I wonder if the world heard the call made by Father Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani in September last year at the UN General Assembly, where he proposed the deployment of Arab troops in Syria similar to the forces deployed in the seventies in Lebanon to stop the civil war. And how many times did we call for imposing a no-fly zone on some areas in Syria to ensure safe corridors for humanitarian assistance?
In his speech on the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons, President Barack Obama said it was a crime against humanity and an assault on human dignity.
And he said in the same speech, “it constitutes a serious threat to the national security of the US,” and “threatens friends and partners of US along the Syrian border,” and “if we fail to act, Assad will not stop using these weapons …”
At the same time, an Op-Ed article written by Russian President Vladimir Putin in New York Times has evoked a huge reaction.
The article talked about the history of Russian-American relations and the global system, besides a containing a veiled threat.
In the article, Putin criticized the US foreign policy on Syria saying: “It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America’s long-term interest? I doubt it. Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan “you’re either with us or against us.”
The article also sends a clear message about the support to Al Qaeda fighters and other terrorist groups, forgetting at the same time the presence of Iranian and Hezbollah militia in Syria.
Surprisingly, both leaders talk about the need to maintain international law through the UN Security Council. At the same time, both countries have a long history of violating international norms and using force without the mandate of the UN – like in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya.
We have a chance to preserve the unity of Syrians and the unity of the country’s territory through a political solution by using military pressure on Bashar Al Assad. It’s true that the conflict has reached a dark tunnel, and what is happening is a war of attrition, and mass killings, where there is no victor. Therefore, the Arab League, Turkey and Iran must come to the negotiating table along with Russia and US to find a solution and they must agree to send peacekeeping forces to Syria under the leadership of the Security Council. Some might think this solution is just a dream, and others might consider it a surrender or a victory for the Assad regime. We do not want to see the situation in Syria worsen any more. Look at what is happening in Iraq where sectarianism, terrorism and all kinds of problems are tearing the country apart. The Peninsula
