Calls for truce fall on deaf ears in Syria's Ghouta
As Syria seeks to "liquidate" terrorists in eastern Ghouta, escalated fighting leaves little hope for the much-touted "de-escalation" zones.
Despite demands for truces by Russia and the United Nations Security Council, Syrian regime forces continue to pound eastern Ghouta this week.
The situation in eastern Ghouta now is similar to that of Aleppo in December 2016, when UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "Aleppo is now a synonym for hell."
Damascus, confident in the flow of support from Moscow and Tehran, continues to take advantage of the conditions on the ground to ensure control over the territories where “de-escalation” zones are supposed to be located. Instead of taming the regime, Moscow is embracing the line of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and is now labeling opposition groups it had previously negotiated with as “terrorists."
A bitter joke popular in Russia these days is that after the country's presidential election in March, the Kremlin may need to declare a drawdown of its troops in Syria — for the fourth time.
