In an unprecedented move, the Arab league decided to suspend Syria and call for sanctions on the country, an act which evidently reeks of the influence the West and others exercise on those who should be the main game players rather than being merely influenced by others. What a shame!
It is not difficult to conjecture that the move is a prelude to a US-led military invasion of Syrian in the style of Libya war and an eventual war in the region. It hardly needs saying that the Arab League would have acted with calculated wisdom and prudence, if it had thought about the consequences of such irrationality.
The decision comes at a time when President Bashar al-Assad has accepted the reforms proposed by the Arab League.
A statement, read by the Qatari Prime Minister, Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, said the League had decided “to suspend Syrian delegations’ activities in Arab League meetings” and to implement ”economic and political sanctions” against Damascus.
Sheikh Hamad said the suspension would last “until the total implementation [by Syria] of the Arab plan for resolving the crisis accepted by Damascus on November 2.”
In response to this move fraught with impending threat, tens of thousands of Syrians poured into the streets of Damascus, Aleppo, Latakia, Tartous and Hasakeh to protest the move which they see as clear betrayal of their country by the Arab League.
The facts on the ground suggest that there is an urging demand for social and political reforms in the country but the situation is not as bad in Syria as in other despotic Arab countries where the hope for reforms is zero. Calling reforms on some levels is one thing but demanding an ouster of the ruler is a horse of different color. As the situation stands in Syria, there is little demand for the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad. However, western powers are calling on the Syrian president to step down. The influence of western media on the international public opinion is so powerful that they are reluctant to see a foreign hand manipulating the events.
Reports reveal that the US and Israel have hired Saudi elements and the Saudi-backed Lebanese March 14 forces in order to foment tension in the country, thereby creating a rift between the Syrian people and the government. Washington is monitoring every move with minute precision as the fate of Syria is politically of paramount importance to the empire as it serves as an ally for Iran and poses a danger to the Zionist regime. Indeed there are some parties which follow their interests in the country.
Apart from Washington who cherishes the idea of overthrowing the regime of Bashar al-Assad and installing a puppet regime in Syria with the firm intention of serving the interests of the Zionist regime in the region, the Saudi Wahhabis insist on the collapse of the Syrian regime. For Washington and Israel, the ouster of al-Assad will ensure the two regimes’ vantage point in the Middle East to contain the ever-increasing influence of the Islamic republic in the region and for the Saudis, it serves a similar purpose on a wider scope. In fact, the Saudi Wahhabis hold the Shia Muslims in abhorrence and make every possible effort to create Shiaphobia in the world.
To the Wahhabis, Shia Muslims and moderate Sunnis are but infidels and should be killed and their blood is not upon their shoulders. What they conceive of the Shia Muslims is indeed a horrid image which fails to fit into any plausibly logical order. This irrational hatred becomes the prime motivation for the Wahhabis to engage in stoking up unrest in some border cities in Syria which throws full support behind Iran and Hezbollah. In a similar vein, the Saudi Wahhabis fully backed the dictatorial Bahrain regime in eliminating the Shia Muslims and crushing with brutality the popular uprising in the country. This double standard in Saudi policy deserves due attention. They back the despotic Bahraini regime which spares no efforts in quelling the pro-democracy protesters who are killed on a daily basis while on the other hand, they fund and back the insurgents in Syria to overthrow the regime. It seems that democracy is defined differently in different contexts and situations.
Parenthetically, the Saudi Wahhabis play a double game in their relations with Washington and Israel. In fact, they have an ambivalent feeling for these two. On the one hand, Wahhabis treat them with hatred and eliminate their elements under the influence of their extremism and on the other hand, they enter into easy alliance with the Zionists and the US when the trio have a common enemy in several regions of the world.
There are times when you marvel at how events happening in one place are twisted to the benefit of one group and to the loss of another.
Concerning the US interference and the conspiracy of the Saudi Wahhabis in Syria, either we should choose to remain ignorant or we should open our eyes to the reality of things with surmountable doubt and reluctance.
Ismail Salami is an Iranian author and political analyst. A prolific writer, he has written numerous books and articles on the Middle East. His articles have been translated into a number of languages.
