« SYRIA PRESS REVIEW » #30

Moscow marks the end of the "humanitarian" illusion in Syria

The press conference of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, taking stock of Russian diplomacy in 2011, was an occasion to issue a reminder about international law. Regarding Syria, the Minister reiterated that Moscow would not allow the Security Council to legalize an aggression, or even sanctions, and would continue to trade with Damascus. For his part, the spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry, Liu Weimin, pledged support for the Arab League observers, noting that their presence is beneficial.

If Russia’s firmness has been reported by the Vatican and German press in positive terms, it has been totally misconstrued by the rest of the European press that continues to beat the drums of war by evoking a "humanitarian emergency", and prefers to focus on the new sanctions decreed unilaterally by the EU.

• Writing in Le Figaro, Georges Malbrunot asserts that officers of the Syrian Republican Guard are training in Tehran. In doing so, the author contradicts his previous allegations according to which it is the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who came to Syria to repress the demonstrations.

• The Financial Times Deutschland believes that the events in Syria in 2011 caused a recession of 2%. The Wall Street Journal surveys how Russia and Iran allow Syria to circumvent the unilateral oil and arms embargo enacted by the European Union and the United States. At all events, according to the Beirut Daily Star, the Syrian pound has devalued considerably. Currently, 60 are needed to buy a dollar in Syrian banks and 71 in foreign banks, up from 47 before the events.

• L’Orient-Le Jour reported that the events in Syria stymied Lebanon’s growth. It was at a yearly average of 8.3% over four years, before falling to 1.6% in 2011.

• Le Temps (Switzerland) publishes an interview with Anwar Malek, a former Arab League observer, who claims to be an eyewitness to the crimes committed by the Assad administration. This publication is astonishing, since, after having benefited from a surprise effect, Mr. Malek is regarded as a dubious character by the Western press itself.

• In The National (UAE) Michael Young highlights the three existing precedents for Arab military action against or within another Arab state: the end of the Lebanese civil war, Desert Storm, and the recent war in Libya. He concludes that in the absence of a large consensus, this type of operation can only exacerbate regional tensions rather than resolve them.