syrian region.

The country is close to foreign media houses like never before. But all have reported the misery, and helpless hard lives are getting serious.

The civil war is not yet over since 2011 that lasted around combined two World Wars. As per the U.S estimates, approximately 700,000 people have been killed and 90% survivors who are left, still live in poverty.

It is hard for someone to expect that how much damage the civil war has done to the Syrian economy. One estimates show around half a trillion British pounds ($630bn) worth of destruction has taken place so far.

“The problem for al-Assad is that he does not have a solution,” said Danny Makki, a Syria analyst at the Middle East Institute in Washington. He either has to talk to Americans or make some concessions or will further intensify the major economic collapse.

Mark Lowcock, head of the United Nation’s Office for the Humanitarian Affairs coordination, said that “Syrians are hungry now a masse in a way which were not one or two years ago”.

He added it is an economic consequence of Coronavirus which is visible now, not just in Syria but across the world. As an estimation, 80 per cent of Syrian lives in poverty and above 40 per cent were unemployed as of 2019.

Now, the joblessness has only further increased after the government imposed the restrictions due to COVID – 19.

Food prices are double than last year in Syria. The epidemic causes the economic slump is a severe issue, but there is one more problem added to Syrian crises is the collapse of banks in neighbouring Lebanon.

 Syria uses Lebanon as a road to the outside world. When Lebanon banks encounter a significant collapse in the banking system, severely impacts the Syrian currency simultaneously.

In a row, Lebanon banking collapse takes along Syrian pounds downwards.

The U.S. has applied new sanctions this week as per the Caesar law act.

The title of the law commemorates the code name of a military photographer who escaped with 53,275 images which reveal the torture and death taken inside the Syrian regime’s prison.

Along with Bashar al Assad regime itself, one of the targets is Iran on U.S. radar, including Syria’s key ally Russia.

The U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, list Iran as United States enemy number one in the Middle East. And therefore, putting more and more pressure on Iran through all, possible ways.

The sanctions U.S. lawmakers intend, if applied to Syria, then it will certainly wipe out a lot of what’s remaining in the Syrian economy.

President Assad seems much secure now, primarily because of the military victories his allies – mainly Russia have helped him to achieve.

Still, the long war’s game is not any way, leading to peace.

The fate of Northern Syria will be mainly decided by Russia, Turkey and the United States, not by Syrians.

The forces of extremist Islamic State are restructuring themselves in the deserts of central Syria and killing Assad’s government forces in a hit and run attacks.

War-torn Syria seems politically unsettled any soon, and Assad government struggles to cope up with the economic crises.