Are Assad Actions Causing a New 'Cold War' in the Middle East?
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Reform Party RSS FeedRPS Notes: Economic sanctions are the panacea that will force Assad to change his behavior in a clear and accountable fashion. We urge the US to stand firm on applying the sanctions fully as a mean to show determination in the face of danger and terror, especially that Sham Wings is owned by the notoriously [...]
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Sectarian violence in north Lebanon could provide Syria with a new pretext to intervene in its neighbor, anti-Syrian Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said on Thursday.
Jumblatt also stressed the need for reconciliation among followers of rival leaders whose power struggle pushed the country to the brink of a new civil war in May. [...]
Reuters
Sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator is looking at buying an Internet service provider (ISP) in Syria, its chief executive said on Thursday.
“We are looking at an ISP in Syria,” CEO Phuthuma Nhleko told a presentation after the company issued its first-half results, without giving further details. MTN already provides mobile phone services in Syria.
Assad Spin, Assad Terror, Lebanon Sovereignty Comments (0)
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Thursday said clashes with the Alawite community could lead to renewed Syrian military intervention in Lebanon.
Jumblat recalled that when some Christian villages were besieged in 1976, in the early stage of the civil war, “the Christians went to Damascus and asked for Syrian protection.”
“Why should we give the Syrians a pretext to intervene as they did in 1976?” Jumblat asked.
“This could happen again with the Alawites. They feel they are a minority and they know they can be protected,” he added.
Lebanese leaders should work for defusing sectarian tension in the north “and every where,” Jumblat advised.
He criticized the “cancerous sectarian agitation.”
Jumblat urged Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri to defuse tensions among their partisans.
“Dialogue is the only option,” he concluded.
RPS Staff @ August 28, 2008
Lebanon Sovereignty, Syrian Economy Comments (0)
Lebanese security sources are saying that teams from Syria’s Irrigation Ministry began digging two water wells in Lebanese territory west of Dir Al-’Asheir village in the border region.
According to the sources, the digging began over a week ago.
It was also reported that the Syrian teams have prepared large tanks in Syrian territory to store the water pumped from the wells, and that the water will be used in Damascus and its suburbs.
Source: Al-Mustaqbal, Lebanon, August 28, 2008
RPS Staff @ August 28, 2008
Assad - The Idiot, Assad Terror, Russian Foreign Policy, Russian Military, Syrian Military, Syrian Policy, Syrian-Russian Relations Comments (0)
RPS Notes: This particular incident demonstrates without a doubt that the Assad regime is out of touch with reality and is incapable of fully grasping the nuances of international politics in a world coalescing around capitalism and financial self-interests. The danger lies when Assad is able to obtain WMD and believes that its usage against any country will have wide acceptance amongst his friends and allies and that he can muster worldwide support for an action deemed to fit fully within the framework of a damaging “resistance” policy. Be it Iraq or Lebanon or Israel, Assad’s thirst for blood is misunderstood as political maneuvering by believers in diplomacy.
Guy Bechor - Ynet
Syrian leader thought Cold War is back, but Russia made it clear Assad was wrong
The Syrian army’s aging generals couldn’t believe their eyes: The Soviet Union is back. After seeing Russian tanks entering Georgia, they thought that time can be turned back two decades, to the era where the Soviet superpower backed President Hafez al-Assad; an era where Soviet advisors stayed in Syria, Soviet warships docked at the Tartus port, and Moscow transferred missiles and tanks to Damascus for free. Most importantly, it was an era where the Soviet Union provided Syria with protection against Israel.
Bashar Assad’s advisors therefore gave him the worst possible advice. The time has come to make Russia an offer it cannot refuse, they told him. And Assad, the perpetual rookie, of course took the advice. And so, the Syrian president headed to Moscow with a series of proposals, which the generals thought both sides will benefit from.
1. Syria agrees to Russian deployment of advanced ground-to-ground missiles in its territory as a counterweight to the American missile deployment in Poland.
2. Syria agrees that Russian Air Force jets will use Syrian territory and airspace.
3. The seaport at Tartus will be reopened.
4. Russia will be granted a friendly military outpost in the Middle East, at the gate to Europe, and go back to being a regional power.
In exchange, Assad intended to request advanced ground-to-ground missiles, as well as other weapons. His gut-feeling was excellent, and he mentioned his proposal in a briefing with Russian reporters ahead of his trip to Moscow.
The Syrian leader was stunned when the Russians slapped him in the face. Putin and Medvedev’s answer to his request was “not interested.” They have no interest in embarking on a new cold war. The slap was even worse because the Russians refused to sell advanced missiles to the Syrians, and added a few conditions: Firstly, they will be selling Syria defensive weapons only, rather than offensive ones. Secondly, they will not be selling Syria arms that would change the status quo of full Israeli supremacy over Syria. Thirdly, everything they sell will be paid for in cash, in advance.
The Russians know very well that Syria’s economy is unstable. They know that the Iranians help the Syrians with payments, but they also know that Iran itself is facing great difficulties. Assad swallowed the insult and returned to Damascus.
Why was there no chance for Assad’s “golden package” to begin with? Because Russia is not the Soviet Union. What Assad’s generals failed to grasp is that by invading Georgia Russia caused itself economic and political damage that would take years to repair. Russia is a capitalistic country that relies on its economy, and the economy responded with immense anxiety to the Georgia events.
The investors who lifted the Russian economy are simply running away now $12 billion were taken out of Russia in the past two weeks. The Russian stock exchange’s RTS index declined by 32%, and the Russian Ruble was depreciated. Russia had no ability to continue this conflict.
Moreover, at this time Russia is closely associated with Israel no less so and possibly more so than with Syria. A million and a half former Russians reside in Israel, and Israel’s high-tech industry is highly important for the Russian economy. The world in the era of globalization (a word that Syria is still unfamiliar with) will not go back to being black and white, and no Russia babushka will be waiting for Assad with a magic solution.
RPS Staff @ August 28, 2008
