The loss of the Eurasian dream and the rise of the independent powers

International affairs

Editorial: The loss of the Eurasian dream and the rise of the independent powers
The problems and turmoil are spreading throughout the world with relatively various preludes and for different reasons, which is why Planet Earth seems to be on the brink of major transformations whose signs are emerging everywhere. The world is paying a hefty price for the United States’ hegemony over the UN institutions whose fictive role was to maintain some sort of balance at the level of international relations and to deter the threats of the major and regional wars. However, these institutions have clearly become tools in the hands of the American government in order to serve its interests, the Zionist project on the land of Palestine and Israel’s wars against the Arab countries. Consequently all the talk about international justice has become futile.
Many historians and theoreticians recently spoke about the rise of the East and the move of the wealth and international progress toward this East. However, the reality from which this historic transformation stems is that the West which exercised the fiercest pillaging campaign throughout the last decades has wasted its spoils through wars, colonial invasions and the spread of models of governance run by multinational companies. This is one of the patterns of financial dictatorships mixed with corruption and it is only enough that President Obama sponsored pillaging and theft campaigns beyond imagination, including the wasting of thousands of billions of dollars in favor of bank managers and stock market brokers. This was done in a dubious way exposed by the investigation of the Federal Reserve. Many in the industrial West and several Third World countries are following in his footsteps after the propaganda turned the traditions of the American political club into a global archetype that was spread and flaunted during the past years.
In the meantime, Europe is drowning in serious economic and social problems resulting from its political and strategic choices imposed by its ruling elite’s submission to the American will and betrayal of global balance and the simplest moral standards. From the Latin states group to South Africa, Russia, China and Iran, countries and nations are coming together to call for balance and justice at the level of international relations and to form a free political will against the colonial monster. As for Syria, its historical destiny is to be the center of the redrafting of the new world order and equations, as it has always been. And while the foreign and regional interferences in Syrian affairs exposed the campaign to destroy the only independent Arab power opposing Israel, the timing of the events seems linked to the American exit from Iraq following the defeat of the adventure of the American empire.
One of the most important factors explaining the fierce hostility affecting the Western handling of Syrian affairs, is the realization by the American and European policy planners of the outcome of Syria’s rise and its effective return to the Arab and international scenes as a pivotal force in the resistance and independence bloc, and a key partner in an international gathering opposing colonial hegemony. They also realized what this will induce in terms of critical changes at the level of the regional environment and especially on the Israeli level, in states such as Egypt and Turkey and the Gulf region.

Arab Affairs

News analysis: The exposure of the alliance of hostility against Syria
Last Friday, a critical retreat affecting the protests in Syria emerged, which means that the state that started surfacing around three months ago has turned into a full-blown popular abstinence from participating and meeting the calls of the opposition groups, ever since the formation of the Istanbul Council which raised the slogan of international protection. Consequently, the protests tackled by the opposition forces were limited and only seen in remote villages in Homs, Hama and Daraa. As for the photography techniques, they tried to conceal the truth from the viewers regarding the fact that these were small gatherings including partisans and not popular demonstrations such as the ones seen at the beginning of the events.
This popular abstinence is due to the realization of the nature of the plan in which the political groups composing the opposition became involved and after the Syrian national state proved its insistence on dialogue and reform. If there is talk about a revolution in Syria, it is the popular revolution which erupted on the squares and streets throughout Syria following the Arab League’s decision that was hostile according to the Syrians who rose to confirm their insistence on their country’s independence and sovereignty and their loyalty to their national state, its president and army. Some observers even reached the conclusion that the League’s decision mobilized a Syrian national sense in favor of President Al-Assad especially since it coincided with the exposure of the genocides and the attempts to trigger civil war by militias affiliated with the Istanbul Council.
In the meantime, the calls made by the Syrian opposition leaders and especially the Muslim Brotherhood group to see the introduction of the Turkish army and its occupation of parts of the Syrian soil, constituted the last nail in the coffin of these organizations that are defying the Syrian national feeling. Based on the position of strength immunized by the clear popular confidence, the Syrian command is managing the file of the political conflict against the league of America’s agents among the Arab governments led by Qatar, especially on the front of the Arab League’s initiative against which Hamad Ben Jassem turned upon the issuance of instructions by Jeffrey Feltman to compensate the losses of the Istanbul council via an Arab League decision targeting Syria.
The current conflict between Syria and the Qatari-Turkish gang is related to the elements composing the League’s mission of observers and its role. This is due to the fact that Hamad Ben Jassem and Nabil al-Arabi are planning on reaching an understanding with the American-Turkish-French trio to turn this delegation into a Trojan horse by including in it Arab and foreign groups linked to the Western, American and especially Israeli intelligence apparatuses under the names of human rights activists and nongovernmental organizations. The tutelage of foreign observers under the League’s cover is a rejected violation of the Arab character of the initiative, and constitutes a dubious bridge towards future internationalization. The league’s observers were formed to be sources of information and espionage on Syrian soil and to fabricate accusations. The principles of national sovereignty and the insistence on the success of the agreement signed by the Syrian command require a true monitoring of every detail and the rejection of anything that might feature a suspicion of conspiracy against Syria.
Keeping the Arab political solution on the table, including dialogue with the Syrian opposition in all its formations, reflects the Syrian command’s determination to lead the country out of the predicament. However, the action of the regional and international powers that are interfering in Syria affairs is reflecting an insistence on carrying out dangerous escalation through threats issued by the French and Turkish governments and the men of the West in the Arab region, especially in light of the talk about preparations and instigation under the headline of the creation of a buffer zone and the imposition of an air ban by the Turkish side, but more surprisingly by the Jordanian side on the border with Syria.

News analysis: What spring and what revolutions in the Arab countries?
Far away from political hypocrisy and humoring featured in the talk shows and in many writings and articles which followed the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, the Arab events which accumulated throughout the past year require a critical inspection of the outcome of the situation and the political and strategic horizon to which it led. Since Zine el-Abidine’s resignation and Hosni Mubarak’s ousting, numerous suspicions revolved around an American and Western intervention which led to the neutralization of the Tunisian and Egyptian armies in order to maintain positions of influence guaranteeing the protection of the Western and Israeli interests in both countries. The Turkish-American engineering of the new authorities in these two Arab countries was launched before the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings through sponsorship, arrangements and direct dialogue between the Americans and the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood organization, which would explain Sheikh Gannouchi’s public announcement of the warmth of the relations with the Americans, but also the upholding of the “predecessors’ pledges” by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, while condemning the youth who stormed the Israeli embassy and bothered the guests.
In Libya, which was occupied by and subdued to NATO’s hegemony under the United States’ command, the authority is being formed based on the conditions of Western tutelage and includes a mixture of active wings in Gaddafi’s regime and other groups that have been linked to the West for a long time, starting with Mustafa Abdul Jalil and his companions among the leaders of the MB organization, and ending with the liberals affiliated with the Western intelligence bodies. At this level, Qatar’s mission in this operation was and still is the funding of the American plans and the provision of media coverage via the trio Youssef al-Qardawi, Azmi Bshara and Al-Jazeera channel.
Ever since the launching of the operation to transfer the protests infection, the Syrian command established the bases of political transformation towards plurality via new legislation. It is also showing a clear determination to engage in dialogue and stage elections as a necessary passageway towards the desired political and economic changes. In the meantime, it is upholding its independent, resistance and liberation option against which the West and some Gulf rulers are pouring their anger due to fears over the stage which will follow the American escape from Iraq and Israel’s threatened fate. Indeed, Syria was the one to obstruct the American-Israeli hegemony plans which were promoted by the West in the region throughout 30 years - following the Camp David accord - and to which the Gulf regimes succumbed while funding and managing the West’s battles and Israel’s wars against Syria and the Arab resistance forces.
The Western planners are hoping that the current transformation in the region will renew colonial hegemony over the Arab countries through new political powers and movements that will face rapid transformations in the popular climate and within their structure due to their submission to hegemony and the lack of any national and independent programs allowing the handling of the crisis and the dangerous problems. The predicament does not lie – as it is claimed by some Arab writers and analysts - in the Islamic and ideological doctrine of these movements, rather in their connection to colonial hegemony and their non-commitment to the liberation cause and the requirements of the resistance to liberate Palestine and remove the Zionist colonial base which has been depleting in the Arab East ever since its establishment

The Arab file

Iran
• The European Union foreign ministers excluded during their meeting in Brussels the staging of any military action against Iran for the time being. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe considered that the military option to confront Iran’s nuclear program would be the worst option that could lead to a circle of violence which will be impossible to control.
• Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he was not very optimistic about the world’s imposition of “strict” sanctions on Iran, assuring: “No option should be taken off the table. The Iranian challenge is serious. This is something that should be prevented from happening.”

Syria
• Since last Saturday, and following the Arab League council’s decision to suspend Syria’s participation in the council’s meeting and all the organizations and apparatuses affiliated with it staring November 16, the Syrian cities and provinces have been witnessing crowded marches rejecting the League’s decision and supporting reform led by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Syria called for an urgent Arab summit to handle the crisis and its negative repercussions at the level of the Arab situation, which was rejected by the Gulf Cooperation Council. For his part, Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi announced on Thursday he received a letter from Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem featuring amendments introduced to the draft protocol related to the legal status and mission of the League’s observers to Syria, as ratified by the League’s council on a ministerial level in Rabat last Wednesday.
• Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Muallem assured: “The Syrian efforts are focusing on the handling of the current crisis not on escaping it, by dealing with the reform and dialogue files and ending the bloodshed, because Syria is well aware of the size of the conspiracy and the importance of its people’s unity.” He then stressed the exclusion of the repetition of the Libyan scenario in Syria for many reasons, confirming his country’s confidence in the Russian and Chinese positions supporting the peaceful solution in the country.
• On the internal level, 1180 detainees who were involved in the Syrian events but were not implicated in killing operations were released, at a time when the relevant bodies in Syria were able to confiscate a large number of modern communication means and sophisticated satellite broadcasting devices that were in the possession of the elements of the armed terrorist groups.
• For their part, the Algerian and Egyptian foreign ministers assured that their countries rejected any foreign intervention in Syrian affairs under whichever pretext, stressing that Syria’s unity was an utter priority that should be protected under all circumstances. On the other hand, the Syrian opposition national council welcomed the Arab League’s decision, while the general observer of the Muslim Brotherhood group in Syria, Mohammad Riad al-Shafka, said on Thursday that the Syrian people would accept a Turkish and not a Western military intervention to protect them from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s security forces.

Yemen
• The political settlement efforts led by UN envoy Gamal Ben Omar with the leaders of the ruling party and the opposition in regard to the mechanism to implement the Gulf initiative have failed. For their part, the revolution youth and the opposition forces in Yemen staged demonstrations in the streets of Sana’a, calling on the Arab League to freeze the membership of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime, recognize the revolution against this regime and impose Arab and international sanctions that would force the president to step down.

Libya
• The new military leaders in Libya agreed to appoint Colonel Khalifa Hifter as the new chief of staff of the national army which will be established to succeed to the army of the former regime, at a time when Prime Minister-designate Abdul Rahim al-Keib is proceeding with his consultations to proclaim the first transitional government.
• It is worth mentioning that the hidden conflict between the state of Qatar and the Libyan national transitional council has publically surfaced after the latter council called on Qatar to stop interfering in Libya’s affairs.
• On Saturday, it was announced that Sayf al-Islam al-Gaddafi, the son of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, was arrested in the southern parts of the country. He was later on transferred to the city of Zentan.

Israeli file

• The Israeli papers issued this week intensively tackled the Iranian nuclear file, pointing to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s meeting during which a voting will be conducted in regard to the resolution related to the Iranian file, without calling for the imposition of additional sanctions on Tehran. The papers also focused on the statements delivered by General Benny Gantz who called for the launching of an attack against the Gaza Strip, at a time when Israel should not be led to into such an aggression. As for Haaretz, it revealed a Palestinian proposal to freeze the Palestinian efforts to acquire full membership at the United Nations in exchange for the United States’ and Israel’s resumption of the transfer of funds to the Palestinian authority.

• On the Israeli domestic level, the papers shed light on the escalating crisis in the medical body, in light of the doctors’ insistence on their demands even if this were to lead them to prison.

Lebanese file

• Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said to As-Safir newspaper that his position at the Arab League did not convey his personal stand or that of a political team, rather the position of the entire Lebanese government. He registered many remarks regarding the decision, indicating: “By calling for an Arab summit to continue discussing the situation in Syria, the latter undertook a constructive step because it proved that Syria did not cut the thin line with the Arab League and wants to confirm its good intentions and wish to coordinate with the league and find comprehensive solutions to the crisis in Syria.”

• President of the Republic Michel Suleiman stated: “Lebanon’s position is known. It supports democracy and power transition in Syria among other countries. However, we oppose the decision to isolate Syria from the Arab League because such a decision sanctions the people and severs dialogue at a time when no Syrian citizen should feel he is not an Arab. The Arab decision can be implemented without isolation especially since this would pave the way before an international interference we do not wish to see.”

• Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in regard to Lebanon’s position in Cairo toward what is happening in Syria: “It was based on considerations taking into account the geographic and historic ties between Lebanon and Syria. This is understood by the Arab brothers who realize that Lebanon will always communicate and interact with the Arabs and wants to see comprehensive Arab solutions. We in the government want to spare Lebanon from the repercussions of any uncalculated adventures and stand - on the humanitarian level - alongside the Syrian brothers who took refuge in Lebanon, far away from any political exploitation.”

• However, former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri considered via twitter: “The justifications given to Lebanon’s shameful voting at the Arab League is simply unacceptable.” He thus announced his support of the withdrawal of the Lebanese ambassador in Damascus, indicating on the other hand: “Israel, Iran and Hezbollah are the ones defending the Syrian regime.”

• On the other hand, head of the National Struggle Front Deputy Walid Jumblatt responded to a question by Al-Manar channel regarding the difficulty of drawing up an electoral law for a country such as Lebanon by saying: “This is due to the sectarian situation, in addition to the denominational situation. This is the main reason. The idea of changing the political system has come to an end because we entered in an armed conflict in Lebanon due to the emergence of the political axes. We ended up with a settlement in Taif which they dubbed a political denominational settlement. Therefore, we must return to the basics: Can we change the political system, annul sectarianism and acknowledge civil marriage? Before discussing proportionality let us discuss the ways to put an end to the use of political money. No one can do that. If proportionality is required to undermine the remaining influence we have then we have received and understood the message since we cannot face the major political and human blocs. We have some influence left, yet the Shouf area features diversity.”