Preparing for Post-War Syria
Will Syrians Live Peacefully Together Again?
28.03.2017
Either from exhaustion or by settlement, at some point the conflict in Syria must end. But will Syrians who stood on opposite sides of the civil war then be able to live together peacefully? That question will be at the heart of Syria’s post-war society.
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Quick Facts
According to the United Nations, more than 400,000 people have died during the six-year-long conflict. Around 11 million Syrians have been displaced, of whom 4.8 million have sought refuge in neighbouring countries. Inside Syria, 13.5 million Syrians are in need of humanitarian assistance.
World Bank data shows that Syria's GDP was expected to shrink by 8 per cent in 2016, while inflation was projected to increase by 30%. The Syrian Center for Policy Research (SCPR) estimates the cost of physical destruction at $75 billion and believes that it will need investment of $180 billion to return Syrian GDP to pre-war levels.
The Daesh terror group is on the retreat in most of its Syrian territories, while Kurdish-Arab alliance is preparing for the push on the Daesh stronghold Raqqa, with Turkey leading its own operations against Daesh. The confrontation between the Russian- and Iranian-backed regime forces and Western- and Gulf-backed anti-regime forces centred around the Aleppo countryside and Idlib, after wreaking havoc on large parts of Syria's second-biggest city.
Multiple rounds of diplomatic initiatives at regional and international level have all ended inconclusively. The Vienna, the Geneva and Astana talks continue, but have so far failed to reach a framework that all involved parties could agree on. A recurring topic of contention is the role of the Assad regime, as well as Sunni Islamist militias as negotiating parties and in post-war Syria.
