JOIN USRetaking Palmyra, a moral victory
The recapture of Palmyra by the Syrian army, bolstered by Russian airpower and Lebanese Hizbollah ground forces, was a famous victory for Damascus which had suffered major military reverses and political pressures during 2015. The army’s victory at Palmyra, Syria’s most iconic ancient site, is the first significant IS defeat in that country.
By regaining Palmyra, lost to Islamic State last May, the Syrian regular army has become the principal anti-IS force in the country, a role which had been assumed by US-supported Kurdish protection units operating along Syria’s northern border with Turkey.
The successful Palmyra offensive demonstrated that Russia intends to remain the key external military power operating in Syria even though Moscow withdrew most of its war planes and troops from there in mid-March. Having used airpower to back the Syrian army campaign to consolidate government control over the coastal and central regions of the country, Russia can be expected to continue to provide cover for the army in its drive to regain lost land and defeat IS.
En route to Palmyra, the army has had to clear the highway, nearby villages, and the desert of IS fighters, dramatically increasing the amount of Syrian territory won back from IS. Before the Palmyra victory, the army had made minor but strategic advances against IS, retaking supply routes, and clearing pockets of IS militants from around Damascus, Hama, Homs and Aleppo.
Palmyra is a strategic asset, located mid-way on the highway from Damascus to IS-held sectors of Deir al-Zor and some 200 km south of Raqqa, the IS capital. While it would make politico-military sense to dub Raqqa the next objective, the army may opt for Deir al-Zor because IS has besieged a garrison and 200,000 civilians in this city, Syria’s former oil hub. Furthermore, if and when Deir al-Zor falls to the army, IS supply routes to Iraq will be cut and the army can advance 140 km along a broad highway to Raqqa.
The recapture of Palmyra is a moral victory for the army since defenders of the modern city and ancient ruins fled without a spirited fight when IS fighters swept down from Deir al-Zor last spring. The Palmyra operation has boosted the morale of the undermanned and overstretched Syrian army which, until Russia intervened with air cover nearly six months ago, had been under severe challenge. The generals and their men may now feel psychologically fit and militarily confident to lay siege to Raqqa or Deir al-Zor.
Damascus has been strengthened politically at a time when it is under strong pressure to make concessions in the intra-Syrian talks set to resume in Geneva around April 9. The government can be expected to insist that President Bashar al-Assad – also commander-in-chief of the armed forces – must stay in office until IS and al-Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra are defeated. His ouster is the primary demand of the Turkish and Saudi-sponsored opposition and some Western and Arab allies of this uneasy coalition.
Checking progress of IS
Finally, by retaking Palmyra, the army has prevented IS from wreaking fresh destruction on the ruins of the Graeco-Roman trading station where IS has blown up 2,000-year-old temples and other monuments in its campaign to erase the remnants of Mesopotamian and Islamic civilisations.
Aware that the Palmyra victory is a public relations coup, Damascus has pledged to
return the monuments to their former glory. St Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum was the first foreign institution to offer Syria help in restoring Palmyra’s spectacular sites. Since Russia helped liberate Palmyra, Russian archaeologists are likely to play a key role too.
It is significant that US President Barack Obama and none of his Western allies congratulated Damascus on the recapture of Palmyra, a victory that has generated headlines and photo-reportage in the Western media for many days.
Since their priority remains Assad’s overthrow, anything that is of benefit to him is anathema to these leaders. IS would never have reached Palmyra, destroyed ancient monuments and killed scores of innocent people if the US, which claims to be fighting IS, had ordered its aircraft to bomb the unprotected IS convoys at they drove from Deir al-Zor to Palmyra.
The US is, therefore, at least partly responsible for the agony of the city’s population under IS rule, the desecration of the historic ancient site, and the destruction of the world’s treasures found in Palmyra. West Asia’s cultural heritage obviously means very little to the untutored politicians who rule in Washington.
It must be recalled that in April 2003, after the fall of Baghdad to invading US forces, Iraq’s National Museum was looted for several days while US soldiers in tanks were parked on the street outside the museum. No orders had been given to protect the site. Then US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld responded to widespread criticism by saying, “Stuff happens.”