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Battling for sovereignty
Angie Todd
ON
July 20, the UN Security Council agreed to extend
its observer mission in Syria for a final 30 days.
The decision was made amid calls, from France and
the UK in particular, for further sanctions against
the Bashar al Assad government under Chapter 7 of
the UN Charter which also allows for the use of
force, and U.S. insistence on a rapid regime change
there.
Two
weeks later, its special envoy, former UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan, resigned from his role as
mediator in the conflict, given the intractable
situation in the country. Despite Annan’s efforts to
end the violence in Syria through a 6-point peace
plan, approved by the government of President Bashar
al-Assad, Russia and China, among others, his was a
mission impossible.
The
escalation of violent actions on the part of certain
opposition groups has made it impossible for
President Bashar al Assad’s government to agree to a
ceasefire and withdraw national troops from the
cities affected by the conflict, such as Aleppo,
very close to the border with Turkey.
Initially peaceful demonstrations for internal
reform in March of 2011 were immediately utilized by
the Western powers to destabilize the country by
fueling a civil war, with the intention of imposing
a government more compliant to their designs for the
Middle East region as a whole. Mercenaries were
infiltrated into Syria from Egypt, the Lebanon and
Turkey, sponsored by the self-styled Syrian National
Council, certain members of the Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC), and increasingly supplied with more
and more sophisticated weapons and communication
systems by the GCC and the United States, among
others. Thus distinct oppositions were created,
internal and external.
The
internal opposition largely supported President Al
Assad’s decision to call a referendum for
constitutional reforms, followed by National
Assembly elections in May 2012, in the midst of a
state of war in certain cities like Homs. Despite
this situation, 51.62% of the population voted for
250 legislators representing 12 political parties,
seven of which were new ones accepted in August
2011. The “other” opposition refused to participate,
its intentions being to bring down the government,
which was not a possibility in electoral terms. The
government Socialist Ba’ath Party secured 60% of the
vote.
The
UN observer mission, initiated April 16, met with an
increase in violent attacks, including on its own
vehicles, perpetrated by mercenary groups in the
country which rejected its presence.
The
original objective of the U.S. government and NATO
allies to reedit the Libyan script in Syria has not
gone according to plan, given the resistance of the
majority of the people and the national army, who
support of Al Assad’s efforts to promote reform and
preserve the country’s sovereignty, in addition to a
lack of cohesion among the armed opposition factions
over the division of power.
This
resistance has been aided by Russia and China’s use
of their UN Security Council veto against outside
military intervention on two occasions and their
consistent diplomatic efforts in search of a
reasonable solution to the Syrian conflict.
The
entire operation to make Syria ungovernable has been
paralleled by an intensively orchestrated media war
of virtual aggression to make the unpalatable – the
overthrow of a legitimate government – palatable for
public opinion. This media war has also steadily
intensified over the past 16 months: initially
accusing the government security forces of killing
civilians protesting for democratic reforms as
opposed to confronting mercenary groups dealing in
acts of terrorism, and inflating the numbers of
civilian deaths with those of members of the Syrian
army. This tactic has continued as the situation has
deteriorated and the armed opposition’s training and
supplies, including tanks and chemical weapons, have
permitted larger-scale, more sophisticated terrorist
attacks on the population and strategic targets in
Homs, Houla, Aleppo and Damascus, consistently
directly or indirectly attributed to government
forces. Other ingredients include the use of old
footage (in one case of fighting in Iraq), invented
incidents of fighting (one filmed in Qatar) and a
number of video reports from NGO’s, with the
disclaimer that their sources cannot be confirmed.
Hot on the heels of Kofi Annan’s definitive
withdrawal came news leaked by the U.S. media that
President Obama authorized $509 million to be
channeled through the CIA for arms, advice and
finance for NGO’s operating in Syria.
Kofi
Annan’s resignation came in the midst of attempts by
the national army to restore governability in Aleppo
and certain parts of Damascus, reports of
mercenaries slaughtering government supporters,
refugees from the violence fleeing into Turkey and
immediate calls for an air corridor for humanitarian
purposes. It should not be forgotten that it was an
air corridor or no-flight zone which facilitated the
NATO air strikes on Libya, which resulted in 6,000
deaths and 180,000 injuries among the population.
It
is also arguable that the UN observer mission has
been used as part of a cynical media war exercise,
frightening in its implications for creating a
climate for destroying the national independence of
Syria and any chance of peace in the Middle East.
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