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Kurds Observe Nowruz in Syria

Kurds celebrating Nowruz in Qamishli, Syria, Asharq Al-Awsat
Kurds celebrating Nowruz in Qamishli, Syria, Asharq Al-Awsat
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Kurds Observe Nowruz in Syria

Kurds celebrating Nowruz in Qamishli, Syria, Asharq Al-Awsat
Kurds celebrating Nowruz in Qamishli, Syria, Asharq Al-Awsat

Kurds in northeastern Syria are marking Nowruz, the Kurdish new year, with the traditional fire festivities, delicious foods, family gatherings, street dances and loud banging on pots, amid growing anxiety among the Arab communities fearing the ethnic group’s expanded clout, with nearly all of the eastern bank of the Euphrates falling under their military control.

In Qamishli’s central market, in observance of Nowruz (which literally means “new day”), Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) flags dot the streets. The SDF is an amalgamation of a US-backed Kurdish and Syrian fighters that have come together to fight ISIS since 2011.

Sakfan, a 32-year-old Qamishli resident, voiced his joy on the advent of Nowruz saying that the day “marks the onset of spring, and is a cultural fete Kurds had been deprived from celebrating.”

Dressed in a kaleidoscope of colors weaved into a traditional garb, Parivan, 26, openly expressed her joy next to 5,000 of those observing Nowruz in Qamishli.

“It is a beautiful emotion you feel when celebrating the holiday and the spring equinox,” she said ecstatic, adding that Kurds everywhere await the advent of Norwuz and “hope for wars to end, and for peace to prevail among peoples.”

Until the outbreak of civil war in 2011, Nowruz was not recognized as a national holiday in Syria. Many believed that the policy behind dropping the celebration was a move by the Bashar al-Assad regime to stifle Kurdish ethnic individuality.

Before the Kurdish Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, known as Rojava, was established, many Nowruz activists, politicians, event organizers, and adherents were arrested by the authorities.

The Assad government has vowed to seize control over areas run by the US-backed SDF with the Syrian Defense Minister, General Ali Abdullah Ayoub, saying that the SDF will be dealt with “reconciliations or force.”

In response to his statements, Shahuz Hassan, head of the Syrian Democratic Union Party, one of the most prominent political parties that runs the eastern Euphrates region, believes that reconciliation talks with the Assad administration will focus on a new constitution which ensures the rights of ethnic minorities in the country.

“Our dialogue will be on the basis of negotiating a new constitution that preserves the rights of all components, and I note that it will not be at the expense of our national principles and democracy,” Hassan told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Any negotiations should be held with international guarantees. We are talking about a roadmap that will pave the way for the start of talks for a comprehensive solution in Syria,” he confirmed.

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Iran Faces Tough Choices in Deciding How to Respond to Israeli Strikes

This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows damaged buildings at Iran's Khojir military base outside of Tehran, Iran, Oct. 8, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows damaged buildings at Iran's Khojir military base outside of Tehran, Iran, Oct. 8, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
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Iran Faces Tough Choices in Deciding How to Respond to Israeli Strikes

This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows damaged buildings at Iran's Khojir military base outside of Tehran, Iran, Oct. 8, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows damaged buildings at Iran's Khojir military base outside of Tehran, Iran, Oct. 8, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

It's Iran's move now.
How Iran chooses to respond to the unusually public Israeli aerial assault on its homeland could determine whether the region spirals further toward all-out war or holds steady at an already devastating and destabilizing level of violence.
In the coldly calculating realm of Middle East geopolitics, a strike of the magnitude that Israel delivered Saturday would typically be met with a forceful response. A likely option would be another round of the ballistic missile barrages that Iran has already launched twice this year, The Associated Press said.
Retaliating militarily would allow Iran's clerical leadership to show strength not only to its own citizens but also to Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon's Hezbollah, the militant groups battling Israel that are the vanguard of Tehran's so-called Axis of Resistance.
It is too soon to say whether Iran's leadership will follow that path.
Tehran may decide against forcefully retaliating directly for now, not least because doing so might reveal its weaknesses and invite a more potent Israeli response, analysts say.
“Iran will play down the impact of the strikes, which are in fact quite serious,” said Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the London-based think tank Chatham House.
She said Iran is “boxed in" by military and economic constraints, and the uncertainty caused by the US election and its impact on American policy in the region.
Even while the Mideast wars rage, Iran's reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian has been signaling his nation wants a new nuclear deal with the US to ease crushing international sanctions.
A carefully worded statement from Iran’s military Saturday night appeared to offer some wiggle room for Iran to back away from further escalation. It suggested that a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon was more important than any retaliation against Israel.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Iran's ultimate decision-maker, was also measured in his first comments on the strike Sunday. He said the attack “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed,” and he stopped short of calling for an immediate military response.
Saturday's strikes targeted Iranian air defense missile batteries and missile production facilities, according to the Israeli military.
With that, Israel has exposed vulnerabilities in Iran’s air defenses and can now more easily step up its attacks, analysts say.
Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press indicate Israel's raid damaged facilities at the Parchin military base southeast of Tehran that experts previously linked to Iran's onetime nuclear weapons program and another base tied to its ballistic missile program.
Current nuclear sites were not struck, however. Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed that on X, saying “Iran’s nuclear facilities have not been impacted.”
Israel has been aggressively bringing the fight to the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah, killing its leader and targeting operatives in an audacious exploding pager attack.
“Any Iranian attempt to retaliate will have to contend with the fact that Hezbollah, its most important ally against Israel, has been significantly degraded and its conventional weapons systems have twice been largely repelled,” said Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, who expects Iran to hold its fire for now.
That's true even if Israel held back, as appears to be the case. Some prominent figures in Israel, such as opposition leader Yair Lapid, are already saying the attacks didn't go far enough.
Regional experts suggested that Israel's relatively limited target list was intentionally calibrated to make it easier for Iran to back away from escalation.
As Yoel Guzansky, who formerly worked for Israel’s National Security Council and is now a researcher at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, put it: Israel's decision to focus on purely military targets allows Iran "to save face.”
Israel's target choices may also be a reflection at least in part of its capabilities. It is unlikely to be able to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities on its own and would require help from the United States, Guzansky said.
Besides, Israel still has leverage to go after higher-value targets should Iran retaliate — particularly now that nodes in its air defenses have been destroyed.
“You preserve for yourself all kinds of contingency plans,” Guzansky said.
Thomas Juneau, a University of Ottawa professor focused on Iran and the wider Middle East, wrote on X that the fact Iranian media initially downplayed the strikes suggests Tehran may want to avoid further escalation. Yet it's caught in a tough spot.
“If it retaliates, it risks an escalation in which its weakness means it loses more,” he wrote. “If it does not retaliate, it projects a signal of weakness.”
Vakil agreed that Iran's response was likely to be muted and that the strikes were designed to minimize the potential for escalation.
“Israel has yet again shown its military precision and capabilities are far superior to that of Iran,” she said.
One thing is certain: The Mideast is in uncharted territory.
For decades, leaders and strategists in the region have speculated about whether and how Israel might one day openly strike Iran, just as they wondered what direct attacks by Iran, rather than by its proxy militant groups, would look like.
Today, it's a reality. Yet the playbook on either side isn't clear, and may still be being written.
“There appears to be a major mismatch both in terms of the sword each side wields and the shield it can deploy,” Vaez said.
“While both sides have calibrated and calculated how quickly they climb the escalation ladder, they are in an entirely new territory now, where the new red lines are nebulous and the old ones have turned pink,” he said.