Trump's Syria Policy Stops CIA From Arming Rebels, Pleasing Russia, Even As Death Toll Rises

As a bitter power struggle continues in Syria and the conflict deepens, a report released Wednesday by the Minority Rights Group revealed the Peoples Under Threat Index 2017 is topped by the Middle Eastern country.

The civil war that started in 2011 has claimed more than 400,000 lives, and displaced over six million people, the report underlined referring to U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistur.

“Syria is now effectively divided between Alawite-dominated government areas, rebel-held Sunni Arab areas, and the Kurdish-led territory in the north, although that picture simplifies the complex patchwork of local control on the ground,” it stated. “Aleppo finally fell to forces supporting the Assad government in December 2016, but many towns remain besieged, cut off from humanitarian aid. As the rate of civilian casualties from Syrian-Russian airstrikes has declined in recent months, civilian deaths from US-led coalition airstrikes in the battle for Raqqa have increased.”

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The 12^th Peoples Under Threat Index was published the same day when a Washington Post report claimed the U.S. is ending a long-term CIA operation to train and arm Syrian rebels in a move sought by Russia.

The program was started by former President Barack Obama’s administration in 2013 to put pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad. However, the anti-Assad program was viewed by Moscow as an assault on its interest. President Donald Trump took the decision to scrap the program nearly a month ago following a meeting with CIA Director Mike Pompeo and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, the Post reported.

The Trump administration also carried out air strikes in the country around three months after accusing Assad of using chemical weapons. A ceasefire agreement for southwestern Syria was also recently signed between the United States, Russia and Jordan on the sidelines of the G20 meet.

However, such international diplomatic efforts have failed to break the stalemate in Syria as civilians continue to bear the brunt. A report released Tuesday estimated about 6.9 million Syrians are still food insecure while an additional 5.6 million people are likely to become food insecure without the regular food assistance they receive every month. The report was published by ReliefWeb, the digital service of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

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Referring to how the conflict has hit the agricultural production in the country, the report set the "total wheat production at 1.8 million tones — 12 percent more than last year’s record low but still less than half of the pre-conflict ten-year average.”

The conflict in Syria entered its seventh year in March. According to UNICEF, the number of refugees from Syria escaping into its neighboring countries has already surpassed 5 million, which includes 2.3 million children. While Turkey hosts the maximum Syrian refugees (estimated to be over 3 million), Jordan hosts 2.7 million while Lebanon has about 1.5 million Syrian refugees living in the country.