By Azmat Haroon
Doha: Syria will be the biggest challenge for the Gulf countries, where too many different agendas have collided, turning the conflict into a geo-political issue, the former foreign minister of Bulgaria said.
Nikolay Mladenov said that the Syrian conflict will affect the GCC countries as they had taken a side for the first time.
“You can’t poke your finger in a boiling pot of water and not get burned,” Mladenov said.
He was discussing the challenge of institutional reform in the newly democratic countries of the Arab Spring at a panel discussion hosted by the Brooking Institution’s Doha Centre during the 13th Doha Forum, which concluded here yesterday.
Mladenov argued that the conflict was no longer about the Syrian people vs Bashar Al Assad.
“It is now Assad, Iran and their proxy Hezbollah, who have moved on from being the resistance in Lebanon to Syria, against the Syrian people, Europe and the Gulf.”
He said that the GCC countries had a strong interest in a resolution that sought to remove Assad from power and bring a new balance of co-existence in Syria because if the conflict moved on, beyond not only to Lebanon but more dangerously to Iraq, it would have dire affects on this region.
Michael Posner, the former US assistant secretary of State for democracy, human rights and labour said that Washington was divided on the Arab Spring between those who looked at the conflicts from a security point of view vs those saw the societies going through transition.
He, however, lamented that he was disappointed by the GCC countries over their stance on Bahrain.
“I was disappointed by the GCC countries in the case of Bahrain because, interestingly, the opposition there was not calling for regime change. They were seeking a stake in power and a more open, democratic society,” Posner said, adding the GCC has either been silent or resistant to that change.
He said that the Gulf countries ought to be looking at Bahrain as a model of transition that doesn’t lead to an overthrow but one that has called for constitutional monarchy.
Posner also that that it was in the interest of the region to have constitutional reforms.
Dr Rafik Abdessalam, the former minister of foreign affairs of Tunisia, also speaking at the panel, said that some of the GCC countries, were in fact, afraid of change.
“Qatar is also on the right track but some other countries are worried over these changes because they are afraid that what has been happening in Egypt and Tunisia will also happen in other Arab countries. But reforms are essential,” Abdessalam said.
The Peninsula
