It lasted barely more than two days: a ceasefire in Idlib, the last redoubt of rebels fighting to overthrow Syria's Bashar Al Assad, as well as home to more than three million civilians, swiftly collapsed last week.
Civilians who had gone back home found themselves in the crossfire and fled yet again. Half a million people have been displaced since May and nearly 800 killed.
It is proof yet again – as if more proof were needed – that the Assad regime can never be a partner for peace in Syria. It never was, and it never will be. Its continued survival will ensure that whatever peace reigns in Syria when the guns fall silent will be short-lived, rendered inherently unstable by the regime’s chronic inability to adhere to any good-faith agreement or compromise.
The assault on Idlib began in earnest four months ago and was stepped up in July with an intensified aerial campaign. The result was a series of war crimes – the systematic targeting of schools, bakeries, markets, rescue workers and hospital facilities, some of which had shared their GPS coordinates with the UN to avoid being bombed.
The civilian suffering, exacerbated by the fact that many residents were themselves refugees from elsewhere, and because most of the population consists of women and children, has been extreme. But hopes for a reprieve were rekindled by a ceasefire deal that was announced on August 1 and which came into effect the following day. Civilians returned to towns like Khan Sheikhoun and Maarat Al Numan, which had been emptied of their inhabitants because of the routine bombardment of civilian targets by the regime and its allies.
This quid pro quo is nothing but a cruel joke. Idlib's helpless civilians can do little to force the armed militants of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham to disarm
The ceasefire itself only lasted until August 4, ending with a regime-fuelled barrage of violence that included dozens of air raids and mortar shells. Government forces advanced and over the weekend seized new territory from the rebels fighting them. Civilians who had returned to their homes, navigating through the rubble that was their towns, were forced to flee again, spending the Islamic holiday of Eid Al Adha on the run, often scattered in refugee settlements or with no shelter from the bombardment from the skies.
The Syrian regime violated the deal, ostensibly because the main militant group that controls Idlib, Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, extremists who were affiliated with Al Qaeda, refused to pull back from a buffer zone that separates the two sides and demilitarise it in line with a prior agreement negotiated by Russia and Turkey. The terrorists of HTS, who have faced sustained protests by Idlib’s civilians in rejection of their ideology, are unlikely to adhere to the regime’s terms.
But this quid pro quo is nothing but a cruel joke. Idlib’s helpless civilians can do little to force the armed militants of HTS to disarm, nor should three million civilians be collectively punished for the intransigence of the militants.
The regime has repeatedly violated the norms of war generally and ceasefire agreements specifically in its campaign to militarily reclaim the country from the opposition, never letting deals signed by its own representatives or its allies stand in the way of its scorched earth bombardment of Aleppo, the suburbs of Damascus, Idlib, or other key battles that it has won. Last year, a ceasefire in Eastern Ghouta that was agreed to by Moscow before the United Nations Security Council was promptly and unilaterally discarded, the regime and its allies choosing to resume a brutal siege that culminated in a chemical attack on the city of Douma and the subsequent surrender of the opposition.
The repeated tearing up of ceasefire deals throughout the country over the past few years of regime military gains should give pause to those who are now proposing rapprochement with Mr Al Assad, perhaps seeking a place at the table or an opportunity to draw him away from his Iranian allies. Such hopes will be met with deceit.
But the more tragic reality behind the regime’s serial dishonesty is that ordinary Syrians cannot ever believe it. A common refrain whenever I interviewed opponents of the regime, during brief lulls in the fighting, was that “Assad cannot be trusted”. This has been confirmed on multiple occasions but what it means more broadly is that the regime is committed to complete military domination, and rhetoric that pays lip service to political reforms and human rights will remain just that. There will be no reforms once the regime has won, no gesture of conciliation or concession to its defeated rivals, nothing but the attempted return of totalitarian military control. Its worst instincts will prevail over counsel that points out it cannot hope to hold a country so fragmented and torn by war without fundamental changes and that Syria cannot be stable amid this injustice for long.
Right now, Mr Al Assad’s victory appears to be a foregone conclusion. But what Idlib has shown is that any deal whose basic outcome isn’t a transition away from this regime is a farce, which will sooner or later lead to renewed fighting. That price will be paid by Syria’s embattled civilians and the international community that allowed such a proposition to take hold in the first place.
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Tightening the screw on rogue recruiters
The UAE overhauled the procedure to recruit housemaids and domestic workers with a law in 2017 to protect low-income labour from being exploited.
Only recruitment companies authorised by the government are permitted as part of Tadbeer, a network of labour ministry-regulated centres.
A contract must be drawn up for domestic workers, the wages and job offer clearly stating the nature of work.
The contract stating the wages, work entailed and accommodation must be sent to the employee in their home country before they depart for the UAE.
The contract will be signed by the employer and employee when the domestic worker arrives in the UAE.
Only recruitment agencies registered with the ministry can undertake recruitment and employment applications for domestic workers.
Penalties for illegal recruitment in the UAE include fines of up to Dh100,000 and imprisonment
But agents not authorised by the government sidestep the law by illegally getting women into the country on visit visas.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Buy farm-fresh food
The UAE is stepping up its game when it comes to platforms for local farms to show off and sell their produce.
In Dubai, visit Emirati Farmers Souq at The Pointe every Saturday from 8am to 2pm, which has produce from Al Ammar Farm, Omar Al Katri Farm, Hikarivege Vegetables, Rashed Farms and Al Khaleej Honey Trading, among others.
In Sharjah, the Aljada residential community will launch a new outdoor farmers’ market every Friday starting this weekend. Manbat will be held from 3pm to 8pm, and will host 30 farmers, local home-grown entrepreneurs and food stalls from the teams behind Badia Farms; Emirates Hydroponics Farms; Modern Organic Farm; Revolution Real; Astraea Farms; and Al Khaleej Food.
In Abu Dhabi, order farm produce from Food Crowd, an online grocery platform that supplies fresh and organic ingredients directly from farms such as Emirates Bio Farm, TFC, Armela Farms and mother company Al Dahra.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
Closing the loophole on sugary drinks
As The National reported last year, non-fizzy sugared drinks were not covered when the original tax was introduced in 2017. Sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, 20 grams of sugar per 500ml bottle.
The non-fizzy drink AriZona Iced Tea contains 65 grams of sugar – about 16 teaspoons – per 680ml can. The average can costs about Dh6, which would rise to Dh9.
Drinks such as Starbucks Bottled Mocha Frappuccino contain 31g of sugar in 270ml, while Nescafe Mocha in a can contains 15.6g of sugar in a 240ml can.
Flavoured water, long-life fruit juice concentrates, pre-packaged sweetened coffee drinks fall under the ‘sweetened drink’ category
Not taxed:
Freshly squeezed fruit juices, ground coffee beans, tea leaves and pre-prepared flavoured milkshakes do not come under the ‘sweetened drink’ band.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
Global Fungi Facts
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
The Indoor Cricket World Cup
When: September 16-23
Where: Insportz, Dubai
Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23
UAE fixtures:
Men
Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 21 – 2pm v Malaysia
Friday, September 22 – 3.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 3pm, grand final
Women
Saturday, September 16 – 5.15pm, v Australia
Sunday, September 17 – 2pm, v South Africa; 7.15pm, v New Zealand
Monday, September 18 – 5.30pm, v England
Tuesday, September 19 – 10.30am, v New Zealand; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Thursday, September 21 – 12.15pm, v Australia
Friday, September 22 – 1.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 1pm, grand final
Arabian Gulf Cup FINAL
Al Nasr 2
(Negredo 1, Tozo 50)
Shabab Al Ahli 1
(Jaber 13)