Orientul Mijlociu

Le consensus des historiens du futur sera inévitable : les années 2020 ont commencé par un meurtre diabolique.            

Aéroport de Bagdad, 3 janvier 2020, 00h52 heure locale. L’assassinat du général QassemSoleimani, commandant de la Force Quds du Corps des gardiens de la révolution islamique (CGRI), aux côtés d’Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, commandant adjoint des Hashd al-Sha’abi d’Irak, par des missiles AGM-114 Hellfire à guidage laser lancés depuis deux drones MQ-9 Reaper, était, en fait, un meurtre en tant qu’acte de guerre.

On the morning of Tuesday, December 20, fighter jets fired missiles at and around Damascus airport, destroying several weapons storage facilities and other infrastructure belonging to Iran’s local proxies.  According to Al Arabiya TV, an anti-aircraft battery positioned near the airport was also struck, shortly after an Iranian plane had landed.  The Syrian authorities hold the Israel Defense Forces responsible for the attack.

The Syrian lira is facing turmoil in the foreign exchange market, with the Syrian Central Bank unable to support the currency because of a significant deterioration in its reserves. There are undoubtedly many economic and political reasons for the decline in the bank’s role. Specifically, however, the end of financial support from Iran has put the bank in a state of paralysis.

Turkey told the opposition its meetings with the Syrian regime did not address the issue of Idleb, according to Baladi News.

The head of the Syrian Negotiation Commission, Badr Jamous, said on Tuesday that the Syrian opposition delegation requested a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu because of “blaming the Syrians”. He stressed that the Syrian opposition did not meet with regime officials outside the framework of Astana and Geneva. 

The fourth division is feuding with the PKK over the quantities of fuel that reach Aleppo, according to Shaam Network.

Kurdish media have highlighted the situation of civilians in the Al-Shahba area north of Aleppo and the neighbourhoods of Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud in Aleppo, which are under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Media outlets focused on these areas due to the harsh siege conditions imposed by the regime’s Fourth Division. The siege comes against the backdrop of disputes with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) over the trade of fuel and other commercial commodities.

Russia’s faltering war effort in Ukraine has caused regional powers to exploit this and try to expand their influence in Syria, threatening to worsen humanitarian conditions there.

Moscow has stepped up diplomacy to normalize relations with the Assad regime and reintegrate Syria into the broader Middle East region, in part by opposing an extension of the United Nations cross-border humanitarian aid program for the Syrian people.

Disinformation will continue to evolve in 2023 with several trends worth highlighting, including: Sino-Russian alignment, more state actors seeking to acquire sophisticated disinformation capabilities, and the harnessing of emerging technologies for information manipulation purposes.

“These are the basic lines of the national government headed by me: The Jewish people have an exclusive and unquestionable right to all areas of the Land of Israel. The government will promote and develop settlement in all parts of the Land of Israel – in the Galilee, the Negev, the Golan, Judea and Samaria.”

– Benjamin Netanyahu, December 30, 2023

Several weeks ago a wave of protests and demonstrations broke out in Syria, especially in the Al-Suwayda and Daraa governorates in the south, which are officially under the rule of the regime but where the regime’s security control is weak. The protests include expressions of opposition to the regime and its head, President Bashar Al-Assad, and slogans reminiscent of the first stages of the Syrian uprising in 2011, such as “the people want to topple the regime,” “long live Syria and down with Bashar Al-Assad,” and “Syria belongs to us, not to the Assad family.” There were also calls to expel Iran and Hizbullah from Syria.