08 April 2012 By
Tariq Alhomayed It is wrong to
believe, even for a moment, that the Bashar al-Assad
regime will commit to Kofi Annan's initiative and
withdraw its troops from Syrian towns and cities, not
to mention the rest of the initiative's steps - from
allowing the right to demonstrate and the entry of
journalists to sitting down at the negotiation table;
steps which would ultimately mean the end of al-Assad.
What the al-Assad
regime is doing today is like a television show
announcing "we'll be back after these messages". The
regime is seeking to find holes in the international
position; escalating as a result of the Friends of
Syria conference in Istanbul, in order to avoid
another meeting being held by the same group in France
later this month, and in order to hinder the
influential countries that have decided to help the
Syrian revolutionaries with arms and so on. However,
my sources indicate that secret diplomatic movements
are underway in more than one direction to mobilize
international ranks against the al-Assad regime, which
is now trying to adopt the strategy of "We'll be back
after these messages" with its third acceptance of
Annan's plan - with a deadline set for the 10th April,
so as to distract international efforts, and then
return to killing the Syrians. Therefore, the
international community must be aware of an important
matter, namely that when an al-Assad source announced
the regime's acceptance of Annan's proposals for the
first time, around 79 Syrians were killed, and when
the regime officially announced its acceptance of
Annan's plan for a second time, around 217 Syrians
were killed. The day before yesterday, with the al-Assad
regime's third announcement that it had accepted
Annan's plan, at least 60 more Syrians had been
killed. We saw the same on the day that the regime
accepted al-Dabi's Arab monitoring team, when more
than 400 were killed in Syria. How many will die as a
result of the "We'll be back after these messages"
policy today, after al-Assad accepted Annan's
proposals for a third time? Only God knows of course,
but it is wrong to rely on al-Assad's stances towards
Arab and international initiatives; all they do is try
to buy al-Assad more time, nothing more nothing less,
especially if we are aware, for example, that two days
ago Moscow urged al-Assad about the need to initiate a
ceasefire before the rebels, and this is a significant
matter. Thus, the assumption
today should be that we cannot believe the Syrian
regime's announcements and commitments, because al-Assad
is al-Assad, and his diplomacy amounts to "We'll be
back after these messages". He has done so in Syria
over the space of a year, he did so in Lebanon for ten
years and likewise in Iraq for seven years. Therefore,
the Friends of Syria group must complete their plans
in all directions as if al-Assad had not announced his
position at all. It is not important what the al-Assad
regime says, but rather what happens on the ground,
and what is happening on the ground in reality – even
as I write this article – is that the Syrians are
being killed at the hands of al-Assad's forces. Hence
serious steps must be taken to stop this killing
machine, and the first of these steps is to provide
the Syrian rebels with weapons. All the Syrian regime
is doing with regards to the Syrians is adopting a
policy of "We'll be back after these messages", and
the international community, especially the Friends of
Syria, must not be deceived that al-Assad's promises
are anything more than that. Tariq Alhomayed is the Editor-in-Chief of Asharq
Al-Awsat, the youngest person to be appointed that
position. He holds a BA degree in Media studies from
King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, and has also
completed his Introductory courses towards a Master's
degree from George Washington University in Washington
D.C. He is based in London.
Comments 💬 التعليقات |