Diplomat Miroslav Zafirov: There is a danger that Syria could easily become a chessboard

The challenges facing Syria are how the new government will function, whether it will be temporary, which will lead to elections and how they will be held. The new political elite in Damascus must respond to these challenges in order to have one state.

This was told to the Bulgarian National Radio by diplomat Miroslav Zafirov, political advisor to the UN mission in Israel.

"Syria has never existed in a vacuum, without having relations with its neighbors, and more distant partners. The war in Gaza, which began on October 7, caused a domino effect that affected Lebanon, and at one point the fire also ignited Syria. The fall of Bashar Assad happened quickly because it turned out that the regime and its army, on which he relied so much, were not ready for this challenge. ... Now it turned out that the fall of the president was easily achieved, now the more difficult part remains - the new structure, which must be built on the principle and rules of international law," he added.

Zafirov commented that the main question is how Syria will be built in the coming months, in what direction it will go.

According to him, there is a danger that Syria will easily fall into the position of being a chessboard on which its neighbors and more distant partners play, which will not add an element of stability to the Middle East:

"There is a tendency towards instability in the Middle East and if it continues, it makes the international community feel like a child, numb to all these dramatic events, but we must not forget that this also affects us as a continent, as a union and us as a state".

According to him, the crisis in Syria has a rather long history and began in 2011. as part of the effect of the so-called Arab Spring:

"We should not forget that this crisis and the civil war that led to the fall of Assad have a long history and Bulgaria also has a role in this history. In 2012, our country hosted the first major meeting of the then consolidating Syrian opposition, which for the first time then developed a common declaration, according to which the principles of its work were set, for the way in which it will seek a political solution to the crisis in Syria. This declaration reminds us that we as a country have long-standing institutional relations not only with Syria, but with the Middle East in general, which go far beyond simply exchanging students. The then Minister of Foreign Affairs (Nikolai Mladenov - editor's note) was the last minister of an EU country to visit Damascus at the time to hold meetings with President Bashar Assad and the Minister of Foreign Affairs in an attempt to send a message to the Syrian regime not to escalate the situation, but unfortunately this did not happen.

Zafirov expressed the opinion that the general impression of the way in which what is happening in Syria is being discussed is strongly reminiscent of a scenario in which the partisan "Chavdar Brigade" descends on Damascus on September 9 and announces the fall of tyranny.