Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21
By Farhad Daneshvar – Trend:
Dictionaries describe terrorism as the unofficial or unauthorized use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims, while terrorists are defined as individuals, groups or organizations who use terrorism pursing political goals.
Now with the latest UN Security Council session on Syrian crisis, it appears that declaring terrorists is not as easy as dictionary defines. The world has finally decided, it is time to put an end to the five year-old ruthless bloodshed in conflict-torn Syria with a UN Security Council resolution on December 18.
The unanimous resolution, adopted with a 15-to-0 vote urges for new elections in the country within 18 months, following a ceasefire to hold fresh talks between President Bashar al-Assad’s government and the rebel groups.
Specifying terrorist groups in Syria is still a major block for reaching a common agreement on ceasefire in Syria - an essential requirement for Syrian peace talks.
The "terrorist groups list" should be abolished since until it exists, there is hardly any chance of getting a common agreement in the first place.
During the recent UN Security Council session discussing Syrian crisis, a group of European and Middle Eastern states were tasked with listing the terrorist groups in Syria as a previous list prepared by Jordan was not agreed upon.
Jordan, which after the second round of Syrian peace talks in Vienna in mid-November was tasked with listing terrorist organizations in Syria, presented a document suggesting about 160 groups as terrorists, which included Iran’s IRGC (the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps) as well.
Needless to say, Iran's sharp reaction prevented the adoption of the list, and a new working group was set up to compile another list. Now Jordan, Iran and France alongside with Russia, Oman and Egypt will discuss listing the terrorist groups in Syria.
While threats of terrorist attacks are spreading across the globe every day, and ordinary people are expecting terrible "terror attack" news every day, key political players have formed three different coalitions to battle terrorism in Syria - and all three have failed.
The US was first to lead an international coalition aimed at defeating the IS terrorist group (ISIS, ISIL or Daesh), which was launched in Syria since September 2014.
However it failed to stop the IS advances in Syria and Iraq while Russia and Iran accused the US-led coalition of backing the IS. The coalition’s planes mistakenly dropped cargos of equipment, ammunition and arms which were meant to be delivered to anti-IS rebel groups, in the IS-controlled areas.
Following the failure of the US-led coalition to stop the IS, a new coalition was formed bringing Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria onboard. The new coalition is also accused of striking the anti al-Asad groups instead of the IS. Following terrorist attacks in Paris, France coordinated several
operations with Russia to target the IS. However the attempts have led to nowhere either.
The latest coalition against terrorism is the Saudi-led coalition comprising many Islamic countries. Although it is too soon to judge the outcome of the Saudi-led coalition, there are lots of pessimistic views over its productivity as the coalition lacks the presence of several key players such as Iran and Iraq.
Apparently, Syria, over the past five years, has not only been a battlefield between al-Assad and his opponents but a scene for international and regional states to examine and showcase power.
No doubt that the Iran's IRGC has a major role in backing al-Asad’s ailing army and government with setting up the units of civil forces in Syria such as Fatemiyun and Zeinabiyun, supplying arms and equipment as well as providing them with advisors. However claims on IRGC being a terrorist organization are currently incompetent - as extensive investigations must be
carried out to prove it or otherwise.
In other words, until international states particularly the regional rivals including Saudi Arabia and allies as well as Iran, refrain from showing "sincerity" at negotiating table and put aside the fatal sectarian differences aside, the war flames in the Middle East will not disappear.
That leaves the world with an only "safe" solution - to keep discussing the “definition of terrorism” and listing terrorist groups.
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Farhad Daneshvar is Trend Agency’s staff journalist, follow him on
Twitter: @farhad_danesh
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