Saud al-Faisal: Why can’t we rise up even once?

The Arab foreign ministers meeting last Thursday failed to reach any decisive stance to ensure an end to the killing machine that it currently slaughtering Syrian civilians. The meeting, specifically the Arab Ministerial Committee on Syria, failed spectacularly because some elements wanted to protect Bashar al-Assad and not the Syrians!

The failure of the meeting on Thursday meant a further postponement in the Arabs adopting any genuine stance that day, which in turn granted the al-Assad regime more time to suppress its people. This complicates matters even more, especially as we are witnessing more and more Syrians die every day, ever since the Arab League mobilized, and throughout the Arab negotiations with the al-Assad regime. This has left observers perplexed, especially when they see Arab regimes maneuvering and stalling in order to give the al-Assad regime more time. Of course, today’s meeting in Cairo will not be any easier than Thursday’s meeting, and today’s meeting will certainly not be free from new maneuvers aiming to nullify a serious Arab stance towards the al-Assad regime and for the protection of the Syrian citizens.

The Arab stance towards the Syrian revolution is disappointing, and specifically the positions of Algeria, Iraq and Lebanon, where there are strenuous efforts to disable any sanctions against the al-Assad regime. This is what happened last Thursday, where heated debates flared up in the meeting of the Arab Ministerial Committee on Syria, prompting the Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal to intervene and direct choice words to his Arab counterparts on the committee, and specifically those trying to defend the al-Assad regime instead of the Syrians.

At the meeting, especially after some members had exerted every possible effort to pressure the al-Assad regime to sign a protocol to send observers to Syria, but to no avail, Prince Saud al-Faisal asked the Arab Ministerial Committee: “why do we as Arabs not rise up, even if only once, to the required level of responsibility, by taking clear and decisive decisions that convince our people, and likewise convince the world that we are able to resolve our crises by ourselves. We only want what’s best for Syria and its interests. We only want to stop the bloodshed and nip the civil sedition in the bud before it becomes more dangerous, and its evil spreads. We do not have any time to lose; rather we are racing against it. Our brothers are crying out and desperate for us; their blood is bleeding every day, and their families are being dispersed. They are at our mercy, and where are we to protect them?”

Thus, the question which we are waiting to be answered today is: Will the Arabs rise up to the required level of responsibility, as Prince Saud al-Faisal hopes, even if just once, or not?

Indeed, we are all waiting to see what will be issued by the Arab ministerial meeting in Cairo today, and whether those defending the Syrian citizens will prevail, or whether the al-Assad defenders will succeed in further delays and disruption, even at the expense of Syrian blood! Here the Arabs must recall what I put to them yesterday: Please do not cancel the press conferences in the event that the meeting is a failure, but rather come out and tell us who is disrupting the attempts to protect the Syrian civilians, and call upon them to bear the responsibility in front of the public!