China, Arab League Urge Syrian Regime to Stop
Syrian Protest
Arab diplomats met with a Syrian delegation on Sunday in Doha, Qatar, in an attempt to solve the crisis in the restive country, two weeks after the meeting of the Arab League in Cairo, which gave the Syrian regime a deadline of two weeks to stop the violence in the country. According to the Qatari foreign minister, the meeting was “clear and frank,” and a message was delivered to the regime in Damascus to end violence. The Qatari foreign minister is said to have met with the Syrian foreign minister but there was no report of the presence of any member of the opposition in Syria at that meeting.
It is believed that the Arab League sent a tough message to Bashar al-Assad, which refers to stopping the crackdown and engaging in negotiations with the population. Analysts believe that Bashar could have received the message that it was about time to start packing. An answer is expected on Monday from Damascus.
The Qatari minister said that the international community is overreacting at the situation in Syria as it is misled by what he called “lies in the Arab media.”
The Iranian foreign minister was in Qatar on Sunday to discuss regional security matters. It was not clear whether he met with the Syrian opposition.
In a gesture that is unusual for the Chinese foreign policies but underlines the seriousness of the situation, a Chinese envoy to the Middle East said on Sunday that the situation in Syria could not continue like this and called on Assad to engage in talks with his opponents and to show flexibility.
China was one of the countries that strongly opposed the resolution drafted by European countries a few weeks ago, by which the crackdown in Syria was condemned and the regime was given a strong message to stop.
On Friday, the people in the streets of Syria demanded that NATO impose a no-fly zone in their country as they had done in Libya. Russia and China had opposed until now such a measure, but it would seem that the situation could change, even though neither the United States nor the other members of NATO show any commitment to the idea of intervening in Syria, where the situation is much more complicated than it was in Libya.
However, the increased tension and probably the messages he gets from international contacts determined Bashar al-Assad to warn the Western countries that in case they decide to enter Syria by means of military intervention the country would turn into an Afghanistan.
In his metaphorical speech Assad said that Syria was a fault line and that any pressure on it would trigger a massive earthquake in the entire region. He also called the country the hub of the entire Middle East, and said that though mistakes have been made at the beginning of the operation, the security forces are now targeting strictly the terrorists that attack the country.
Assad maintained his thesis that what was going on in Syria was no more than a situation created by terrorists acting on an international conspiracy.
This attitude seems to be the reason why the opposition refused to talk to the government until the bloodshed was stopped. In any case the Syrian National Council conveyed the message that little was to talk about with the regime, except maybe the peaceful transition of power.
On Sunday, the Syrian prime minister held a press conference in which he announced some “unstoppable process” of economic reform, which is an all-encompassing process which includes media, judicial, political, and administrative reforms.
In the Syrian Druze mountain town of Sweda, people were gathering on Sunday in a rally in favor of the president, chanting slogans and holding portraits of him.
It is the third such rally within a week, after one in Damascus, attended by tens of thousands, and the one in Latakia, attended by thousands. These rallies show how divided the public opinion in Syria is about the regime and how Assad’s people succeed in summoning masses to their defense.
About 200 people have been reported dead by the Local Coordination Committees in Syria and by the human rights activists since the Arab League delivered the message to Bashar two weeks ago.
There is an increased fear, expressed by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who also urged over the weekend the regime to stop the crackdown, that the country may slide into the civil war.
In a single day near Homs, 20 Syrian soldiers were killed during crackdown on Saturday as they engaged in battle with the defectors. As the defector numbers increase and they move over to the opposition side, the regime has difficulties in maintaining the grasp on the situation.
