Syria: What now?

The Turkish Foreign Minister [Ahmet Davutoglu] left Damascus without announcing any tangible results from his visit, indeed the al-Assad regime continued its policy of killing innocent Syrian citizens [during this visit], so the question that must be asked today is: what now?  The Syrian regime’s position on the Turkish visit does not require further clarification, for while Davutoglu was meeting with al-Assad, Syrian troops killed at least 30 civilians and stormed a  town close to the Turkish border!

Therefore, this is a question must be answered today!  We must be aware that we have a number of options with regards dealing with the situation in Syria today, and ensuring that the Baathist regime is held responsible for the crimes it has committed against the people of Syria.  Some might ask; how can we achieve this?  Firstly, we must establish an international committee or group – made up of Arab states, Turkey, Europe, and the US – to manage the Syrian crisis.   This is in order to proceed with dealing with the Syrian crisis internationally, and in order to guarantee the issuance of effective UN resolutions – via the UN Security Council – which guarantee that the Syrian regime will not be able to avoid responsibility for its actions, along the lines of the [international] response against the Saddam Hussein regime following the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait.  A number of UN resolutions must quickly be issued against the al-Assad regime, including a resolution imposing an international embargo on the Syrian petroleum industry which is funding the government’s suppressive operations against the Syrian people; in addition to this a number of the pillars of the Syrian regime should be referred to the International Court of Justice.

Simply by beginning to implement these decisions today would send a clear and unequivocal message to the Damascus regime, informing it that it will not get away with what it is doing today against the people of Syria.  The al-Assad regime is feeling fairly secure today, particularly with regards to the lack of any effective steps or decisions being taken against it and its figures.  This is something that allows the Damascus regime to understand that in the event of it being able to quell the popular Syrian uprising that is taking place in the country today through the force of arms and brutal suppression, then it will be easy to normalize its international relations [following this], even if this is through political extortion, which represents one of the most prominent foreign policy tools of the al-Assad regime.

The formation of an international committee or group to deal with an international crisis has therefore become a matter of urgency today, for a number of reasons, particularly with regards to the strong Arab and international position that has been taken following the statement issued by King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz addressing Syria, and the subsequent recall of ambassadors from Damascus, not to mention the shifting Russian position [on Syria].  We must be aware of a very important issue here, namely that neither Russia nor China has moved closer to the Baathist regime in Damascus, whilst India, Brazil, and South Africa have also changed their position – seemingly for the last time – towards Damascus.  We are not facing a pivotal moment in which everybody has discovered that the al-Assad regime is not just like the Gaddafi regime, but more closely resembles the Milosevic regime.  Therefore, this is something that reveals the inherent absurdity of talking about Turkey’s two week ultimatum to the al-Assad regime [to implement reform], for nothing must be excluded today with regards to dealing with the Damascus regime, including even using international forces against the Syrian regime that only speaks the language of murdering its own people.

In conclusion there must be Arab, Turkish, European, and American joint cooperation today to deal with the forthcoming stage in Syria, as it has become clear that the al-Assad regime is heading into a dead end.  We must therefore rectify the situation, and look into the details of a post-al-Assad stage.