« SYRIA PRESS REVIEW » #43

It is urgent to wait

The Western and Gulf press stays the course that the White House has set since the confrontation that pitted NATO members to China and Russia at the Security Council. Everyone awaited the next meeting while arranging a way out. Contrary to the usual practice, when the White House Office of Global Communications tries to develop a consensus around a background briefing, columnists draw their personal conclusions which they must then demonstrate.

The tone is set by an editorial authored by conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post, widely disseminated by the US press as well as in European and Gulf newspapers. After comparing the repercussions of the possible fall of Bashar al-Assad to those of the Berlin Wall - the first paving the way for the end of Iran, just like the second which had sealed the fate of the USSR - and holding a bellicose discourse, the author advocates ... for strengthening sanctions. Great victories come to those who are capable of waiting.

• In Le Figaro, Georges Malbrunot paints a glowing portrait of Burhan Ghalioun, president of the Syrian National Council, and Haytham Manna, president of the National Coordinating Committee, but only to better emphasize their disunion and their lack of popular representation.

• Many newspapers reproduce an AFP dispatch written to mark the 30th anniversary of the Hama massacre. What characterizes the piece is the lack of context (it was not a crackdown against a political party, but the restoration of order after a failed coup by the Muslim Brotherhood, responsible for provoking the violence), and the amalgamation with the current situation (this time the putchists are supported financially and militarily by the absolute monarchies of the Gulf).

• The Tribune de Genève espouses the comments of Foreign Policy on the observers’ report. They overlook the thrust of the observations and focus on the remarks relating to the observers who resigned, which they maliciously ascribe to their colleagues. The objective is to create the impression that all observers are incompetent and that, consequently, the content of their observations should be dismissed.

• The Diario de Noticias compares Asma al-Assad to Lady Macbeth. Like the Shakespearean character who goes insane after committing a murder, the president’s wife has allegedly been overcome by the flood of crimes attributed to her husband.

• Various newspapers denounce the Russian arms sales to Syria. Defense Technology International indicates that Moscow supplied Damascus with two sets of 18 Yakhont mobile launchers, each equipped with two supersonic missiles capable of sinking ships as far as the port of Haifa.

• The deputy editorial page editor of The Washington Post, the warmonger Jackson Diehl, warns against the Hillary Clinton’s bluff: her declarations about the imminent fall of the Syrian regime do not convince the Russians and only reinforce their belief in their analysis that the West has no strategy.

• The Jerusalem Post and a few others find comfort in announcing that the Free Syrian Army is beefing up its numbers and firepower. But such articles can only be illustrated by photos showing a few fighters at most.

• The Syrian scholar Marwan Kabalan draws the attention of the Gulf News readers to Russia’s concern about the role that the United States is having Turkey play. Moscow does not want to see Ankara becoming the policeman of the Middle East, which would reignite its ambitions in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

• The Saudi Gazette reproduces the transcript of the interview given by the Secretary General of the Arab League, Nabil Al-Arabi, to CNN. Al-Arabi does not believe in an international military intervention insofar as Syria has a strong army and its territory is not rich in hydrocarbons. No one will risk a costly conflict with no return on investment prospects.