Did Al-Assad Really Triumph?

Sami Kleib - ِAl-Akhbar newspaper

A few days ago, Syrian oppositionist Michel Kilo wrote two consecutive articles on "the New Arab" website, which epitomized a concrete scandal of the work of the Syrian Coalition and its former head, Ahmad al-Jarba. Kilo said al-Jarba had "gone beyond the standards of democracy," and accused him of "pushing the revolution towards the abyss with his ignorance and stupidity."

Will President al-Assad find better words than the leftist oppositionist and other figures among the opposition about the fragmentation of it [the opposition] to say in his fresh swearing-in address, "Some givens have fallen, coalitions have been broken, councils have been ripped away and committees have been torn apart."

In fact, as Kilo was writing his articles, the Syrian army was carrying on its regaining control in Aleppo, while Hizbullah was taking hold of Qalamoun and border regions. Arabs, for their part, were watching from afar the scene of the "Israeli" criminality n Gaza on one hand and wondering how to deal with IS and its Islamist caliphate in Iraq on the other. Amid all this, Assad certainly felt that he could deliver a speech that is less tense than the aforementioned and to say to his auditors, "Congratulations on your revolution and your victory;" since the other revolution killed its own sons and dreams faded away across the realms of IS, ending up in an unmatched political and military fight.

What are the most remarkable notes on al-Assad's address?

- In form, Assad gave the first sign from the very outside, during the parade of the presidential guards. This shows a sense of reassurance in terms of security in Damascus and reflects the full control over most of the capital's countryside. The time when bombs should have hit the presidential palace has gone.

- Also in form, al-Assad repeatedly threw jokes. Reading between their lines, one can sense his relief and his seeking to bond with the audience, in addition to his ridiculing threats. The comments of his supporters right after the speech on Facebook show well that Assad succeeded in reassuring them to the maximum.

- It is one of the rarest times, if not the first, that Assad speaks to his people with an emotional rhetoric, albeit he is known for favoring the serious academic aspect of speeches. Yet this time, he tackled the "proud woman," and "the old lady," and even the "wounded soldier," who all came to cast their vote. He finally listened to the advice.

- Entering the hall, speaking of victory, joking with people, then leaving with his wife by his side; all this only boosted the bulk of the speech.

- In substance, al-Assad displayed a bundle of conclusions that he wouldn't have broached before. He mentioned the word victory without setting a date for the end of the war. He confirmed the "failure of the aggression, of its masters and their tools." He spoke of "the change of the circumstances, facts, and positions."

- Also in substance, he put an end to any negotiation with the opposition abroad. To him, these are traitors who have sold the nation. Geneva is thus finished.

- He used the language of the victorious towards the big and regional states. He said, "The Syrian collaborators have fallen, and so have done terrorists (...) but also their masters among the big states and other affiliated [countries]."

- Al-Assad went down in the annals of time to accuse Saudi Arabia of conspiring against Palestine. He then corroborated Syria's position supporting the Resistance. Nonetheless, he did not spare Hamas from his diatribes, without as yet naming the Movement. He followed suit regarding The Muslim Brotherhood, whom he named the Devils. Of course he would speak freely of them, since most of the region's countries, except for Qatar and Turkey, consider them terrorists. This distinguishes him from his ally, Iran, which is still kind of open to Hama and the MB.

- Al-Assad did not address any message of openness to the West, despite the security contacts underway. To him, the West is still a "colonialist." In counterpart, he saluted the Lebanese Resistance, and also Iran and Russia. Saluting Russia is salient at the moment in order to brush aside the obfuscation brought forth by the latest international resolution on the humanitarian aids.

- Al-Assad wanted to remind that he was right in depicting the Syrian crisis since its eruption. He said, "Isn't what we're seeing in Iraq today, Syria and Lebanon, and all the countries hit by the disease of the fake spring, without exception, the tangible evidence on the truthfulness of what we have warned of?"

- Also in substance, he reassured people over internal reconciliations, reconstruction, and fighting corruption. He sought to encourage deserters to throw weapons and return to the army. He told apart between those who were lured into deserting the army, and traitors and collaborators "whom the country has been now washed clean of."

- Most importantly of all was that Assad limited the political solution to the internal reconciliations. "Dialogue is then only internal and will not include the forces that have proved not to be patriotic." He meant the Coalition.

- Al-Assad also reassured farmers, industrialists and civil servants so that they respond to the reconciliations calls. This is chief because all studies show that the sons of the countryside with agro projects that have failed previously are the most rancorous and with a tendency to armament.

In conclusion, al-Assad tried to allude that he triumphed over his rivals and that what was left was a completion of this victory. He sought to make everybody understand, especially the opposition and the states backing it, that there would neither be political concessions nor giving up on any powers. No change has become acceptable today. What's after the polls and three years the war is not just like before.

Did al-Assad really triumph? No doubt, the inside can better answer than the outside. The terrorism has put the outside in another place. Gaza war embarrassed everybody. The progress made by the army and its allies entailed a lot. IS and the caliphate issue embarrassed the world. But the most important of all for the president in its third seven-year term is to make everybody inside Syria feel that they have won, not that a party has conquered another.