r/neoliberal • u/Currymvp2 unflaired • 7d ago

Scoop: U.S. raises concerns about attacks on minorities with new Syrian government News (Middle East)

https://www.axios.com/2024/12/30/syria-us-meeting-attacks-alawites
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u/kaesura 7d ago

Jolani was literally in that camp and others like that for five years

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u/chitowngirl12 7d ago

Yes. This is what I was thinking. It's really hypocritical for the US to be lecturing someone who spent five years dealing with "US hospitality" in Iraq and who saw up close some of the excesses of US troops during the Iraq War.

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u/kaesura 7d ago

It's mostly cringe to me since the abuses are basically about soliders beating up armed militants they are arresting (wrong but extremely common in all armies) while usa police constantly does the same with unarmed civilians.

and the usa hasn't yet given any temporary waivers to sanctions on syria. sanctions designed to take down a dictator that used chemical weapons not to make syria a perfect western style democracy. sanctions that were designed to prevent rebuilding in syria at all -targetting the energy and construction sector.

as a result, there is widespread issues with transportation due to fuel shortages and electricty is only around 2 hours a day since they aren't getting resupplied with oil from iran.

this stuff destabilizes the country. the new goverment is doing much better than the usa so the usa should at least waive some sanctions for now and resume them if the new government turns abusive verus punishing millions of ordinary syrians out of bureacratic inerta.

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u/chitowngirl12 7d ago

I think there will be waivers for some of the sanctions. The issue with the Caesar Act is bureaucratic inertia. The extension was added to the NDAA which was introduced in July. I do wonder if there is coordination with the incoming Trump administration on the Syria file and how much will carry over after January 20th. For instance, will Rubenstein continue to babysit the transition like he is doing now? I'm assuming that he was appointed with the understanding that he'll continue as special envoy.

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u/kaesura 7d ago

The thing is that they are being slow on the waivers when waiving them is really important to stabilizing the country. The rest of the world isn't waiting for the usa.

Trump administrations hasn't been great at coordinating so who knows. Turkey clear thinks that Trump will withdraw troops from Turkey, leaving the SDF to Turkey.

and then you have Rubenstein parroting stuff that the Iranians are spreading online to try to take down the new government.