Putin and Aleppo: The dream of Nebuchadnezzar

Like today three years ago, Assad was living one of his unique military “achievements” possibly the first since he resorted to using maximum force against the Syrian uprising. 

Back then, the militia of his ally Hasan Nasrallah had managed to take over the town of Al-Qusayr in Homs countryside amid joy and celebrations and a lot of misguidance and propaganda about the reasons behind making this little town in Homs countryside the gate to protect the shrine of Sayyidah Zainap in Damascus.

Huge was the ecstasy which Assad felt about using his ally’s fighters in big numbers supported by Iranian General Qasim Suleimani and other Iraqi Shia militias to blow the opposition-held areas with direct complicity with ISIS which was besieging the city of Aleppo. Assad wanted through this trio to break the siege on Wadi El-Daif military base and to follow it with other steps in Menegh airbase so as to have access to his loyalists in Nubbul and al-Zahraa villages. 

That choice failed completely. It rather turned disastrous for Assad regime. The regime lost many areas especially in Aleppo countryside, Idlib and al-Ghab. Those losses were among the reasons behind the Russian intervention whose might couldn’t change a lot of the front line facts on the ground with many opposition groups. 

Consequently, it has become obvious that one of the goals of the Russian military intervention is to enable Assad regime and its allies to re-collect their strength in a way that may allow them to achieve some victories and to regain some strategic areas that have symbolic value. 

However, all indications point out clearly that the brutal airstrikes carried out by Assad and Russian warplanes aimed at pushing the remaining population in Aleppo to the Turkish borders. It is a new chapter of the conflict between Putin and Erdogan. 

Since June 2013, the military situation in Aleppo hasn’t changed so much except for some developments which are actually becoming in the opposition’s favor. This new reality doesn’t mean that Assad’s illusions won’t be transmitted to Putin so he may dream that his friend Valery Gergiev will lead Mariinsky Orchestra while it is playing "Nebuchadnezzar" in Aleppo Castle!    

Subhi Hadidi in Al-Quds Al-Araby 

Translated by Orient Net English