Syria, the West and the lessons drawn from the experience

By Ghaleb Kandil

Syria, the West and the lessons drawn from the experience.

Throughout the last three decades, Syria’s relationship with the West constituted an arena for a great number of headlines and economic, political and strategic issues embodying the cause of national liberation and independence in the Third World and especially in the Arab East where the West’s higher priority is to guarantee Israel’s security and strategic supremacy, as well as the continuation of the pillaging of the oil wealth and the protection of its transportation lines to the industrial world.

Firstly, in the eighties, and following the Camp David Accords which constituted the archetype of the American-Israeli peace against which Syria rebelled and resisted strongly and courageously, the wide scale clash occurred between the Syrian national state and the Western colonial states which recruited at the time and with the help of the Egyptian, Saudi, Jordanian and Iraqi regimes the Muslim Brotherhood organization and its military wing to launch rebellion inside the country and to destroy and deplete the Syrian state. At the time, and while Syria was preoccupied with its domestic situation, Israel invaded Lebanon and a major clash occurred between the Syrian troops and the enemy troops in the Bekaa. Syria was able to fight along the two fronts, thus vanquishing the MB strife and dismantling its tools after several years of confrontations with the networks of terrorism and the gangs of sabotage between 1977 and 1984. Moreover, the Syrian state deterred at the time a secession attempt which was supported by the United States, France and Saudi Arabia and was led by Refaat al-Assad in favor of the May 17 accord which was signed by Amin Gemayel with Israel under the occupation, and constituted the second version of Camp David.

Hence, the Syrian response was through the embracing of the newborn Lebanese resistance, as well as the strategic partnership with Iran, thus constituting the founding nucleus of the resistance and independence axis which ensured a resounding victory twenty years later on May 25, 2000.

Secondly, and at the beginning of the nineties, the West was recanting its war on Syria and using partnership with it within limits that do not obstruct its priorities and meet some of the Syrian strategic interests. One could say that the years which followed the so-called American–Syrian settlements and which tackled the Lebanon and the Taef agreement files among others which were activated between the West and the Syrian command following the Madrid conference, presented a model rich in events and testifying for the Syrian command’s strong national and patriotic choice. This decade witnessed numerous conspiracies against Syria and the resistance via soft –i.e. hypocritical- means, in parallel to political communication, economic coordination and aid programs. Throughout that stage, the West tried but to no avail to subjugate the Syrian rebellion along three fronts of the conflict:

the unlimited Syrian support to the Lebanese resistance, the Syrian insistence on the Palestinian cause and the right of return, and the Syrian-Iranian alliance which evolved in a qualitative way.

Thirdly, the victory of the Lebanese resistance in 2000 marked the historical and strategic outcome of the Syrian resistance against Israeli-American hegemony over the region, and the West’s strategy moved towards hostile escalation against Syria and its command. Since the 90s and until 2008, the relations between the West and Syria went through stages that were dubbed stages of settlements and understandings. However, President Bashar al-Assad revealed they were stages of pressures, threats and blackmail to achieve the same goal. Moreover, Syria’s relationship with the West went through stages of clashes and confrontations, the fiercest of which were between 2003 and 2008. But Syria crowned its steadfastness with a decisive role in the making of the victories of the Iraqi, Lebanese and Palestinian resistance movements in 2006 and 2008 against cosmic wars led by the US.

This was expressed by general Petraeus who occupied the post of American international commander of these wars, and is now CIA chief and higher commander of the war on Syria.

Fourthly, the lesson is revealed by Western documents and reports, as well as by books issued in the West, talking about the reality of what the American, French, German and British experts did during the last twenty years in terms of attempts to infiltrate Syrian society and analyze all the economic, political and cultural weak points that could be exploited at the level of the state’s structure and social fabric. According to the available information, the American and European intelligence apparatuses have tried since 2000 and through what was dubbed the initiatives of communication and civil society to recruit thousands of educated and cultivated Syrian youth who were trained under the banner of European-Syrian cooperation projects or under the banner of UNDP, with the participation of Western cultural centers in Damascus and Aleppo. The same was done at the level of some satellite channels and media institutions controlled by Western intelligence apparatuses, at a time when takfiri groups and the MB organization were pushed – with Saudi arrangement and Qatari-Saudi-Kuwaiti funding – to establish religious associations acting as a cover for secret organizations. In addition, special hideouts were set up to store arms, amid organized attempts to deplete the Baath party and the state’s structure in a well-planned and studied way.

Clearly, the West that chose Israel’s strategic integration and clashed with the resistance fort represented by Syria under Bashar al-Assad, has drawn up a methodic plan to destroy the Syrian national state and dismantle Syrian society, without sparing an effort to set up its massive ambush whose outcome is emerging today. Only the Syrian Arab army which remained immunized by its combat doctrine could not be infiltrated by the West and the Gulf. Hence, it is now the force fiercely struggling to settle the conflict, while embraced by the people who are mobilized by their nationalistic awareness and national belonging. However, this difficult experience currently endured by Syria requires the drawing of lessons and the final elimination of any illusion related to possible partnerships with the colonial West, as President Al-Assad said that this West only understood the language of force. We are certain that the Syrian strength will achieve imminent victory and teach the colonial West lessons it will not forget.

News analysis.

The meaning of the yelling.

The parties implicated in the war on Syria are suffering facial spasms due to their yelling. Indeed, Erdogan is threatening to pray in the Omayyad Mosque, Hollande is threatening to look into the provision of the armed groups with heavy artillery, Morsi believes that the time for change has come and Hamad the Qatari is celebrating the decision to stop the broadcasting of the Syrian satellite channels.

In a preliminary analysis, we say:

The problem with the Turkish victory was the lack of prayers which should be compensated for by Erdogan with promises to perform prayers at a later stage.

The problem of the MB in Syria was for the group’s Aristotle to speak. Now, all its work will proceed smoothly in Aleppo, Damascus, Hama and Homs while benefiting from his blessings.

The problem of the armed men was that France had not yet looked into the provision of heavy artillery. Now that it has decided to study this issue, military change will definitely take place.

Syria was achieving victory over its opponents with the strength of its media outlets that covered three quarters of the globe in the face of unknown channels such as Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya among others. Now that the media equation became balanced, everything will change.

Gentlemen, will yelling stop the toothache?

While you are yelling, the Syrian Arab army is removing the tooth and as a medical advice we ask you to relax your facial muscles during the removal process so that you do not feel the pain.

Arab File.

Syria.

Doctor Bashar al-Jaafari, Syria’s permanent envoy to the United Nations, called during a UN General Assembly session on all the Arab, regional and international sides enjoying influence over the armed terrorist groups and especially the states which refused to receive former UN envoy to Syria Kofi Annan, to cooperate with new UN envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi and allow the success of his mission. Al-Jaafari said: “Syria cooperated with the international observers’ mission and with General Robert Mood, and provided them with all the necessary facilitations in order to make sure that they carry out their tasks within the limits of the agreements reached with the UN. It also cooperated with Annan within the limits of Syrian national sovereignty and independence. It has become clear to all that the Syrian claims about the presence of terrorist groups and armed activities fueled by international, regional and Arab sides are right on the mark.” On the field, the armed groups continued to pursue the terrorist gangs in a number of regions witnessing tensions, including the city of Aleppo, thus killing and arresting a number of their elements.

for its part, Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper quoted director of the Islamic Media Watch center in London Yasser al-Serri as saying that more than fifteen elements from the Free Army and particularly from the Farouk al-Shamal Brigade, assassinated Doctor Abu Mohammad al-Shami al-Absi, the head of the Shura Council of the Islamic State Organization which is affiliated with Al-Qaeda near the Syrian-Turkish border. Knowledgeable sources added to Al-Quds al-Arabi that violent clashes erupted between the two sides following the exposure of the assassination, which constituted the most dangerous clash seen so far between the Syrian revolutionaries and the jihadist elements who have been entering Syria since the beginning of the revolution while coming from Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Europe.

Nilesat and Arabsat stopped the broadcasting of the official and private Syrian satellite channels based on a decision previously issued by the Arab foreign ministers council. In a statement, the Syrian Information Ministry said that while it condemned this behavior that went against the simplest rules of the Arab Radio Stations Union’s laws and regulations that should be protected, it deemed this act to be a blatant violation of the media honor pacts and principles of journalistic work.

For its part, the national media council considered that the hostile act carried out by Nilesat and Arabsat was illegal and condemnable, as it fell in the context of the hostile war led by the enemies of the Syrian people against the Syrian state.

Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi considered that the Syrian regime “will not last long”, adding during the Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo: “There is still an opportunity to stop the bloodbath and there is no room for overbidding. The regime in Syria will not last long.”

For their part, the ministers ratified a draft decision presented to them by the Arab ministerial committee for Syria, asking the Syrian government to immediately stop all forms of killings and violence against the Syrian people and considering that “the crimes and massacres being committed are crimes against humanity.”

Libya.

The Mauritian authorities surrendered former Libyan intelligence chief under Muammar Kaddafi’s rule Abdullah as-Sannoussi to the Libyan judiciary, knowing he is pursed by the international criminal court. It was said at this level that the deal between the Libyan and Mauritanian authorities was sealed after the latter paid a sum of one billion dollars. Nonetheless, this information was denied by Libya via Prime Minister Abdul Rahim al-Keib.

Jordan.

On Saturday night/Sunday morning, the Jordanian capital Amman and other cities witnessed wide waves of protests which were joined by members in the Jordanian parliament following the raising of the gas prices. The protesters called for the departure of the government by giving it a no confidence vote, while some of them blocked the streets, fired bullets in the air and set trash bins and tires on fire to reject the decision. Jordanian Monarch King Abdullah the Second instructed the government of Fayez al-Tarawneh to freeze the cabinet decision to raise the gas prices.

In the meantime, the Islamic movement officially announced the formation of the higher council for reform, cautioning that the official sides should implement the promised reforms “before it is too late.”

On Friday, demonstrations were staged in the Jordanian provinces calling for the ousting of Prime Minister Fayez al-Tarawneh and his government and for the disbanding of parliament. The demonstrators also announced their boycotting of the parliamentary elections that should be held at the end of the year due to the electoral law recently ratified by the government and considered to be enhancing tribalism and parliament’s affiliation with the government, also adding that it featured the exclusion of the parties from political life.

Israeli File.

The maneuvers which will be held between Egypt and the United States were the main topic tackled by the Israeli papers issued this week. The papers thus mentioned that Tel Aviv was following with great concern the air exercise that should start within the few coming days and last ten days, indicating that the goal behind them was to emulate the staging by the combat jets from both sides of joint defense and attack operations, but also at providing administrative and technical support to the joint forces. The papers also addressed Sayyed Nasrallah’s interview with Al-Mayadeen channel, mentioning that Nasrallah threatened the US and held it responsible for any Israeli attack on Iran. He thus assured that the Iranian response will not be limited to the Israeli territories and will affect the American bases in the region, even if the American troops do not participate in the attack.

At this level, the reports related to the secret letter addressed by the United States to Iran and saying that Washington will not support any Israeli military strike against Iran and will not be part of this strike, increased the tensions at the level of the relations between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and American President Barack Obama. In the meantime, the papers tackled the announcement made by Barak - the one mostly encouraging statements in favor of an Israeli war on Iran - of the fact that the American preparations to face the Iranian file were impressive, hinting that there might be no need for Israel to resort to military operations to strike Iranian targets.

Lebanese affairs.

News analysis.

The aircraft, the boat and the networks are not enough?

The minutes of the judicial investigations published by Lebanese media outlets in the cases of the boat Luftallah II, the Qatari aircraft and the officer who was arrested in the Southern Suburb on charges of dealing with arms and smuggling them to Syria, constituted a sample of the Lebanese involvement in the war on Syria, and it is no longer useful for many among the officials to uphold their stubborn denial of the firm facts.

Firstly, as revealed by the published minutes, the boat Lutfallah II was carrying massive quantities of explosives, heavy artillery and ammunition shipped from Libya to Lebanon to provide the Syrian terrorist gangs with qualitative tools that would help escalate the war on the Syrian state. One can easily conclude that the source and the navigation line adopted by the boat which crossed the Egyptian and Turkish shores, reveal that the operation was carried out under the sponsorship of the American intelligence apparatuses that are leading the aggression on Syria and using multinational groups among their agents who are organizing the dispatch of weapons, explosives and terrorists. As to the boat’s docking in the Tripoli port – and it has become known based on the journalistic reports taken from judicial and security sources that this was not the first operation of its kind and that at least two boats preceded Lutfallah II - it exposed the reality of the task which Saad al-Hariri chose for the capital of the North and its neglected port in the context of the war on Syria. It has also become known that the Future Movement’s leaders in the North are implicated in the setting of platforms, the building of networks and the establishment of positions used to unload the arms shipments and to store them, considering that one of them exploded at the beginning of the year and that the judicial investigations were covered up to distance the accusations from influential Hariri-affiliated figures.

Secondly, between Luftallah II and the Qatari plane, there were months of Lebanese involvement. As to the plane’s load which included sophisticated and jamming devices, it went in line with the proclaimed American and French priority to equip the terrorist gangs with high-tech tools to spy on the communication networks of the Syrian Arab Army and the Lebanese resistance, plant these tools in Lebanon and connect them to American and European espionage systems present on the war vessels off the Lebanese and Syrian coasts, but also to the American and Western satellites. The freight of the Qatari plane might also not be the first of its kind, considering that more than a year ago, journalistic reports said that leader of the Future Movement Saad al-Hariri instructed his aides in Oger Telecom to set up coded telecommunication networks and that technicians from the Syrian gangs linked to NATO, with the participation of the French intelligence apparatuses, came to Beirut to carry out technical and field planning for the establishment of this network. The pace was hastened following the courageous step adopted by Minister Charbel Nahhas who revealed the third mobile network whose case was also the object of a blackout and which many believe was used to serve the Syrian armed gangs.

Thirdly, it is certain according to many knowledgeable officials that Lieutenant Abdul Khaliq who was arrested by the military court for carrying fifty thousand dollars to purchase arms and ammunition in order to smuggle them to Syria, is not the only Lebanese officer involved in such activities. Indeed, officials on the highest levels know that many officers in the Internal Security Forces and the army were implicated in such actions, that the minutes of the investigations were either concealed or amended and that none among the ordinary Lebanese know any of the facts related to the file of the arms warehouse which was robbed, the involvement of senior security officials in harboring the Syrian terrorist groups and the allocation of funds to these gangs and to the symbols of the Syrian opposition movements that are present in Lebanon upon an assignment from and with full coordination with the Saudi and American intelligence bodies. At this level, some newspapers revealed that a Lebanese security official was in constant contact with the intelligence apparatuses of the states involved in the war on Syria, at a time when numerous suspicions surround the relationship of senior security officials with the arms smuggling networks and their management of the media campaigns falling in the context of the war on Syria. It is also said that some among the latter are providing protection to over ten unlicensed radio stations broadcasting from the Lebanese territories and instigating strife in Syria, at a time when the responsibility of the Lebanese official sides should be the confiscation of the broadcasting devices and the arrest of those involved in these crimes. Instead, they are providing them with protection and care and ensuring the continuation of their activities.

Whenever the issue of the involvement of the Future Movement and its allies in the war on Syria used to be raised, the March 14 supporters and leaders used to condemn these accusations and senior officials in the Lebanese states used to rush to deny any Lebanese involvement in the conspiracy to destroy Syria. Nonetheless, some facts affecting the three files among others are mere samples of the reality of Lebanese political hypocrisy, conspiracy and schizophrenia aiming at earning American-Saudi satisfaction, and this is mastered by the politicians in Lebanon.

Lebanese File.

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah assured in an interview with Ghassan Bin Jiddo on Al-Mayadeen channel: “We are facing a stage of major transformations at the level of the world and the region. Palestine must always remain the main cause and this is where the compass should stay, especially since the goal of what is happening around us is to make us forget Palestine.” He added: “We will face threats with threats,” indicating that the resistance had a bank of target inside Israel and that “there are major weak points within the Israeli entity.”