I Can Win If Damascus Is Destroyed: Dealing With A Real Criminal Who Has Intentionally Killed Tens Of Thousands
17 January 2013
By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed
What was discussed in the recent meeting between UN
envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad,
as reported yesterday by Asharq Al-Awsat, is worthy of
our attention. The former told the latter that he
could not remain in power. He reasoned that other than
the fact that the opposition is capable of victory;
the price would be the destruction of Damascus. To
this Assad replied, ?I can win the war if Damascus is
destroyed.? This, in fact, is Assad's plan: to destroy
Damascus, Syria, and the region. He already tried this
in Iraq and Gaza and is still attempting to do so in
Lebanon. Here, I will borrow part of the memoirs of
former French President Jacques Chirac, entitled ?Le
Temps Présidentiel?, in which he recounted several
events that took place between the late Lebanese prime
minister Rafik Hariri and Syrian president Assad.
In his memoirs, Chirac recounts a dinner he had with
the then US President George W. Bush in 2004. He
remarks that Bush at the time did not understand
Lebanon well, so he decided to explain to him the
importance of supporting the country and restoring its
independence from Syria and Hezbollah. He told him
that presidential elections in Lebanon were scheduled
to take place in October, and that this would be an
appropriate occasion for a ?new start? provided that
the new president was not ? as usual ? imposed by
Damascus.
Chirac adds that in the summer of 2004, while France
and the US were working on a draft resolution calling
for free and fair elections, accompanied by the
unconditional withdrawal of Syrian troops from
Lebanon, they got what they expected. Assad and his
ally, the then Lebanese president Émile Lahoud, had
agreed to amend the Lebanese constitution in a manner
that would allow the latter to stay in office for
another three-year term. Rafik Hariri, the then
Lebanese prime minister, condemned this proposal.
Assad summoned him to Damascus on 26 August and made
it clear to him that Lahoud was his representative in
Beirut, and that any affront against Lahoud was an
affront against him.
The Syrian president threatened to inflict ?physical
harm? on Hariri and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt if
they both insisted on rejecting Lahoud and the new
constitution. Assad actually yelled at Hariri and told
him that if they wanted him out of Lebanon, ?I will
break Lebanon on your head?. He threatened to pursue
the Lebanese prime minister and his family, wherever
they were, if he did not obey his orders.
On the afternoon of 14 February 2005, Chirac recounts
that he was holding a meeting in the Élysée Palace
when received the news that Hariri had been
assassinated in an explosion in Beirut. Chirac claims
that he had warned Hariri two weeks before, when he
came to Paris. He told him that he did not have any
solid information, but that the Lebanese prime
minister should be cautious. ?They? were criminals who
would stop at nothing.
We are dealing with a real criminal who has
intentionally killed tens of thousands, not because
they were party to the conflict, but rather because he
believes that killing and destruction are tools of
control. This is what he is doing every day in Syria
and what he will seek to do in wider the region if he
remains in power for another year or more.
Al
Rashed is the general manager of Al -Arabiya
television. He is also the former editor-in-chief of
Asharq Al- Awsat, and the leading Arabic weekly
magazine, Al Majalla. He is also a senior Columnist in
the daily newspapers of Al Madina and Al Bilad. He is
a US post-graduate degree in mass communications. He
has been a guest on many TV current affairs programs.
He is currently based in Dubai.
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