Syrian’s Uprising Marks One Year Anniversary

March 14 marks the first year anniversary of the pro-democratic protests that turned into a high scale of violence between the opposition and the regime during the last months. The regime does not seems eager to slow the violence as yesterday its army took control over Idlib city and launched a heavy offensive on Daraa, the town rebels call “the birthplace of our revolution.” The regime sent 150 tanks and busloads of security forces to the city, “It seems they want to have a situation similar to Idlib and Homs,” said Anwar Fares, an activist in Daraa.

Today, thousands of Syrians gathered in central square of Damascus, expressing their support to President Bashar al-Assad. Men were seen chanting support to the Syrian leader, waving Syrian flags and Russian flags, Syria’s main international backer and arms supplier.  However, it was reported that the regime orchestrated these support demonstrations.

Senator John MacCain (R-AZ) reckoned that the U.S. efforts to handled the Syrian conflict through “the current policy of diplomacy backed by sanctions has been overtaken by events.” Therefore he called the U.S. to intervene to end violence and push for stepping down Assad. However he believed that the US should act together with “our friends in the Arab League, the European Union and NATO, especially Turkey.”

In a piece in OpenDemocracy, the journalist Ellie Violet Bramley questioned the ‘assumption’ that Bashar al-Assad will fall, as President Barack Obama recently mentioned, “it’s not a question of… if Assad leaves. It’s a question of when.” The assumption allowed the international community to not take any action, which Bramley believes must change.

President Obama expressed skepticism on the sequence of events in Syria on Wednesday. “It’s very important for us to make sure that we have thought through all of our actions before we take those steps,” he said. The skepticism is shared by French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alain Juppe, who refused to provide weapons to the opposition, ”the Syrian people are deeply divided, and if we give arms to a certain faction of the Syrian opposition, we would make a civil war among Christians, Alawites, Sunnis and Shiites,” said the Minister.

Meanwhile the Guardian had access to leaked emails from Assad, his wife and close collaborators. The emails revealed a distant leader from the events occurring in Syria and highlighted that he has followed Iran’s advice in his policy to put down the upheaval.