Alwaght- Last weekend, the Saudi Arabian state-run news agency (SPA) published a report claiming that the King Salman of Saudi Arabia ordered launching a popular fundraising campaign meant to collect funds for the Syrian people. According to the report, the raised money is planned to be spent on establishing camps and providing food and medicines and blankets for the Syrian refugees. But the report has declined to comment on the exact location of camps that are scheduled to be set up for the Syrian war refugees.
The SPA maintained that the Saudi monarch himself donated 20 million Saudi rials ($5.3 million) to the fundraising move. Muhammad bin Nayef, the kingdom’s crown prince, also reportedly donated 10 million Saudi rials.
The report has given rise to two key questions: What are the Saudi Arabian goals behind such a fundraising measure while the battlegrounds are seeing victories of the Syrian government and its allies, including the recent triumph of liberation of Aleppo? What does this initiative mean for the Syrian people while the Saudi government itself has an overarching role in offering military and logistical supports to the terrorists as well as the political and armed Syrian opposition?
Before giving answers to the questions, first we need to have a look at the very latest Syria crisis developments after the strategic northern city of Aleppo was retaken from the terrorists two weeks ago. This helps us get a clearer and more expressive picture of the equation that is in the making. Taking back Aleppo serves the Syrian government’s and its allies' interests and works against the anti-Damascus camp from several aspects. The win marked a turning point in Syria’s erosive crisis. Due to its significance and place in later military plannings and strategies as well as launching anti-terror psychological warfare, the achievement could stand example for liberation of new areas like Idlib province. Besides, the political settlement is seeing a boost as Iran and Russia-proposed initiatives shape approaches of other actors like Turkey in Syria. Recently, Baghdad has placed an application to join the Tehran-Moscow bloc. Such a situation led to a dispersal and disunity of the Syrian opposition forces and their international backers.
Amid such conditions, we can observe rise of three significant measures: pursuing an active diplomacy along with pressures on the UN Security Council and highlighting issues such as civilians' deaths, demands for removal of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and blasting the pro-Damascus Russian-Iranian postures. Second, advocating ceasefire and making a decision to arm the Syrian opposition with modern weapons including the anti-aircraft missiles by the US, though it is not yet made clear how these arms are to be sent to the fighters. Third, collecting popular aids by Riyadh, a measure analysts call a move to raise funding to arm the opposition forces.
This step in being taken at a time when the economic austerity measures, falling oil incomes, and foreign debts have caused the kingdom to fail to provide generous financial backing and services to the anti-Assad opposition as before. Instead, the fundraising step can incentivize a network of Arab funders, princes, and charity institutions which have links with Riyadh and fall in a master-subordinate circle to contribute a considerable amount of money.
The program for gathering financial aids to the Syrian people by the kingdom can be an effort to cover up the failure of attempts that aimed at blocking return of Aleppo to the Syrian government and also an outcry of its distancing from the future peace negotiations.
The fundraising campaign under the cover of supporting the refugees while Aleppo residents are showing signs of preparing to return home can be a symbolic move by Saudi Arabia to reconstruct the city's economic infrastructures.
The fundraising drive can also be a face-saving endeavor by Saudi Arabia while, according to the analysts, the rays of hope for winding down of the crisis began to show face. In fact, the different actors are trying to prepare themselves for the emerging conditions. This is particularly observable with Saudi Arabia whose interventions have left an abominable image of it among the Syrians.
