Year 2021 marked a major increase in efforts to bring back normalisation of ties between Al Assad’s government in Damascus and countries that once called for his demise. But analysts say it was also a year in which normalisation efforts failed to mask the ongoing brutality of life in Syria, marked by extreme economic hardship, authoritarianism, human rights abuses, and conflict.
Nevertheless, many countries in the region attempted to revive relations with al-Assad in 2021, especially UAE whose decision to resume ties came as it perceived the threat from Iran to be growing amid a weaker approach by the United States in the region. Meanwhile, neighbouring Jordan and Lebanon have also taken steps to re-establish ties with Syria, and have urged the US to ease sanctions on Damascus in order to bolster trade.
Meanwhile, neighbouring Jordan and Lebanon have also taken steps to re-establish ties with Syria, and have urged the US to ease sanctions on Damascus in order to bolster trade.
But at the international level, normalisation efforts seem not lead to any viable political reconciliation in Syria. UN Security Council Resolution 2254, which outlined a transition to a viable political resolution in Syria, continued to hesitate in 2021, and the UN-moderated rounds in January and October over constitutional reforms failed, as government, opposition, and civil society representatives failed didn't reach minimum consensus.
In the meanwhile, the Syrian government held presidential elections in May in which Bashar Al Assad won 95 percent vote, but the polls were extensively condemned by opposition groups and Western states as neither free nor fair.
The economy in Syria, whether in government-held areas, opposition-controlled Idlib, or territories in the northeast controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, is calamitous, as 80 percent of Syrians live in poverty. The Turkish financial crisis has spilled over to the north-western Idlib province, which adopted the Turkish currency more than a year ago. Government-held parts of Syria are especially struggling with an electricity crisis due to ailing infrastructure from the conflict, and Western sanctions on the al-Assad government.
In 2021, many countries sought to facilitate the repatriation of Syrian refugees, despite ongoing hardship and safety fears in the country. Over the past five years, more than 282,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt have returned home, according to Human Rights Watch. Most of them believed that the security situation was indeed safer.
But many other Syrians remain hesitant to return, pretending that they were unable to live a safe life with the economic crisis and unpredictable security situation.
Syrians have increasingly opted to take more dangerous routes to find a new home in Europe in 2021. In December, many Syrians were among asylum seekers and migrants trying to enter Poland through Belarus in brutal winter conditions. There are expectations that more Syrians will try to leave the country in 2022.