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by
Boris Dolgov
Moscow (Russia)
In this article Boris Dolgov, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow, reports on his recent trip to Syria. His field investigation is particularly valuable since most of the information about Syria in recent months has emanated from Beirut, Paris or London. Professor Dolgov confirms that, far from a contrived "Arab Spring" scenario, Syria is undeniably grappling with the threat of foreign occupation. He observes that while the offensive is inordinately violent, the population will not be intimidated. Aware of the disaster wrought by NATO "humanitarian" operations in Yugoslavia and Libya, the Syrians refuse to be drawn into a sectarian ambush. A process of reform and development is on track, but it will not be dictated from abroad. In Syria, one may object to the president, but not to national (...)
Dossiers
Syria
/
Low intensity warfare
Part 1
by
F. William Engdahl
Frankfurt (Germany)
The United States is continuing its penetration and stranglehold of Africa one country after another. As Nigeria spirals into instability, historian and geopolitical analyst F. William Engdahl argues that a recent government decision to lift subsidies on imported fuel in the oil-rich nation bears the hallmarks of Washington Consensus shock therapy, packaged and personally delivered by IMF’s new managing director.
by Imad Fawzi Shueibi
Damascus (Syria)
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world has been searching for a new geopolitical balance. All the various models have failed, starting with the unipolar world order of the New American Century. What emerges is not the result of an ideology, but a tectonic shift in the global balance of power, observes geopolitician Imad Fawzi Shueib. The double Russian and Chinese veto related to the Syrian crisis marks the dawn of this new world configuration, which is still groping to find its own operating rules in a complete break with past models.
« SYRIA PRESS REVIEW » #42
2 February 2012
Westerners and Gulf monarchs were shocked by the rebuff at the hands of Russia and China at the Security Council. Their bitterness comes out in two forms: first, the media lament the division between major powers when "the massacres are still continuing"; on the other hand, they accuse Moscow of prioritizing its strategic and commercial interests over human rights. All are silent on Beijing’s stance - yet just as unequivocal as Moscow’s - which they cannot pin on any vested interests.
Some commentators are drumming up arguments to convince Russia and China to change their position. However, their editorials are more likely to have been designed to prove to Western readers that everything has been tried in vain. Indeed, the arguments given can only be ill perceived by their recipients, who are accused of lacking principles when it is precisely on behalf of those principles that Russia and China cast their veto.
In the final analysis, everything suggests that after having considered (...)
« SYRIA PRESS REVIEW » #40
31 January 2012
The Western and Gulf press reports of heavy fighting on the outskirts of Damascus. With maps to prove it, it claims that the revolutionaries are about to take the capital. The wife and children of President al-Assad were supposedly intercepted on their way to the airport attempting to escape and were forced to turn back. The fate of the tyrant’s family will soon resemble that of the Gaddafi’s, said Haitham Maleh, a leader of the pro-Western opposition.
In reality, the fighting took place in the outlying areas of the capital, no major armed group having penetrated the suburbs of Damascus. The airport road was never shut down and the al-Assads were never on it. This legend is meant to trigger a campaign against Syria exploiting the high esteem enjoyed by Asma al-Assad in Europe, particularly in Italy and France. Thus, Haitham Maleh asserted on BaradaTV (television channel based in London and funded by the CIA) that the beautiful young woman, a Sunni native of Homs, was a prisoner of (...)
« SYRIA PRESS REVIEW » #39
30 January 2012
The Western and Gulf press, which had until now slammed the Free Syrian Army for its weakness, is suddenly claiming that it is about to take Damascus. President al-Assad was supposedly forced to deploy troops in the capital to save his regime, while heavy fighting is raging in the suburbs.
This fable aims both to validate the idea that armed groups are composed of many deserters (and not primarily Wahhabi mercenaries), and that the disturbances have finally reached the capital. Above all, it serves to divert the public’s attention a while longer from the contents of the Arab League report. Indeed, this document debunks the Western theory of a brutally quelled popular uprising.
Such propaganda efforts are meant to prepare public opinion for the next meeting of the Security Council to be attended by the French and UK foreign ministers, who were successful in legalizing the NATO intervention in (...)
