Fini La Guerre!

That today, the Syrian regime, will finally allow some humanitarian evacuations of a bomb-wrecked shambled Syrian city, is no big declaration or break through in peace talks regarding the war in Syria; but  I submit that it is a token accommodation by the regime out of fear of a Western military strike because the regime has delayed the destruction of chemical weapons pursuant to agreement. In the diplomatic push and negotiations to end the Syrian war, the Assad regime is the clear beneficiary of any delay to advance peace accords. Every day that Assad sits in the seat of power in Syria, is a plus for him. Unless he is removed from power, he or one of his cronies, under the current system of administration in Syria, will continue to rule Syria even if elections were called tomorrow. The entire electoral system has to be reformed in Syria as part of any peace plan. Today, the declared "humanitarian pause" in fighting the war is overdue, it could have been allowed by Assad while his representatives sat on a luxurious Swiss mountain at the recently concluded peace talks. Instead, Assad continued his punishment of Syrian civilians, including children, in brutal barrel-bomb attacks around Aleppo and elsewhere. In the city of Homs, a place besieged by Assad forces since mid-2012, and a place that was particularly mentioned and discussed on the agenda at Geneva II, an agreement between the United Nations and the governor of the city allows for "innocent civilians" to be evacuated from the shambled city. But once again, this development, though started through diplomacy,  has only now borne fruit after Syria missed Wednesday's deadline to deliver more chemical weapons for destruction because the regime  feared Western punishment. Lets hope the peace holds and that all evacuees including all the children are allowed out of all besieged areas of Syria. Moreover, here's to hoping the Syrian regime holds to its plans to attend the next peace talks on Syria so that a lasting peace could be transitioned for the sake of Syria's children and towards stability in the Middle East.