« SYRIA PRESS REVIEW » #16

Arab League monitors search for alleged Al-Assad government abuses

As usual, the Atlantic and Gulf press relays without checking the claims put out by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (London Office of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood). According to these: the city of Homs is besieged by 400 armored tanks that are shelling the Baba Amro neighborhood; the army dug trenches around the city to prevent the population from fleeing; and, in anticipation of the Arab League observers’ visit, the "regime" changed the sign posts to obstruct their search for the desired locations.

Several newspapers have echoed the allegation carried by Maariv (Israel) that President Bashar al-Assad is contemplating exile in Moscow. Actually, he had planned an official visit that was postponed in view of the political instability in Russia.

• The editors of Le Figaro (France) and The National (UAE) wonder whether the Arab League will measure up to the new role it has pursued since the reform of its decision making process (majority rather than by consensus).
However, an intergovernmental organization which adopts a coercive decision against one of its members by majority rule is a contradiction in terms, and has never been heard of.

• Le Temps (Switzerland) is the next to have released the report by Edith Bouvier published earlier in Le Figaro (France). After ABC of Spain, it is the third major European daily to confirm that members of Al Qaeda in Libya are at the head of the Free Syrian Army.

• The Corriere della Sera picks on Asma al-Assad, the president’s wife. After recently celebrating her beauty and charm, the Italian daily compares her to Mrs. Ben Ali.

• Jonathan Schanzer observed in the Jerusalem Post that Hamas is now divided into two factions. One aspires to bask in the international recognition enjoyed by the Muslim Brotherhood by abandoning the armed struggle, while the other, backed by Damascus, persists in believing that there can be no other type of struggle except through arms.

• Despite the public pressure he is under, Lebanese Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn maintains his accusations regarding Al Qaeda’s infiltration in the Syrian refugee camp of Ersal, reports L’Orient-le Jour.

• The editor of Today’s Zaman (Turkey), Ergun Babahan, notes that the chaos in Iraq and Syria will boost Kurdish ambitions for the establishment of an independent state. From this perspective, he interprets the ongoing debate on the constitutional reform in Turkey as an omen of a Turkish federal state that would absorb the Kurdish provinces of Iraq and Syria. However, this runs counter to the map of the U.S. chiefs of staff for the remodeling of the greater Middle East, on which Turkey’s Kurdish province has been amputated to make room for an independent and federal Kurdish state.

• The Tehran Times reports on President Ahmadinejad’s ironic remarks about the rulers of the Gulf Cooperation Council who manipulate the Arab League against Syria. He spoke of them as a club of dictators who give lessons on elections and democracy.

• In the Global Times, university professor Wu Bingbing analyzes the evolution of the Middle East as a late consequence of the demise of the USSR. The end of the bipolar system paved the way for an attempt at hegemony by the United States, and now by Turkey. But Beijing’s interest is to oppose any unipolar system and, instead, promote the emergence of a multipolar governance.