QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The year 2022 was an eventful period particularly in the areas under the control of the Syrian government both economically and politically among others.
In 2022, the government-held areas had unprecedented economic dilapidation represented by the collapsing Syrian Pound, non-availability of fuel, and long cuts of electricity among many other crises.
However, as the year was coming to a close, it was announced that Turkish and Syrian defense ministers and intelligence chiefs met under Russian mediation in Moscow.
The Moscow meeting was the very first ministerial one between Turkey and Syria in the decade-long Syrian conflict that left both countries on opposing sides.
Militarily speaking of 2022, nothing significant was introduced on the ground that could change the map of influence. Notably, security chaos and protests prevailed in Syria’s south in Daraa and Suwayda.
Political arena
Throughout 2022, nothing significant took place in areas under the Syrian government. However, late in December, the years-long bids sought by Russia to hold a meeting between Syria and Turkey yielded at the end of the day. Prospects of a meeting on a higher level are rising in 2023.
The Turkish Defense Minister, Hulusi Akar, and the head of the country’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT), Hakan Fidan, met the Syrian Defense Minister, Ali Mahmoud Abbas, and the head of the National Security Bureau of the Ba’ath Party, Ali Mamlouk, in Moscow, in a meeting attended by the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu.
Commenting on the meeting, the Turkish Defense Ministry said, “The Syrian crisis, the refugee problem,” and coordination regarding efforts to “combat all terrorist organizations in Syria” were tackled.
It added that the meeting was held in a “constructive atmosphere.”
Amid this reality, the foreign ministers of Turkey, Syria, and Russia are said to meet “in the second half of January,” the Turkish foreign minister said on Saturday, in the latest sign of rapprochement between the two countries.
“We have decided to hold a tripartite meeting in the second half of January. The meeting could take place in a third country,” Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, told reporters in Ankara.
Late in the summer, Cavusoglu revealed he had met his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement conference held in the Serbia capital Belgrade in October 2021.
Remarkably too was the visit paid by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and a visit by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Oman to Syria.
Late in January 2022, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Oman, Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, visited the Syrian capital and met al-Assad.
On March 18, 2022, al-Assad paid a visit to the UAE where he met a number of officials on his very first visit to an Arab country since the war in the country started in 2011.
Al-Assad’s visit was preceded by another by a UAE delegation to the Syrian capital led by Foreign Affairs Minister, Abdullah bin Zayed, to be the first of its kind since the start of the Syrian war.
In September, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, Sameh Shoukry, emphasized the necessity of supporting a political solution in Syria, ruling out at the same time any prospects that Syria retains its seat at the Arab League, asserting Syria should take steps that could accelerate its return to the Arab fold.
Economic situation
Although the Syrian government concluded the year with a political breakthrough by meeting a Turkish delegation in Moscow; however, the economic situation in the country has reached a deadlock.
The Syrian currency is losing its value day after another and electricity and fuel can hardly be found with rocketing prices.
As 2022 came to an end, the exchange rate recorded 7.000 SYP against the US dollar n a sharp decline to the local currency.
Though Syria has depended on Iran’s oil, the fuel crisis comes to the surface every now and then with no solution seen on the horizon amid repeated pledges by Iranian and Syrian authorities to solve the crisis.
A lot of economic activities were stopped in late 2022 due to the fuel crisis sweeping the country amid the government’s failure to find a solution.
In December 2022, circulars were issued to bodies and associations to reduce their attending staff to 60 percent to ease the impact of the fuel crisis. Afterward, a day-long off was given to employees.
The fuel crisis halted many bakeries across Syria, many others closed down while others reduced working hours and eventually production as they were unable to get their rations of diesel from competent authorities, though the fuel is available in the black market, but at a high price.
Late in September of the same year, Banias Refinery Company of the Syrian government announced reservoirs at the refinery were full of petroleum and that arrival of tankers could change nothing in the production.
In July, the Syrian Company for the Storage and Distribution of Petroleum Products announced it would put into action a new mechanism to distribute fuel.
However, though time and again Syrian officials have always said they will find a solution to the crisis, nothing has emerged to address the plight that seemingly sweeps all aspects of life in Syria.
In the last week of December, the Iranian Cultural Chancellery in Damascus said the fuel crisis in Syria is to reach an end.
Areas under the control of the Syrian government remain hit by crises. This makes leading a normal living in those areas a very difficult task, owing in part to high rises in prices that cover all aspects of life.
In a relevant report in September, it was revealed that in order for a Syrian family, made up of five members, to lead a normal life needs an average of 3.5 million SYP; however, at the time, a US dollar was sold in return for 5.000 SYP.
In 2022, people lined in queues were the most prevailing scenes on Syrian streets in most areas under the Syrian government. Time and again, drivers queued for long hours at stations to get their rations of diesel or benzene.
In bus stations in the Syrian capital one could see hundreds of people waiting for a minibus to get on, in front of bakeries queues of hundreds of women, men and even children became an everyday reality in areas under the government waiting to get a sack or two of bread that as a matter of fact do not suffice a family for three meals.
However, the most ever calamitous crisis has been that of household gas. Since the electronic card has been introduced, people say they receive an SMS once each 100 days. Amid acute rationing of electricity, that could have partially solved the crisis by using a leisure cooker for cooking.
Military sector
There have been no major changes in the military sense of the word in the areas under the Syrian government in 2022. Mutual shelling between the government forces and the armed opposition factions occurred sporadically, and Israel proceeded to strike Syrian territories on separate occasions.
The recent Israeli air raids on Syrian soil occurred ten days ago where storehouses in the town of Sayyidah Zaynab, 10 km south of Damascus, and in the periphery of the Damascus International Airport owned by Iranian-backed militias and the Lebanese Hezbollah. Both sites underwent heavy bombardment.
Media outlets said Israel carried out some 32 air raids since January 2022.
In Daraa, there had been clashes between local factions and militants of the Islamic State Organization (ISIS) that appeared after four years.
In mid-November 2022, those factions announced they controlled Tariq al-Sad neighborhood in the city of Daraa following two weeks of a military operation against the sleeper cells of the group which killed 40 militants from both sides.
The campaign started on October 30, 2022, two days after the suicide bombing at the house of a former leader in the opposition which resulted in the death of four people and the injury of five others.
A month prior, the city of Jassem in the north of Daraa witnessed a cautious calm in the aftermath of the announcement of the death of Abu Abdurrahman al-Iraqi a prominent ISIS leader at the hands of armed groups supported by Russian forces.
As the year has come to a close, protests swept again Daraa and Suwayda as the security disorder, and the economic and service situations remained short in both governorates as demands by locals continued to fall on deaf ears, a signal that the situation is going to remain the same as activists call for protests.