WarSclerotic

Failing to hunt Assad in NY.

Al Arabiya

It is an illusion to believe that the Security Council, in its current state, could give legitimacy to ousting the Syrian regime. It is yet another illusion to think that the Arab League decision, even before it was vetoed by Russia and China at the Security Council, would have changed politics in Syria.

The key solution is not in New York, but in two locations; namely Cairo and Damascus. The Arab League could punish the Syrian regime, for the mass killings clearly committed against its civilians, by ousting it from the Arab organization and granting the Syrian opposition the right to represent the country. The Arab League, and not the Security Council, is the one that can grant legitimacy to the opposition, then other organizations will follow. That’s how the Arab League did in reaction to the crimes committed by the Qaddafi troops while quelling the rebellious Libyan cities.

It is not true that the League’s decision to the Security Council, as some legal experts think, would permit to haunt the Syrian bear; on the contrary, it placed them in a dilemma as failing in New York gave Assad legitimacy to stay. Furthermore, it extended extra weeks and months to the brutal regime for more killings and destruction.

The failed decision was based on Arab League plan, already full of faults. It proposed for a joint government by the regime and opposition, but it did not name which opposition that will take part. Accordingly, this ambiguity will drag the argument for months. Syria and its allies, Iran and Russia have identified — by name — which opposition group would they recognize, including some of their loyalists. Secondly, the plan didn’t either explain responsibilities. For example who will run the sovereign ministries: Defense, Interior, Foreign and Finance; and moreover, who will be in charge of the Intelligence agencies, and there are so many of them?

Even the celebrated text of the Arab decision was written in a way contradicting with the statements of the Arab ministers. They claimed that President Assad should relinquish his powers to the Vice President and, accordingly, he would lose the authority, right? Wrong.. The written text has talks about limited authority…“the President should authorize his first vice president, with complete liabilities, to fully cooperate with the national unity government to be able to carry out its duties during the transitional period.” This means that Bashar would authorize his deputy to cooperate with a joint government with the opposition. Thus it is an authorization to cooperate not to rule the country. The original text was watered down to the point that it became toothless.

The post of the President in Syria is different than the limited responsibilities of the prime minister. The former is responsible for managing security and military apparatus while the government runs service ministries such as Health, Agriculture, Transportation….etc.

Why is the Arab League behaving badly? I believe the League is bullied by supporters of the Syrian regime; namely governments like Algeria, Sudan and Iraq. And it fears criticism due to the false campaign against any kind of international intervention, even the one that has saved the Libyan people.

The Arab League should oust Assad’s regime as a member state, as a first step, and should clearly support the Syrian people in their right to defend themselves. Those two steps are enough to change the situation on the ground, and convince the international community to follow the path of the Arab League. Afterwards, Arab governments and organizations will find the means to confront the atrocities of the Syrian regime. Most of Arab governments still have their embassies operating in Damascus, and all the representatives of Bashar are still working normally at their nineteen embassies in the Arab countries. So how could the Security Council be keener to halt the Assad massacres?

(The writer is the General Manager of Al Arabiya. The article was published in the London-based Asharq al-Awsat on Feb. 5, 2012, and was translated by Abeer Tayel.)

This entry was posted on February 6, 2012 at 7:43 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.