Isolating Syria

The West continues to pressure the world to abandon the Syrian government as protesters carry on with violent action.

THE disparate opposition groups in Syria, mainly concentrated in the cities of Homs and Hama, are continuing with their protests despite the government's assurances of speedy democratic reforms. The army has on several occasions withdrawn from the towns it had entered, hoping that its withdrawal would help calm the situation. But, as the political crisis enters its sixth month, the opposition, encouraged by the West and the conservative Sunni monarchies in the region, seems to be in no mood to bring a peaceful end to it.

The West in recent weeks has further tightened the sanctions on Syria. In the second week of August, United States President Barack Obama and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah issued a joint statement expressing their shared, deep concerns about the Syrian government's use of force against their own citizens.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Feisal Mekdad was in New Delhi in July to update the Indian leadership about the reality of the situation in Syria. India is the current chair of the United Nations Security Council. (A country assumes the presidentship on a rotational basis.)

India, along with Russia, China and Brazil, has played a key role in preventing draconian U.N.-mandated sanctions, similar to the ones passed on Libya, from being passed by the Security Council. Mekdad maintained that most of the recent violence had been perpetrated by armed gangs affiliated to terrorist groups.

In recent weeks, huge caches of arms meant for the anti-government groups have been intercepted along the border with Lebanon. In the second week of August, Lebanese Army intelligence confiscated a covert shipment of 1,000 assault rifles headed for the Syrian city of Banias. The weapons were allegedly sent by associates of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who has close ties with the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

Some circles in the West and the United States want to aggravate the situation by supporting terrorist groups against the will of the overwhelming majority of the Syrian people, Feisal Mekdad said during his visit to the Indian capital. New Delhi had earlier called on the Syrian government to exercise restraint while tackling the protesters. Syrian officials were afraid that New Delhi was being swayed by Western propaganda.

In the second week of August a high-level delegation representing the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) regional grouping was in Damascus to discuss the situation with the Syrian leadership. The delegation, comprising South African Deputy Foreign Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim, Brazilian Under Secretary for African Affairs Paulo Pinto, and Additional Secretary in India's External Affairs Ministry Dilip Sinha, called on President Bashar al-Assad and Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem. It expressed grave concern at the current situation in Syria and condemned violence from all sides.

Assad assured the delegation of his commitment to the reform process aimed at ushering in a multiparty democracy, including thorough revision of the Constitution.

The Indian External Affairs Ministry said in a statement that the Syrian President had acknowledged that some mistakes had been made by the security forces in the initial stages of the unrest. Feisal Mekdad said that his country did not have security forces like India's Central Reserve Police Force, which was trained to deal with internal unrest.

Walid al-Moualem explained to the IBSA delegation that the opposition protesters could be put into three categories: economically disadvantaged people, intellectuals and academics, and armed groups.

Widespread economic hardship is a fact of life in Syria. Extended periods of severe drought in the south and east of the country have made things worse. The Minister said that a detailed political and economic programme was being implemented. He said free and fair parliamentary elections would be held and that Syria would be a free, multiparty democracy before the end of this year. The visiting IBSA delegation reaffirmed the commitment of their countries to Syria's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

The U.S., however, is pressuring the international community to abandon the Syrian government. In the second week of August, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton once again called on al-Assad to step down, saying that he had lost the legitimacy to govern. She told reporters in New York that the Obama administration was working round the clock to convince the international community to match its rhetorical outrage with more concrete actions. She specifically called on China, Russia and India to cut off economic links with Syria. China is Syria's biggest trade partner, while Russia has strong military links with the country. India has big investments in the country's hydrocarbon sector.

We urge these countries still buying Syrian oil and gas, those countries still sending Assad weapons to get on the right side of history, Hillary Clinton said at a press conference in Oslo. Washington is unhappy about its inability to get the Security Council to pass a resolution condemning Syria. Instead, on August 3, the President of the Security Council issued a statement critical of both the Syrian government's handling of the situation and the violent tactics of the protesters.

Syria talks tough

Syria's permanent representative to the U.N., Bashar Jafari, compared the country's internal situation with the bloody riots in Britain. He said that anti-government groups had killed more than 500 Syrian security personnel since the riots erupted on a large scale in March and added that Syria would not undertake democratic reforms under pressure and the country's sovereignty was a red line that must not be crossed.

This tough talking came after the Arab monarchies, led by Saudi Arabia, adopted a confrontationist stance in the last week of July. The Saudi King, in a speech meant to provoke Damascus, said that the actions of the Syrian government were not acceptable, demanded an end to the killing machine and bloodshed, and called for comprehensive reforms quickly. The King also announced that he was withdrawing his ambassador from Damascus. Kuwait and Bahrain quickly followed suit.

These moves won immediate praise from Washington. The Obama administration had been a mute witness when Saudi troops helped Bahrain suppress a hugely popular revolt against the monarchy there. Saudi Arabia itself has introduced more draconian laws to curb even murmurs of dissent.

The Saudi King's speech is being viewed as barely disguised support for the Sunni majority in Syria. Many of the activists battling the Syrian government are Sunni Islamists. They have no sympathy for a government that gives sizable representation to Christians and Alawites.

The U.S. and the Arab states led by Saudi Arabia are also against the strong alliance that Syria has forged with Iran and the resistance movements of Hizbollah and Hamas. Their fond hope is that if the present government in Damascus is supplanted, the balance of power in the region will change dramatically.

Turkish Prime Minister Rayyip Erdogan has also been issuing warnings to Damascus in the past couple of months. Turkey, which shares a long border with Syria and is one of Syria's major trading partners, has been under pressure from Washington to distance itself from the country.

Erdogan and Assad had struck a warm rapport and the relations between the two countries had improved dramatically. In the late 1990s, the two countries were on the verge of war after Turkey massed troops along the border accusing Syria of supporting the banned Kurdish separatist group PKK.

Erdogan despatched his influential Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, to Syria in the second week of August. To the surprise of many observers, the Minister, who is a renowned historian with a deep knowledge of Syria, took an accommodative stand in Damascus. While Erdogan has been saying that Turkey is uniquely placed to resolve the situation in Syria, either through diplomacy or through brute force, his Foreign Minister only advised the Syrian government to withdraw its troops from civilian areas as soon as possible.

This is something the Syrian government has been promising to do. Davutoglu offered Turkish help for the training of Syrian riot police. He also urged the Syrian government to start talking with all sections of the opposition, including the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

The Syrian government has agreed with all the proposals of Davutoglu but has said that it will continue cracking down on the armed gangs that are targeting security personnel. Turkey, unlike the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, seems to have now decided to take a back seat and give the Syrian government adequate time to implement the reforms it has promised. This seems to be the view of countries like India, China and Russia too.