The game of safe zones

It seems Syrians have no say in their own affairs, despite many conferences and proposed solutions for their crisis. UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura has decided of his own accord to choose opposition groups’ negotiating representatives. Russia has written a draft constitution for Syria and presented it at the Astana conference. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, on refugees’ behalf, has said safe zones would not work in Syria.

The current situation in Syria is more complicated than at any time in recent years. Millions of Syrian refugees have become a plaything for governments, especially after US President Donald Trump’s surprising proposal to create safe zones for refugees in Syria. In 2012, his predecessor Barack Obama promised to set up safe areas, but later dismissed the idea.

The current situation is very alarming. There are more than 12 million Syrian refugees, the largest refugee crisis since the end of World War II. Now they pose a potential security threat to countries such as Turkey and Lebanon, as well as the EU, and have become part of controversies in the US.

There are mixed views on Syrian safe zones. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has criticized the plan, but later changed his position tactically, apparently to avoid embarrassing Trump. Iran and the Syrian regime have officially reiterated their opposition to the idea, condemning it as a breach of sovereignty. Syrian President Bashar Assad wants to get rid of millions of Syrians opposing him after he carried out demographic cleansing.

The Turks insist on keeping displaced people in Syria, refusing to receive more Syrian refugees after becoming a target for terrorist groups that recruited them. The Europeans consider the matter a key security issue to them. They want to stop immigration to their lands by building safe zones either inside or outside Syria.

Lebanon wants to prevent the arrival of more refugees, and to repatriate the one million refugees it already hosts. President Michel Aoun has said he supports Trump’s plan to set up safe havens in Syria, calling for the return of refugees to these zones. Aoun also demanded the zones be supervised by the Syrian regime.

Grandi, who supposedly cares most about providing refuge to millions of displaced people, declared upon returning from Damascus that he was against the establishment of safe areas for refugees in Syria. What a strange position. He does not even have an alternative solution. He cannot convince countries worldwide to receive millions of refugees. He tried but failed to convince host states such as Lebanon to continue catering to them.

Grandi’s view is not entirely wrong, as providing protection in these areas is almost impossible. However, he forgot that millions of refugees do not suffer from insecurity only, but also from hunger, cold and homelessness. There is no perfect solution, but the proposed plan would at least halt the flow of refugees. It would also stop sectarian cleansing, which was a deliberate policy to internationalize the Syrian crisis.

Millions of displaced people have fallen prey to terrorist organizations that recruited a number of angry refugees. They committed terrorist attacks against hostile, friendly and non-aligned countries, as well as against Syrian organizations, amid absurd wars. 

This is the outcome of a displacement policy that Syrians have been subjected to for the past six years. Syrian refugees have become the world’s top priority. Peace has become a matter of urgency. They could be the solution that stops all massacres and displacement.

 • Abdulrahman Al-Rashed is a veteran columnist. He is the former general manager  of Al Arabiya News Channel, and former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat, where this article was originally published.