The hollowness of Assadist peace claims

While Daraa’s defiance in 2011 came as a shock, only a fool could doubt it in 2021, even after losing an entire generation to bloodshed and brutality. Daraa’s resistance is continuing, despite Russian-backed Assadist victories. A new generation of fighters are willing to pay the price of defying the regime again — putting paid to Damascus’s hopes of returning to the quiescent Syria of the past.

Those who did not accept the regime’s presence in Daraa were to be forcibly displaced to northern Syria, while those who remained were subject to regime rule with Russia acting as a guarantor.

Assad dictatorship is still playing the long game in Syria, as it hopes to kill, bomb, besiege, and repress its way to legitimacy.

As the continuing cycle of violence in Daraa today shows, a new generation, 10 years on from the start of the conflict, is picking up arms for the first time to continue the fight