Syria moving back to peace

Most of Syria has already been liberated from terrorists, peaceful life is slowly returning to the country, and Damascus calls on refugees to return to their homeland.

"We encourage every Syrian to come back to Syria, especially after the terrorism started to be defeated mainly in Aleppo at the end of 2016. Of course, now there is an acceleration in defeating the terrorism and the majority of the Syrian territories have been liberated from the terrorists. So, we've been encouraging those refugees, many Syrians who have their own business, not only refugees, in different countries," Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said.

"We call on refugees, especially on Syrians who had businesses here, to return," the Syrian added.

US Vice President Mike Pence said in turn: "I am proud to report that ISIS is on the run, their caliphate has fallen, and I promise you, we will not rest or relent until ISIS is driven from the face of the Earth."

A military observer of the TASS news agency, retired Colonel Viktor Litovkin, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, stressed in the first place that the return of refugees to Syria will be facilitated by the fact that most of the country's territory has already been liberated from terrorists.

"Everyone wants to live where he was born. Refugees were forced to wander outside their homeland while there was war, but I think they will return home. The more life in Syria is improved, the more refugees will return to their native country," the expert believes.

At the same time, he focused on the fact that we cannot yet talk about the total destruction of the ISIS terrorist group. "The thing is that ISIS is a network organization, it is almost impossible to destroy it. If it is destroyed in Syria, it appears in Iraq, if it is destroyed in Iraq, it appears in Afghanistan. It is all over the world. ISIS ideas, unfortunately, are not destructible, because they are used among the poor, illiterate population as a struggle for justice," the retired colonel explained.

In his opinion, the fight against ISIS will be very long. "In addition to the Near and Middle East, ISIS is appearing in Africa. In Syria, perhaps, it will be suppressed with the help of Russia, but we still have a long-term struggle in other places," Viktor Litovkin concluded.

The deputy director of the Political and Military Analysis Institute, Alexander Khramchikhin, in turn, noted that the return of refugees to Syria is linked to several factors. "First, it depends on from whom each particular refugee was escaping, and second, from where exactly," the expert said.

He also shared his opinion whether it is possible that by the end of this year ISIS will lose its positions in Syria and cease to exist. "If in a purely territorial sense, it may lose its positions by the end of the year. Overall, ISIS  is an al-Qaeda-type structure, so it is unlikely to disappear forever," Alexander Khramchikhin concluded.