Syrian Government Forces Seize Yabroud in a Deep Blow to Opposition

Over the weekend, the Syrian army reportedly retook the long-contested strategic village of Yabroud, in the mountainous Qalamoun region near the Lebanese border. Anne Barnard of the New York Times says the move will deepen the “despair” of opposition forces.

Long held by rebels, the town “was a symbolic turning point for insurgents and government supporters alike in a conflict now heading into its fourth year. Yabroud was a rallying point for the government and its allies in the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, who were instrumental in the fight, just as they were when they helped take another crucial border town, Qusayr, last spring,” she writes.

“For Syrian opposition activists and some rebels, Yabroud had been a model of what they had hoped for from the uprising that began with peaceful protests in March 2011, a dream that seems to be receding. Before foreign fighters and Syrians with a more radical bent arrived in greater numbers late last year, it was a place where civilians, not fighters, held sway.”

Syria: No End in Sight?

The Financial Times reports that after three years of conflict, the Syrian war has ground to a stalemate in which both the government and opposition lack the firepower to claim a decisive victory.

“The fact that we’re in this intermediate situation where both sides can hope to win, but it’s not clear that they will, is the worst of all worlds,” Jean-Marie Guehenno, former U.N. and Arab League deputy envoy to Syria, tells Borzou Daragahi. “Because all sides have an interest in continuing the fight rather than going for a political solution, all sides believe they can win.”

Going into the fourth year of fighting, “once-vaunted systems of healthcare, education and transport will take a generation to repair. It is also quickly transforming the region, hardening sectarian animosities between the Muslim world’s Shia and Sunni sects and the geopolitical tensions between east and west. And it shows no signs of ending soon. The conflict has become a complicated, multi-layered contest with four big participants, each with its set of foreign backers: the regime, the rebels, the hardline al-Qaida offshoot Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIS, and ethnic Kurds.”

Saudi Aid Boost to Syrian Rebels Puts Jordan at Risk

NPR’s Deborah Amos reports on the effects of Saudi Arabia’s increased aid to rebels in southern Syria, which she says puts a strain on Jordan, as even humanitarian aid flowing across the border to the opposition is viewed as a hostile act by the Syrian government.

Nevertheless, “Along Jordan’s northern border, Syrian rebels say they are unifying their fractious ranks, urged to unite by Western and Arab intelligence operatives who work in a covert command center in Jordan’s capital,” Amos writes.

“Rebel sources confirm pledges of stepped-up deliveries of arms and intelligence sharing. The idea is to support more secular groups in Syria’s south, to pressure the Assad regime from rebel strongholds along the southern border. Saudi Arabia has long been covertly supplying arms to the rebels. ‘Saudis would like to change the balance of power inside Syria,’ says Labeeb Kamhawi, a Jordanian analyst. ‘So the best way to make sure this happens is to make Saudi presence inside Syria on the ground noticeable to everybody.’”

Suggested Reads from Our Editorial Team

LA Times: Syrian War is Slipping From the Hands of Battered Rebels

WSJ: Syria Plans Presidential Elections in Summer

AFP: Syria Army on Hot Pursuit of Rebels on Lebanese Border