Mark Milley’s recent visit to eastern Euphrates Repercussions and causes

Twelve years have passed since the escalating Syrian crisis, leaving behind more killing, displacement, homelessness, destruction of the infrastructure, ruin in the economic structures, and an increase in the prices of basic foodstuffs, as the citizens are no longer able to secure their daily life, not to mention the acts of oppression, intimidation, and barrel bombs on the safe homes in the cities and rural areas under the title of the global conspiracy and the pursuit of terrorists under various pretexts. As a result, the prisons were overcrowded with detainees and the Syrian social fabric was torn apart under ready-made names that were absent from the Syrians, and the families became distributed in various parts of the world to flee the war.

This fierce war produced new maps in Syria which was divided east under the umbrella of the US-led Global Coalition and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that fought terrorism to its last stronghold and sacrificed everything in order to defeat this terrorist organization. These forces were able to defeat these intrusive terrorist organizations in the country and recorded a footprint in history which is the preservation of civil peace and the establishment of democratic institutions, as well as the preservation of the territorial integrity of Syria and global security by confronting the global terrorism represented by ISIS, and more than that, they sacrificed their best heroes and heroines in confronting this terrorism.

This crisis also opened the way for international, regional and internal intervention after the Turkish occupation of some cities in the northwest of Syria. As a result, the political scene was complicated and its threads intertwined a lot, and the solution was difficult. From this angle, I will touch on the second visit of the US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, to the east of the Euphrates region within 45 days. This visit came in light of the crystallization of new alliances in the region after the possible rapprochement between Russia and China, and after the Iranian-Saudi-Turkish-Syrian rapprochement, in addition to the visit of the members of the Arab Parliament to Damascus, the UAE visits, and the visit of the foreign minister of Egypt and Jordan. These visits, then, carry with them connotations, signals, and messages, as they have an international, regional, and domestic dimension.

Let us first touch on the international dimension: the US is trying hard to drown Russia more and more in the Ukrainian quagmire and not to allow Russia to invest in the Syrian crisis. It is also trying to send a message to China, which is moving a lot in the region through the Saudi portal, that it can never replace it in the region.

The regional dimension is to clarify and instruct the Arab group, which was originally divided between rejecting and agreeing, that they cannot breathe life into the lifeless body of Assad, restore life to this already shabby body, which is based on the skulls of the victims, and place his seat in the pool of Syrian blood.

Likewise, it was a message to Iran which is penetrating into the joints of the Syrian state, and what results from these schemes of daily mutual bombardment, explaining that it cannot achieve its dreams in the Shiite Crescent, nor can it achieve its nuclear program by exporting its internal crisis to the Syrian arena. The Turkish side is not absent in this axis which is a member of this alliance and is about to hold elections, which are fateful for Erdogan and his entourage. The message is that both Iran and Turkey are incapable to provide any solution in the region unless it passes through the US, Europe, and the UNSC Resolution 2254.

As for the internal dimension of this visit, it can be extracted from Milley’s interview with Reuters, where Milley linked the mission to the security of the US and its allies, the permanent defeat of ISIS, and the continuation of supporting friends and allies in the region.

No matter how hard the members of these new alliances try, they remain limited attempts and without achieved results. This is the outcome of the second American visit to the region. It is for coordination and planning with its allies in the region, and therefore it is a visit of guidance and reassurance with dimensions and goals.