Afrasianet - Joe Ghanem - What deal did Trump want to make with the new leaders of Damascus?  

From the announcement of the date of the visit of the Syrian transitional president, Ahmed al-Shara, to his departure from the White House after a meeting with US President Donald Trump, the debate over this event has not stopped inside Syria, but has turned into a public debate that has intensified the divisions in society.

The man for whom the United States of America, until a few months ago, was offering a $10 million bounty for his head, entered the White House as an official guest as the president of the transitional period in Syria, after the Trump administration strongly sought to remove his name from the international list of "terrorism" , something that has not happened much in the history of the United States of America, especially since the Syrian people, and with them the people of the planet, have come to know that Donald Trump has transformed everything in politics, as well as in the economy In war, to "deals" from which he seeks to make quick profits. What deal did Trump want to make with the new leaders of Damascus? 

On the way from Brazil to the United States, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani posted a video on his account on the "X" website showing him with the Syrian transitional president, Ahmed al-Shara, the commander of the US Central Command, General Brad Cooper, and Brig. Gen. Kevin Lambert, commander of the Joint Task Force, playing "basketball" together.

The video was filmed earlier in the Syrian capital, Damascus. Of course, the video included only those strikes that hit their target.

This is not the first time that the propaganda team of the presidency of the Syrian Republic has broadcast such material before every important international event or visit. This propaganda tool has been known for stirring up controversy and debate for months, and this time it has succeeded in delivering a number of the required messages in more than one direction.

Syrians are already divided on this issue, with some pointing to the "ingenuity" of Syrian diplomacy that brought the people in power in Damascus to Washington, to dedicate them as partners in a large international coalition (the International Coalition Against Terrorism) that includes 80 countries, and opens all international and regional political, economic and economic doors for the Syrian government.

Some of them went on to consider that what the current authority is doing is "playing" the future of the country and its people, through a frantic quest to satisfy the outside world at the expense of the Syrian national state and its people, especially in light of the absence of "achievements" at home until the moment and at all levels, the most important of which is related to the security situation and the economic and living situation, which is at the top of the priority list of Syrian society, which has been exhausted by the war and weighed down by high prices and is almost completely torn apart by bloody sectarian strife The land of the south.

Al-Shara arrived at the White House in Washington, D.C., last Monday morning, carrying with him many files and many wishes, and expecting to receive more American demands than this and that, which many Syrians believe that this authority cannot afford or accomplish without large losses on several levels. 

The Syrian-American organizations that have emerged in recent times have worked day and night to arrange this visit, review Damascus's demands, and work to remove obstacles to its new authority, and they have already faced many obstacles, most notably the issue of the Caesar Act and the US sanctions imposed on Syria, which come at the top of the files that Sharia brings to the White House.

The reality here is that Trump himself has faced these obstacles, as he believes that Sharia is a man who can be relied on in many matters of interest to the United States in that region, especially in terms of concluding agreements with Israel, entering into the "Abraham Accords", and partnering in the "fight against terrorism" in Syria and the region, and he wants to give him the opportunity to work more freely, and Trump has expressed this clearly, after many meetings and contacts (and money) with the Saudis, Qataris, and Turks. But some U.S. lawmakers and senators, as well as some U.S. sovereign institutions, have strongly opposed Trump's policy on the matter. 

Here, for example, the Republican chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, Brian Mast (a former soldier who had lost his foot in Afghanistan and is a fanatic of the Israeli occupation entity), stood firmly against the complete repeal of the Caesar Act, and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham led a major effort to enshrine the human rights and security requirements that would lead to the repeal of the law after a long monitoring of the performance of the Syrian authority at these levels. Here, a major role has emerged for these organizations, as well as for some men Syrian businessmen, financiers, and academics in the United States, who worked hard (and at great financial cost) to change the views of some politicians, members of the House of Representatives and the Senate there, and one of the Syrian businessmen was able to arrange a "dinner meeting" between Al-Sharia and Mast himself, and the latter came out talking about a "new impression" of Sharia and the "great efforts" he is making at this stage, to fix things between Syria and the countries of the region and the world. But Mast later reiterated his position against repealing the law. 

Because the US government institutions have entered a "government shutdown" due to the lack of agreement on the approval of the budget, Trump's efforts so far have led to the announcement by the US Treasury Department that it will suspend some of the provisions of the "Caesar Act" sanctions on Syria for 180 days, with the sanctions continuing to apply to operations linked to Russia and Iran (it is known that Syria is importing wheat from Russia until now), a decision that allows the transfer of American goods and technologies for civilian use to Syria, while confirming that most of these goods It requires a special license, and the US Treasury Department has confirmed that the suspension of sanctions will be partial, and there are no longer comprehensive sanctions on Syria.

Trump has used all of his executive powers to achieve this at least at this point, after several U.S. lawmakers objected to the Treasury Department, arguing that the department is an "executive body" that can only repeal executive decisions, not legislative ones. Therefore, Trump asked the executive departments to ease restrictions on certain commercial goods, however, the U.S. Commerce Department required Syria to stop doing any trade with Russia and Iran.

The most important files for the Trump administration are those related to Israel specifically, i.e., the file of southern Syria, the "war on terror" in the American-Israeli definition, and the entry into the "Abraham Accords."

In this regard, it is reported that the Americans informed Damascus, through Special Envoy Tom Barak, and all regional mediators (Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar in particular) before the visit, that the PA in Damascus must be ready to sign the American plan for southern Syria and guarantee Israel's interests in it.

This plan was laid out in a document prepared for signing during a meeting between al-Shara and Netanyahu, which was to take place when they visited New York last month to attend Security Council sessions. But Netanyahu rejected the order at the time and demanded amendments to the American document, which stipulate that the "buffer zone" in southern Syria be divided into four districts, provided that Israel imposes its security control all the way to Damascus airport, the areas of Sahnaya, Jaramana, the western countryside of Daraa and all of Quneitra, with the opening of a humanitarian corridor from the town of Hadar The border in the countryside of Quneitra, up to the village of "Al-Thala" in the countryside of Suwayda, passing through  the area of "Dael" in the countryside of Daraa on the Jordanian border.

According to the data, the Syrians have asked the United States to be the guarantor of any such agreement, in the sense that Washington establishes a military base south of Damascus, whose mission is to monitor this agreement and ensure that there are no Israeli attacks towards the capital or deep into Syria. This is precisely where the disagreement lies between the Israeli and American administrations over how to manage the file and get it out (and not the goal or results, of course). 

As for the broad title of the visit, i.e. joining the "International Coalition Against Terrorism", it is something that is promoted by the Syrian and Arab media supporting it, as it will turn Syria, in their opinion, from a "pariah state" to an active member of a large international coalition, and will stop the SDF's exclusivity in this file, and weaken its position as it is no longer as urgent as before.

On the other hand, others believe that what is required of Damascus in this context is far beyond fighting the terrorist organization ISIS alongside the "coalition forces", but it is also a matter of confronting the "extremist ideology" and its owners inside Syria, and it may even go as far as fighting the Islamic resistance in Lebanon or directly restricting it.

In the first case, it means that the comrades of yesterday in the "Syrian Jihad" will become targets of the Syrian state, especially since the resolution of the "foreign fighters" file is one of the conditions that the US administration currently insists on, with all that this means in terms of the possibility of an imminent confrontation within the military and social environment that incubates the authority because of this matter.

It seems that some hardline "Islamic ideologues"  close to the government have sensed this danger and have begun to propose fatwas that allow for cooperation with external international bodies (classified as infidels in their ideology) for the sake of the supreme interest. What is certain is that this particular file will turn into a major crisis that the PA will face soon, with all the serious repercussions this may have on the security of the country and society, as well as the PA's plan to "empower" itself as well.