It's now clearer than ever just how harsh and tense the race in Syria is between the battle and politics, between the field and the table, or more specifically between “Ghouta II” and Geneva II. The race has a preliminary date set: Jan. 22, 2014.
Speaking to Al-Monitor, a Syrian official said that this race between settlement efforts and attempts to change the military balance of power on the ground is fatal and tragic. A Syrian senior security official told the same source that more than 1,000 opposition gunmen were killed in East Ghouta in the past few days. According to the Syrian official, East Ghouta is witnessing the last attempts on the part of opposition militants to achieve real and qualitative progress on the ground, which would allow them to impose a minimal level of conditions during the next round of negotiations. Why is the battle raging in this particular place? Because it's the last outlet that armed opponents have while heading toward the gates of the capital, knowing the significance of accessing any gate in Damascus at both the military and political levels, especially following a series of successive defeats on other fronts, from Aleppo to Homs to Qalamun, which is adjacent to the border with Lebanon. From East Ghouta, any armed military progress can lead to controlling the Damascus International Airport and coming extremely close to the administrative border of the capital.
