Topic: Situation in the Middle East
Country: Russia
Delegate Name: Noah Weller
School: Forest Hills Eastern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Russia position papers GLIMUN 2016 committees
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has expressed deep concern over the situation in the Syria, warning that foreign powers supporting insurgent factions and removing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power could "plunge the region into total chaos." Entering into a civil conflict on the side of the insurgents is a disastrous strategy; while the initial goal of regime change may be achieved, it is not done so without creating a power vacuum. Civil wars are not a simple good-versus-evil scenario; instead, they are a multi-faction affair in which numerous sectarian, political, and economic ideologies come to blows in vies for power. A foreign nation that supports a single insurgent faction runs the risk of replacing a government with a group that represents only a minuscule segment of the populace. Conversely, a foreign nation that provides aid to multiple or all insurgent factions will often find these factions firing upon another, as well as on the government. The only scenario that results in a stable government is allowing the current administration to continue existing. It is only from stability that any changes can be made, that rights can be granted, that the will of the people can be carried out; in order for reforms to occur, there must be a government competent and strong enough to carry out those reforms. A political solution to a governmental problem will almost always have greater results, will almost always have the greatest chance for meaningful lasting reform, than a military solution; only a continuous government will have the ability to redistribute power and provide liberties without the power vacuum or oppression that so often comes with a militarily forced transfer of authority.
This mistake of hasty, forced regime change was made in early 2000s Iraq. In response to misguided principles and dubious information, a number of NATO members took it upon themselves to “liberate” the Iraqi people from a leader who had successfully governed the nation for nearly a quarter of a century. While the Hussein administration was destroyed and Hussein himself executed, the people of Iraq were far from saved. Soon after the invasion, while the United States and its allies sat rejoicing at the arrival of “democracy” in Iraq, a number of factions and militias — representing multiple interests from the former Baathist government to Shia Islamism to Sunni radicalism — began to spring up throughout the country. These factions’ fighting led to a civil war that continues to this day, created an ineffectual, disjointed government and military, and even caused the rise of the Islamic State. So said Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2006, “Well, we really would not want the kind of democracy they have in Iraq.” Now, a coalition of nations from NATO members to Gulf States is desperately trying to take back swaths of Daesh-held territory, in an unrelenting conflict of which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov remarked, “We warned long ago that the affair that the Americans and the Britons stirred up there wouldn't end well.”
This scenario is at serious risk of being replicated in Syria, and already has been to an extent. Many have called the conflict a proxy war, with the legitimate Assad government, aided by Russia, being assaulted on all sides by a NATO-backed hodge-podge of rebels, from ethnic separatist movements to Sunni Islamists to a crumbled alliance of mutinous Syrian military officials to the Islamic State that arose as a result of United States-led intervention in the area.
It is for this reason that the Russian Federation opposes any and all efforts by any nation, military, militia, political party, or any other such entity, to attempt to undermine the political and/or territorial integrity of the Assad government. Instead, Russia demands an immediate condemnation of any and all rebel and separatist groups within Syria, as well as any foreign nation that chooses to support these rebels. Chapter 1, Article II, Section 4 of the United Nations Charter strictly prohibits any use of force — military or otherwise — to upend the territorial integrity or inherent sovereignty of a United Nations member state. Is this not exactly — by proxy, of course, in order to allay any suspicion or condemnation the United Nations may have to offer — what the United States and its allies are attempting in the region?
Rather than forcing a regime change and allowing a power vacuum to once again collapse the region into chaos, Russia believes that it is in the best interest of all parties — the Assad administration, the numerous insurgent factions, and even the foreign entities backing those factions — to allow the current, stable, rightful government of Syria to continue unobstructed and instead encourage the creation of a new constitution that is fair to all domestic parties to the conflict.
The demands that the Russian Federation and the Assad government immediately cease the Aleppo offensive and allow Fatah Halab and the al-Qaeda-affiliated Army of Conquest to continue their slaughter of the innocent civilians that Russia and Syria are so desperately trying to evacuate, are absurd, insulting, and hypocritical. A United States-led coalition is currently performing a similar operation outside and in the Iraqi city of Mosul, evacuating citizens and taking back territory currently held by the insurgent Islamic State. It is unclear to Russia as to why this coalition feels they can execute the Mosul offensive whilst simultaneously condemning the Aleppo offensive.
In addition, Russia is deeply concerned with the proposals of NATO member state officials including United States Secretary of State John Kerry and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. Their calls for a no-fly zone over Syrian territory directly violate the sovereignty of the Assad government and are an affront to the Russian military presence in Syria. Any such attempted disruption in the coordinated operations of the Syrian and Russian militaries will only lead to a prolonged conflict — and with it, more innocent civilian deaths. Russia would also like to make it clear that it is not the responsibility nor the prerogative of any nation-state besides Syria to decide who can or cannot fly in its airspace. Trespassing upon the sovereignty of the Syrian government over its own land is an act that will not be tolerated by the Russian Federation.
The Russian Federation strongly opposes the use of chemical weapons, and is very pleased with the progress made by the Syrian government in their total destruction of these weapons. However, the Russian Federation also emphasizes that the restrictions placed upon the Syrian government’s production and use of chemical weapons by such Security Council resolutions as S/RES/2118 (2013) should be extended to all parties to the civil war, including such entities as the former Free Syrian Army, Daesh, and Rojava, as well as reaffirmed to all foreign governments involved in the conflict.
The length and severity of the conflict in Syria has displaced millions of people from their homes or has otherwise led to great suffering for those who remain. Many nations in the West are taking it upon themselves (likely due to guilt regarding their ravaging of the Middle East) to house and support refugees and those displaced by the conflicts in the Middle East. To resettle nearly ten million individuals abroad and to provide social and economic support to them is a fanciful logistical nightmare. To expect them to instantaneously integrate into their new culture, to think that the relationship between them and those in their new countries will be completely peaceful, is foolish and narrow-minded. Instead, efforts should be focused on internal relocation and local humanitarian aid. Many nations, such as France, Sweden, and Germany struggle to deal with the influx of refugees they hastily decided to shelter, developing a severe housing shortage, seeing massive increases in crimes including sexual assault, resorting to building walls around refugee camps, and even creating veritable war zones within their own borders. Meanwhile, the Russian government, in cooperation with the Assad government, has been making enormous strides to provide aid to those who remain in Syria, providing humanitarian corridors to evacuate residents from dangerous towns and delivering more than one hundred tons of food, clothing, and medicine to stricken areas.
Russia wishes for an end to soon come to the Civil War in Syria, but has serious doubts as to the chances of this happening due to the seemingly vested interests of NATO member states to perpetuate the conflict. A short-sighted tunnel-vision approach to the conflict in Syria seems to cloud their judgment as hubris prevails over logic and they seem to fatuously forget or arrogantly disregard the effects that their previous crusades have had upon the region. The Russian Federation vows to protect the stable, competent, and rightful government of Syria against all threats, domestic and foreign, and on this matter it remains actively seized.
