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US-Russian Deadlock Revives ‘Step-By-Step’ Approach in Syria

US and Russian military vehicles in the countryside of Qamishli, northeastern Syria, in May 2020 (AFP)
US and Russian military vehicles in the countryside of Qamishli, northeastern Syria, in May 2020 (AFP)
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US-Russian Deadlock Revives ‘Step-By-Step’ Approach in Syria

US and Russian military vehicles in the countryside of Qamishli, northeastern Syria, in May 2020 (AFP)
US and Russian military vehicles in the countryside of Qamishli, northeastern Syria, in May 2020 (AFP)

The Brussels V Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region, which took place on March 29-30, has successfully re-energized international attention given to ending the conflict in the war-torn country.

International interest in the battle-weary country had dwindled after US President Joe Biden took the helm in Washington and launched a policy review alongside different US institutions. But Syria is now back to figuring high on the agendas of world states.

Tensions between the US and Moscow, however, continue to loom over Syria, where American and Russian forces come face to face.

Military understandings have managed to prevent a US-Russian clash so far, but growing political dispute between the two major powers remains unresolved and has resulted in a “step-by-step” approach for navigating a settlement in Syria.

Moscow, as one of the key backers of the Syrian regime and its head, Bashar al-Assad, has thrown its full weight behind Damascus’ agenda for constitutional reform and elections.

On April 19, Syria’s parliament is expected to kickstart preparations for upcoming presidential elections. Back in March 2012, the country had held a referendum on a new constitution that allows having multiparty political system and multiple presidential candidates in Syria.

According to the new laws, the presidential poll must be held between 60 and 90 days before Assad's term ends on July 17, and only candidates who lived in Syria for 10 consecutive years prior to nomination can run for president.

More so, article 85 of the constitution says no candidacy for the office of president shall be accepted unless the applicant has the support of at least 35 members of parliament. Each lawmaker has the right to back only one presidential candidate.

Despite the country approving multicandidate presidential elections, no signs of who is planning to run for Syria’s highest office in 2021 have emerged yet.

Back in 2014, Syria held its first presidential race under the 2012 reforms, but Assad was re-elected.

Moscow has fully supported separating Syria having its presidential elections from the ongoing constitutional reform process stipulated by UN resolution 2254, which affirms that the Syrians are the only ones who decide the future of their country away from any foreign interference.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in statements on Wednesday, insisted that the 2021 presidential elections cannot be linked to the ongoing process mounted by the UN-sponsored Syrian Constitutional Committee.

Lavrov also reiterated the need for a deadline on the Committee’s work in Geneva and proposed that another round of presidential elections can be held after the Committee succeeding in its mission.

Damascus will likely agree to Lavrov’s proposal, given that it provides a constitutional cover for another term for Assad in office.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, since his appointment as the Biden administration’s top diplomat, has tackled the Syria crisis from two main angles: the humanitarian disaster and the fight against ISIS.

For the fifth donors conference for Syria in Brussels, the US was represented by US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas Greenfield, not Blinken.

At UN Security Council meetings, Blinken confronted Russia by calling for authorizing more border crossings for the delivery of humanitarian aid into Syria.

“As we’ve heard, an estimated 13.4 million people – two in every three Syrians – are in need of humanitarian assistance. Sixty percent of Syrians are at serious risk of going hungry,” Blinken told the UNSC.

“At present, the most efficient and effective way to get the most aid to the most people in the northwest and northeast is through border crossings.”

“Yet the UNSC has recently allowed the authorization for two border crossings to lapse: Bab al-Salaam in the northwest, which used to deliver aid to approximately 4 million Syrians; and al-Yaroubia in the northeast, which brought aid to another 1.3 million Syrians,” he argued.

Due to objections and obstruction from Russia on behalf of Assad’s regime at the Security Council, the UN has lost three of the four border crossings it used to bring humanitarian assistance into Syria from neighboring countries.

Russia has already signaled that it is not interested in renewing the last remaining crossing point from Turkey into Syria, known as Bab al-Hawa, for the transfer of humanitarian supplies.

Instead, Moscow has been strongly supporting the Assad regime’s demand for all aid to be distributed from Damascus across conflict lines.

This is taking place despite the UN and its aid partners saying that deliveries that go across internal conflict lines have been insufficient and open the door to regime interference on where the aid goes.
US-Russian disagreement at the UNSC, however, did not stop 79 delegations from 52 countries from pledging around $4.4 billion at the 2021 Brussels donor conference.

Nevertheless, partakers at the conference were not optimistic towards the Syrian political process arriving at a settlement soon.

“The conflict is certainly far from over,” EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell told donors.

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Jamal Mustafa: Saddam and Other Iraqi Officials Headed to the Gallows with Heads Held High

Jamal Mustafa al-Sultan. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Jamal Mustafa al-Sultan. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Jamal Mustafa: Saddam and Other Iraqi Officials Headed to the Gallows with Heads Held High

Jamal Mustafa al-Sultan. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Jamal Mustafa al-Sultan. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Saddam Hussein’s entourage never expected that they would one day find themselves in jail. It never occurred to them that the American military machine would use all of its might to oust Saddam’s regime and overthrow the ruling party and army. They never believed that forces allied to Iran would assume positions of power in the new regime.

Times changed and Saddam, who controlled the fate of the nation and its people, found himself in prison where he counted the days until his execution. The man was unyielding until his last breath and his will remained unbroken.

The men who made up the Revolutionary Command Council or government soon found themselves in prison. They were interrogated by the Americans and Iraqis and a death sentence was always going to be their fate.

In the second installment of his interview to Asharq Al-Awsat, Dr. Jamal Mustafa al-Sultan, late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s son-in-law and second secretary, recalled the execution of his colleagues and relatives. He also recalled how he married Hala, the youngest of Saddam’s daughters, and how the late president acted around his family, away from state affairs.

Other officials who were held along with Saddam included “Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, my uncle and member of the Revolutionary Command Council Ali Hussein al-Majid, my other uncle Abed Hassan al-Majid, head of the Revolutionary Command Council Awad al-Bandar, Saddam’s half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Hassan, Secretary Abed Hammoud and aide to the intelligence chief Farouk Hijazi,” said Mustafa.

He showed Asharq Al-Awsat a video that recently came to light of Khodair al-Khozaei, the former vice president during the American occupation. “In it, he said that he saw no justification for the death sentence against Abed Hammoud. Most dangerous of all, he confessed that he visited Iran and consulted with a judicial official, who encouraged him to sign the death sentence, which he did,” added Mustafa.

“The truth is that we sensed from the beginning that our trial was a means of revenge acting at Iran’s orders. One day, Abed Hammoud was informed that he was going to be moved to hospital and later that day the guards informed us that he was executed,” he continued.

“Mr. President (Saddam) expected to be executed. The truth is that his very existence, whether in jail or otherwise, was a source of concern for them. I can firmly attest that the members of the leadership bravely faced their death sentence. None of them showed any weakness or faltered,” he revealed.

He recalled the day they informed Barzan and Awad that they were going to be executed. “I was working out with al-Bandar when we received the news. I am not exaggerating when I say that he maintained his optimism even in that moment. They were executed the next day. Days later, I learned that Abed Hassan al-Majid, Farouk Hijazi and Hadi Hassan, an intelligence officer, were executed,” Mustafa said.

“Let me tell you what used to happen. One day, they came up with false charges that before the US occupation, I gave Mr. Khamis al-Khanjar (a Sunni politician) a sum of 250,000 dollars. Of course, the charge is baseless. They told me that I would remain in jail for life if I did not confess to the charge. I refused and told them that I enjoyed normal relations with Khanjar,” he went on to say.

“They later came up with a different scenario. They told me that they would take me to the Iraqi embassy in Jordan if I confessed to the charge and that I would late be released in Amman with a hefty sum of money. I told them that I would reject whatever they have to offer because I would not abandon my values to betray Khanjar, who was a friend,” he stated.

“They later accused me of complicity in the draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes, which I had nothing to do with,” he added.

Saddam Hussein with his daughter Hala in this undated photo. (Getty Images)

First call after Saddam’s execution

Mustafa recalled the first telephone call he had with his wife Hala and her mother, Sajida Khairallah Talfah, right after Saddam’s execution. “Five days after Mr. President’s martyrdom, I contacted my family. I spoke with my wife, and she was in very good spirits. She had very high faith and patience. I asked her about her mother, and she reassured me that she was also doing very well despite the pain,” he said.

“I pray that Gold Almighty will give her health and a long life. We have always derived our strength from her. My mother-in-law lost her two sons, Uday and Qusay, and then her husband. She had played a major role in supporting her husband from the beginning of his struggle. She always used to support him and stood by him throughout his career,” he remarked.

First meetings with Saddam

Mustafa recalled the early days of his meeting with Saddam. “They started when I began working for his special guard. That was when I first met him. Like most Iraqis and Arabs, I believed that he would be a difficult person, but the truth is that I saw him as a paternal figure,” he added. “When you work with him, you begin to develop a different opinion than the public impression. He was a very paternal figure.”

During their first meeting, they learned that they came from the same tribe and were distant cousins.

“I stayed by Mr. President’s side for around 20 years. I started off as part of his personal guard and he then tasked me with people’s affairs, meaning seeing to their needs and addressing their problems. He was very concerned with the people’s affairs and refused any one of them to be wronged. The truth is that many laws were amended or changed at the time following complaints from the people,” he revealed.

“There were two telephones at Mr. President’s office, and both were connected to my office. Whoever had a problem could call the president through the citizens’ line. I used to answer their calls and listen to their problems and set an appointment with the president. Sometimes I used to ask the caller to come in person with their request so that their problem could be tackled. Sometimes Mr. President would interject on the call to ask about the issue and would request to talk to the citizen on the line,” Mustafa said.

“He would listen to the person’s grievance and tell him to head to the dedicated office to tackle the issue. (...) So we used to receive hundreds of citizens every week to solve their problems. Mr. President was very concerned about these issues,” he stressed. “I have never met another person like him. He would listen, care and then come up with a solution.”

President’s son-in-law

Asharq Al-Awsat asked Mustafa about when he asked Hala to marry him. “It was in 1994. As is the tradition in Iraq, I headed with my uncles to Saddam’s family to ask her hand in marriage,” he said. “One of my uncles made the request to Mr. President on my behalf and he agreed and welcomed it.”

“A judge was summoned immediately for the ceremony, and we were married. We had lunch at the president’s house that same day. I first met Hala on September 12, and we were married on September 26. It was a short engagement in line with tradition.”

“Mr. President used to separate state affairs from his relationship with his family. His work was completely separate from family, which had nothing to do with political or state affairs. It never intervened in those issues. Mr. President was a man of state when he was doing his job, and a father when he came home. He treated his family as if he were its father – the perfect father. Every family wishes to have a father that can measure up to him because he looked after all of his children and all of his relatives,” Mustafa said.

“When he sat down to the dinner table, he himself used to serve his own food and ask his children about their day. He would serve them food and generally cared very much for them. The state is one thing and family is another. At the same time, he acted as a father to all Iraqis. He treated them fairly. This is Saddam Hussein,” stressed Mustafa. “He was always keen that Iraqis be treated justly and that none of them be wronged. He was also very firm with his children if they made any mistake.”

Saddam’s hobbies

Saddam was a “very traditional Arab man. He loved traditional Arab and Iraqi dishes. He himself used to cook his own version of the traditional Iraqi dish al-Habeet. (...) He also loved seafood and would cook the Masgouf fish dish himself,” Mustafa told Asharq Al-Awsat.

His hobbies included horseback riding, hunting, swimming and sharpshooting. “Occasionally, before heading to the front to fight against Iran, he would visit the al-Amarah region, where gazelle and geese are abundant, to hunt. As circumstances became more challenging, he limited himself to fishing, which he did regularly,” he added.

He was a skilled shooter from his youth. “Generally, growing up in a tribe, children are taught at a young age how to become a good shooter. This is part of our upbringing. He was also an avid reader. He was always reading something,” Mustafa said of Saddam.