05 Feb 2012
Anyone following al-Assad's official news agency
will be amazed at the volume of news condemning the
Arab League decision to suspend the Arab observer
mission in Syria; although the al-Assad regime
previously delayed its approval of such a move,
eventually signing the Arab protocol late, having
originally claimed the proposal to be a violation of
Syria's sovereignty. So why is the al-Assad regime now
clinging to the Arab observer mission? Immediately after the Arab League announced its
suspension of the observer mission in Syria, the al-Assad
regime rushed to issue a statement from an official
source, saying that Damascus "is both disappointed and
surprised by the decision of the Secretary General of
the Arab League, Nabil el-Araby, to end the Arab
observer mission after Syria had agreed to extend its
work for another month". The source added that the
Arab League's decision was "a prelude to the Security
Council meeting next Tuesday, at the request of Qatar
and the Arab League Secretary General to negatively
influence and pressurize the negotiations that will
take place there, in an attempt to call for outside
interference in Syria's internal affairs". Then the
source said that Damascus "remains committed to the
success of the Arab observer mission, and ensures its
protection". Two things are clear from the above statement;
firstly the al-Assad regime wants the observers to
remain as false witnesses and provide cover during the
latest escalation of its security campaign, which is
what Walid Moallem talked about in his last press
conference, calling it a "popular demand", as if the
Syrians themselves are calling on the al-Assad regime
to oppress and murder them. Thus, in all naivety, we
find that the al-Assad regime today siding with the
Arab observer mission, rather than the Syrian
opposition! The al-Assad regime also believes that the
presence of Arab observers serves as another cover to
strengthen the Russian stance in its defense, so as to
say that the Syrian regime is still committed to the
decisions of the Arab League! The second thing that is evident from the official
source's statement is that the regime is genuinely
concerned about the upcoming battle in the Security
Council, and whether the Security Council will adopt
the Arab initiative. Nabil el-Araby returned to this
issue recently, confirming that the initiative is
similar to the Yemen solution, where a German news
agency quoted him as saying: "the Arab initiative
talks about the Syrian regime going peacefully, it is
an integrated initiative similar to that used to
resolve the situation in Yemen". Therefore the al-Assad
regime is sensing the coming danger, and specifically
what the Security Council will do. Therefore, the
regime hopes to impose a security solution quickly on
the ground, under the cover of the Arab observer
delegation. This method is nothing new to the al-Assad
regime; it has used this approach over the last ten
years, whether in Lebanon or Iraq, or earlier in Syria
itself. The al-Assad regime is well practiced in the
art of making promises and then avoiding them, as
evidenced by its acceptance of each initiative,
whatever the circumstances, and then emptying the
agreements of their contents, rendering them as
useless formalities. So I say good luck to everyone,
and bad luck to the al-Assad regime. All tricks have
been exhausted, and now is the time for those
responsible to be held to account. 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 |