Opinion Archives - Page 32 of 41

‘Arab Spring’ Continues Withering

Saleem Ayoub Quna
December 14, 2024

By Saleem Ayoub Quna

After December 2010 when a desperate and angry Tunisian young man of the name of Mohammad Bouazizi, dramatically immolated himself, an unprecedented wave of mass protests against incumbent totalitarian regimes swept five Arab capitals: Tunisia, Cairo, Tripoli, Yemen and Damascus.

The simultaneous civic uprising in these countries was deceitfully baptized as the “Arab Spring”, which initially won the hearts of millions of Arabs. But it did not take long before the average Arab citizen started realizing that it was one thing to get rid of a dictator or topple a regime, and completely another thing to have a plan for the day after!

It was the same course of events in the five capitals except for Tunisia: Street demonstrations, clashes with police, havoc and death, under the watchful eyes of disguised outside interference and finally a forced humiliating departure, imprisonment or execution of the incumbent ruler and his entourage.

In Tunisia, the military sat on the fence! Consequently, the violence and loss of life was minimal there, while in the other four countries the toll was higher and kept rising until the end.

Tens of thousands of Syrians across the country took to the streets on Friday to celebrate “the victory of the blessed revolution,” following the fall of Bashar al-Assad. pic.twitter.com/715xjkbNk7
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) December 14, 2024

The last leg of the fake “Arab Spring” was Syria, where the clashes between the forces of the regime and the opposition groups, mostly of Islamic orientation, dragged on and gradually turned into open urban warfare.

Syria’s distorted model of the “Arab Spring” took nearly 14 years, simply because the regime, at a certain crucial turning point in 2015, resorted to outside direct support, namely from Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.

Opposition groups in Syria and their sympathizers never forgot or forgave the brutal crackdown they were subjected to in the city of Hama back in 1982 by the Hafez Al-Assad’s regime.

Of course Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah’s response to help Assad’s regime in 2015, was not an act of charity. Each party had their own agenda and motivations; Iran sought to ascertain its regional clout, while continuing to arm Hezbollah in Lebanon through Syria and Iraq; Russia wanted to strengthen its foothold in Syria in a move to counter balance American encroaching measures in northern-eastern Syria, the oil rich land, where the latter supported the local Kurdish population.

Hezbollah was paying back the debt for the Syrian regime that facilitated the transfer of Iranian military hardware.

Today, Syrians are celebrating the end of the 53rd year of the rule of the Assad dynasty, except, maybe by a handful of them. As the saying goes: Loss and defeat are born orphans; victory and success gets many adopters!

The Syrian groups who took over from the previous regime are multiple in number and diverse in outlook; like an art work of a mosaic, from a distance, it looks picturesque and colorful, but from within and in detail, it clearly lacks coherence and chemistry.

As things stand now in Syria and its surroundings, there is not much room for optimism, despite the big change! Many outside players are gossiping about the future of this beleaguered country in ways that reveal that what they are doing is more than gossiping. They are working on concrete ideas and plans for the day after in Syria while, during the coffee breaks, they watch those who are dancing and chanting in the squares and streets of Damascus!

This opinion was especially written for Crossfire Arabia by Saleem Ayoub Quna who is a Jordanian author writing on local, regional and international affairs and has two books published. He has a BA in English Literature from Jordan University, a diploma from Paris and an MA from Johns Hopkins University in Washington. He also has working knowledge of French and German.

Opinion

Israel Must Not Meddle in Syria

CrossFireArabia
December 13, 2024

By Ali Nasser Mohammed

Arab history witnessed the rise and fall of states. This was most notably the Umayyad state, taking Damascus as its capital and from there on reaching Andalusia. It finally collapsed at the hands of its Abbasid oppressors, who moved the seat of the Umayyad caliphate to Baghdad as lead by Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah.

The Abbasids inturn did not learn from the lessons of the Umayyads and do away with the struggles between themselves until their Arab feature faded and dominated by the Seljuks until the arrival of Saladin, who led the Battle of Hattin in 1187 and broke the power of the Crusaders. After this victory, Saladin regained Jerusalem.

What is happening in the occupied Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria is not the last. Today, and now, Israel occupying Mount Hermon and the buffer zone despite an international decision and a 1974 agreement, proving the chain of Zionist expansion and foreign interference in Arab affairs to weaken and subjugate them one after the other.

As for the extended past, Syria rejected normalization according to Israeli whims and strategic interests that may be achieved after the earthquake of 8 December, 2024.

During my meeting with the late President Hafez al-Assad, his attention was drawn to a large copper plaque hanging on the wall of his office depicting the Battle of Hattin. He said: “The Arabs fought the Crusaders for more than 100 years until they expelled them from Jerusalem and other Arab countries, and that the fate of Israel will be like the fate of the Crusades.”

He then spoke about an offer made to him by the also late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, which included withdrawing from the Golan while keeping Lake Tiberias, which he said the Israelis “like to wet their feet in its waters,” in exchange for recognizing the Zionist entity. Al Assad rejected this offer and stressed that the Israeli flag would not be raised in the skies of Damascus except by establishing a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Israel incursions

The Golan, which Hafez al-Assad refused to be a deal at the expense of the Palestinian cause, today witnesses an incursion by the Zionist enemy into its buffer zone at the ceasefire line and the enemy’s prime minister’s renewed declaration that the Golan Heights will remain Israeli forever.

Not content with that, Israel launched more than 480 raids that destroyed military sites, strategic weapons depots, surface-to-air missiles, fighter jet squadrons, dozens of helicopters, airports, air defense batteries, and the military infrastructure of the Syrian army, which was founded on 1 August, 1946. At the same time, the Israeli navy carried out large-scale strikes to destroy the Syrian naval fleet, including coastal defense systems and ships containing sea-to-sea missiles.

What is shameful for both the Syrian and Arab sides is that paralyzing the role of the Syrian army does not serve the interests of Syria and the Arab nation, its security, dignity, and national role. The army was actually dissolved without a declared decision, as happened in occupied Iraq in 2003 by America, which made it easy for Israel to achieve a golden goal that it had never dreamed of.

These strategic national gains belong to the Syrian people, not to any regime, regardless of its identity, and they are irreplaceable, which requires the Syrian people and their new government to be deeply aware of the ambitions of the Zionist entity and its allies in the region, which have no end unless Syria’s security and sovereignty are not a priority. Therefore, it has become necessary to work quickly and seriously to preserve what remains of the military establishment, which was and still is the pillar of Syrian power and which has no alternative unless foreign agendas hide something else.

Syria’s recovery from its deep wounds and its strong and majestic return to the Arab arena, in a manner befitting its Arab role and national interests, requires distinguishing the enemy from the friend and clinging to the national interest in addition to unity of ranks, overcoming divisions and the short-sighted policy of revenge.

Our history teaches us that major challenges can only be faced by the will of a unified people and a conscious leadership that realizes that Syria’s strength is a guarantee for the stability of its people and the region and for repelling any aggressive projects that threaten its present and future and the future of the Arab nation.

Today, this nation is in dire need of an Arab project to get it out of the circle of conflicts, wars and sectarianism that undermines the rights of others to draw a better future for the present and the future.

However, this requires vision, will, and insightful and patriotic leadership. Otherwise, Syria and the Arabs will enter a phase of decline, fragmentation and civil wars, and no one will escape this fate from the ocean to the Gulf.

We hope that the Syrian people, who are looking forward to their freedom, independence and sovereignty, will overcome this difficult historical stage in the life of the Syrian state and will be able to achieve their aspirations at the hands of their sons and youth. This is what the Syrian people, with their history and civilization extending deep into history, have accustomed us to.

The writer is a former President of South Yemen before the country was united in 1990. He wrote this article for the Arabic Al Rai Alyoum

Opinion

Syria: 10 Days That Shook The World

Dr Khairi Janbek
December 10, 2024

Dr Khairi Janbek

Without much ado, the western media is currently preoccupied with this question: Are the Syrian rebels Jihadis? This is while the Arab media appears to be in a state of euphoria about the Syrian rebels seen as liberators. The issue however is about two perspectives, the first being cautious about the next phase for the country, and this is for understandable reasons, while the second reflects optimism for the next stage and also for understandable reasons.

Now, the fear of dividing Syria on ethnic and sectarian grounds has its blueprint in the colonial history of Syria and certainly not a product of today and/or creative chaos utterances.

Looking back

In fact, on 1 July, 1922, the French colonial authorities divided Syria into federal statelets: statelet of Damascus, statelet of Aleppo, statelet of the Alawites, and the statelet of the Druze. Of course, the idea was that the country would be easier to rule and a regional and a sectarian balance would guarantee political stability. Of course, the Kurds were outside this formula as they were struggling to create an independent state of their own.

But what about Syria now, to paraphrase John Reed, after the 10 days that shook the world. Indeed, the two regional police stations in the region, Turkey and Israel seems to be gaining major influence in the current affairs, while the third police station, Iran, has lost out in this formula.

Rivalry

For all intents and purposes, no one is naive enough to think that the march towards Damascus could have occurred without Turkish support, and the Israeli foreign minister has confirmed that talks were held between his government and the Druze as well as the Kurds of Syria, whom he described as having good relations with them.

But what about the Russians? One would venture to say that they are like to stay in Syria as most probably, paying guests of the new Syrian government, renting their military installations from them.

Undoubtedly, no matter how much we can be optimistic about the future of all-inclusive democratic Syria, we will always reluctantly fall back on our cognitive dissonance regarding the case of Iraq, and make the mistake of comparison with the post-Saddam era of terrorism, sectarianism an ethnic strife.

This is simply because, we forget that in Iraq there was superpower which brought down the regime and destroyed all the functioning institutions of the country favoring when religious Islamic sect over another, and supporting one ethnicity against others. While in Syria, its the Syrians themselves brought down the Ba’ath regime.

On the face of it, the rebels don’t seem to want to be the new masters of Syria and they are working very hard to protect and preserve the functioning institutions of the country, and claim their adherence to pluralism and for an all inclusive new regime.

But two important questions remain outstanding, and only time will tell how these will unfold: To what extent will there be Turkish and Israeli influence on the emerging regime, and more importantly, what would be the share of those two police stations of the country?

In other words, how will Turkey perceive the future of the Kurds in Syria, and where does Israel see its border posts with the “new” Syria?

In all likelihood, the rebels will keep their word of wanting a stable pluralist Syria, but let us not forget also, that a future spark of ethnic, regional or sectarian conflict, will very likely turn all into extremists in the country.

Dr Khairi Janbek is Jordanian commentator based in Paris.

Opinion

Syria on Deluge For Arab ‘Regime Change’

CrossFireArabia
December 9, 2024

In less than a week, the Bashar al-Assad regime and that of this family fell, an era that lasted for more than half a century came to an end.

There is no room here to talk about that era, but the end was expected for a long time, as dictatorial regimes or family-based dynasties must end, just as happened to Hosni Mubarak, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Ali Abdullah Saleh and others.

Hours before the fall of Al Assad, I called on Arab rulers to reconcile with their people before the flood comes rushing through. And now the flood has begun to rage from Damascus, and I believe, it will not stop.

It will inevitably sweep away other rulers of this era who accepted humiliation, disgrace, betrayal and throwing themselves into the arms of Tel Aviv, Washington and other capitals of crime.

What happened recently in Syria will be a prelude to the other Arab peoples. I feel very optimistic, and I believe we are facing radical changes that will affect the Arab world, and I do not know who will be the next ruler to be swept away by this deluge?

Thanks to the Al-Aqsa flood that exposed, revealed and disgraced many of the treasonous and collaborating regimes in our Arab world.

This flood will be followed by a flood of another kind, which will sweep away with it every slacker, and everyone who betrayed and conspired against Palestine, its resistance and its people, and threw himself into the arms of the criminal West, and ignored what is happening in Gaza, which will be, God willing, the main reason for uprooting many of the apostate Zionist regimes.

The majority of the Arab peoples are now yearning for change, and even salvation from injustice and oppression, and I do not believe that the Arab situation will continue in this way, and the Syrian situation will constitute an important factor for the peoples to pounce and revolt against rulers who are certainly not of the Arab caliber, and I am certain that this will not last long.

Many of the Arab rulers are feeling their heads today, and perhaps they are working on reconsidering their calculations if they can, and they realize that when the people have their say, the end of the regime will be inevitable.

So will these people learn from what happened recently in Damascus? The wise man is is the one who learns from others. Who will be the next ruler who will follow Mr. Al Assad?

Whoever has the answer, let him tell us, and he will have a great prize presented by the poor servant who wrote this article, which is a kiss on his forehead, and kisses on the foreheads of all the free revolutionaries of the nation, and at the forefront of the heroic revolutionaries of Gaza.

This article was written by Palestinian writer Dr Mohammad Abu Baker for Al Rai Al Youm in Arabic and reprinted in www.crossfirearabia.com

Opinion

What Next For Moscow After Fall of Damascus

CrossFireArabia
December 9, 2024

Events are rapidly unfolding before after the fall of the Syrian capital, Damascus, into the hands of the armed opposition forces that entered it without resistance because the Syrian army, under orders from its supreme commander, decided not to resort to bloody confrontations to prevent bloodshed and accept defeat in the face of a tripartite aggression well-planned in the dark rooms of Washington, Ankara and Tel Aviv.

The Russian authorities’ announcement, Sunday, of the arrival of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family to Moscow and granting them political asylum, confirms that the sudden developments currently taking place may be the tip of the iceberg.

There may be many surprises to come on all levels, as Syria is a jungle of weapons, and it is unlikely that the sudden surrender is just a maneuver, just like what happened in Iraq after the collapse of the Iraqi army in the face of the American invasion, and the goal now is to reposition, bow to the storm, and prepare to resist the occupation.

https://twitter.com/abdelbariatwan/status/1865843698195378221

The fall of Damascus is a fatal stab to Russia and its leadership, which the new authority in Syria has no affection for, and sees it as a strategic partner of the isolated Syrian regime. Its warplanes have not stopped bombing Idlib, Aleppo, Hama and Homs, and this Russian airstrike played a major role in the Syrian Arab Army regaining most of the cities and villages that were seized by the opposition forces supported by America, Europe and Turkey.

We do not know what President Bashar al-Assad’s plans are in the coming period. Will he resort to calm and withdraw from political work, in compliance with the conditions of political asylum, or will he make Moscow a base to manage a resistance that he will form and lead from his new exile.

News circulated in the past few days that countries supporting the deposed Syrian president, led by Russia, suggested he form a government in exile to confirm his non-recognition of the new government that may be formed in the coming few days to run the country, avoid a political vacuum, and prepare for holding general elections.

We do not know the extent of the accuracy of this news, and perhaps it is too early to try to extrapolate what events are coming in Syria, as only one day has passed since the fall of Damascus and President Assad’s flight to Moscow and his granting of political asylum.

However, what can be pointed out is that the picture seems blurry in Syria at the present time, as Damascus and the major Syrian cities have been exposed to a war led by armed Syrian opposition factions on behalf of America, Turkey and other Arab countries, unlike the direct American war in Iraq in 2003, in which more than 160,000 American soldiers participated, and Paul Bremer was installed as military governor of Iraq in a transitional phase.

Unfortunately, we can’t disagree with Benjamin Netanyahu when he said: “The fall of Damascus and the collapse of the ruling regime there is considered a historic day and a great victory for Israel.”

Damascus is the crown jewel of the axis of resistance, the main supporter of the Palestinian cause, and the stubborn opponent of normalization. The question remains: Will Netanyahu’s celebrations of this fall last long? We leave the answer to the coming days and months.

Abdel Bari Atwan is the Chief Editor of Al Rai Al Youm