Ayoon Wa Azan (Both Sides Are Lying)

Syria needs a miracle of biblical proportions that would turn the whole situation upside down. The revolution is progressing towards defeat, but a defeat for both the rebels and the regime. Even if we say “to hell with both,” it is the Syrian people who stand to lose, – the people every Arab holds dear and vice versa –, as they go from nightmare to nightmare. The above is an inescapable description of the ongoing catastrophe, yet it cannot be complete without mentioning the sole winner that will emerge from it, namely Israel. Indeed, the Hebrew state neither opposes the regime nor supports the opposition. All that it wants is for the fighting to continue, so that Syria may be destroyed politically and militarily, and then partitioned into sectarian and ethnic mini-states that are at war with one another – with the antagonism spilling over across Syria’s current border to its neighboring countries. I know that what I said above pleases no one. As usual, I will receive objections from opposition supporters. But that is the least of my concerns. My only concern is the Syrian people, who I believe have been caught between a rock and a hard place, that is to say, between slaughter and extremism, with no one to help them or give them a push. My close friends in Aleppo told me that they spotted about 300 armed Salafis, Yemenis and British militants Islamists in their city and its suburbs. The regime says that a victory against the opposition is a matter of days, or that it has already been achieved, while the opposition claims that the regime will fall in days or weeks. But both sides are lying, and are just voicing their wishes that do not reflect any facts on the battlefield of the ongoing war throughout Syria. There are daily crimes that go beyond the destruction of Syria’s heritage in Damascus, Aleppo, the Damascus countryside and the villages of Idlib, to the murder of children. Both sides are killing children while denying it, although the daily slaughters are being recorded on video and then broadcasted, and corroborated by international organization and human rights groups, including the UN, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), War Child and Save the Children, to name a few. But what is the world doing about the humanitarian disaster in Syria? I will not say it’s not doing anything but it is doing very little indeed. At the UN, I heard the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, call for Arab military intervention in Syria. I said to myself that this was an acceptable development, despite the fact that it meant that the killing and the fighting would expand further before the confrontation with the regime would run its course. A few days later, however, we heard the United States come out in opposition of even arming the Syrian rebels, let alone taking part or supporting Arab military action. An official at the U.S. State Department said, “We are doing what we feel is appropriate to help the unarmed opposition be more effective and are working closely with the opposition to prepare for a transition” (i.e. regime change.) This is a trivial discourse that means nothing. If conflicts could be solved with talk we would have liberated Palestine decades ago. The United States has reached the conviction, which is mostly valid, that terrorist groups affiliated to al-Qaeda have become active in the ranks of the opposition, representing a large military force, and making the regime appear mild and moderate in comparison. The U.S. has dispatched a taskforce to Jordan to help it cope with the influx of Syrian refugees, and the prospect of the Syrian regime losing control of its chemical weapon stockpiles. The U.S. administration, fearing a situation similar to the terrorism and resistance seen in Iraq – which incapacitated the U.S. occupation between 2004 and 2006 – emerging in Syria, is taking a more cautious approach, when in the beginning it had supported the national opposition and called for regime change. But the Syrian regime will not be defeated with Kalashnikov rifles, bullets and grenades. The Arab countries are able to send heavy weapons, Stinger missiles or other armaments to bring down the regime’s planes and gunships, but are refraining from doing so for fear that these weapons may fall into the hands of the terrorists. In such a situation, I do not see a solution in the horizon. Instead, I see daily violations of the Lebanese and Turkish borders, and an open line from Iran through Iraq to support the Syrian regime. Then I hear statements that are unconvincing in the extreme. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Mr. Farouq al-Shara can be the alternative to lead the country towards a solution, arguing that the Vice President is Sunni, i.e. belongs to the Syrian majority, and that his hands are not bloodstained. But Mr.al-Shara has been a Baathist since adolescence, and has no popular base of any kind in his country. Furthermore, the majority of opposition factions will definitely refuse to deal with him. In other words, there is no solution. I look around and I see all doors and windows closed, and no one is promising to open them. I hope that I am wrong, but in the meantime, I shall wait. --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.