Saudi Arabia is now throwing its full weight behind
the drive to rid Syria of President Bashar al-Assad.
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| King Abdullah |
King Abdullah yesterday called a two-day emergency
summit of Muslim nations in three weeks time to address “the dangers of
fragmentation and seditions” they are facing.
Assumptions the planned August 14-15 summit is also
linked to the Syria crisis were enhanced by another announcement from the Saudi
monarch. He ordered the launch today of a nationwide fundraising campaign to
help “our brothers in Syria.”
This is reminiscent of the mid-1980s, when Saudi public
fund-raisers generated financial support for liberating Afghanistan from the
Soviets.
Political analyst Sarkis Naoum, in his column
this morning for Beirut’s independent daily an-Nahar, says Gulf heavyweight
Saudi Arabia has “assumed the captaincy of Arab players backing the Syrian
revolution politically as well as with arms, training and cash to help it
topple Assad and his regime.”
The Kingdom’s motive he writes, “is not only to
safeguard the interests, rights and freedoms of the majority of Syrians, but to
face up to the challenge Iran is posing” to Saud Arabia’s Gulf and Arab partners
after Iran made serious inroads in the Arab world’s heartland.
Naoum says insiders got wind last week of Saudi
Arabia’s resolve and commitment to push Assad out when King Abdullah appointed
Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, the kingdom’s ambassador to the United States for 22
years, as the new chief of General Intelligence.
“And it is an open secret that Prince Bandar has been
championing a face-off with Syria in Lebanon since at least 2005,” Naoum
writes.
Saudi Arabia, in the eyes of Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov, is “the most hostile country to Special Envoy Kofi Annan and his
Syria mission,” according to a report published this morning in Hezbollah and
Syria’s Lebanese mouthpiece al-Akhbar.
The report penned for al-Akhbar by journalist Nasser Sharara appears simultaneously on
Syria’s state-run Champress
website.
According to Sharara:
The relationship between Lavrov and Annan “is
close-knit.” When Syrian Foreign
Minister Walid al-Muallem once complained to Lavrov that Annan was not appreciating
the Syrian regime’s goodwill initiatives, “Lavrov said: He (Annan) does nothing
before consulting me first.”
Upholding the Annan mission is Lavrov’s brainchild.
He believes the most hostile state to Annan and his Syria mission is Saudi
Arabia. In many of his diplomatic contacts, Lavrov keeps asking: “Why doesn’t
Riyadh receive Annan, albeit once?”
In his meetings with European Union ambassadors in
Moscow, Lavrov cited three Syria-related Russian concerns: (1) Syria sliding to
Muslim Brotherhood rule that would destabilize Central Asia (2) The empowerment
of Muslim extremists and al-Qaeda members who are now threatening Algeria and
the South African Development Community and (3) The safety of a 45,000-strong
Russian community in Syria.
Ghassan
Charbel, editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat, quotes one of Vladimir
Putin’s recent interlocutors as saying, “The Russian president acts as if the
West and Turkey fell into the Syria crisis trap. He says the West and Turkey posture
but are unable to intervene militarily; they also fail to mobilize the UN
Security Council to remove Assad.”
The interlocutor – who also heard Putin say Moscow
can’t accept the massacre or ejection of Syria’s minorities -- left with the
impression Russia is set on continuing to take advantage of the entrapment of its
opponents.
Charbel says, “Putin’s Russia hates Western human
rights and welfare organizations. It doesn’t want to see the disease spreading
and infecting its Muslims. China has similar concerns in this respect. Russia
could be reminding the United States of the need to redraw zones of influence
and address such pending issues as ballistic missile defense systems.
“Developments on the ground in Syria foretell the
derailment of Russia’s exploitation of what it deems to be its detractors’ snare.
“Clearly, the Syrian regime is still able to fight.
But it is no longer able to exit the tunnel.
“Happenings in Damascus and Aleppo may change the scene.
Russia was asking the West to pay for a solution. Developments could yet force
Russia to pay for a doorway. Russia could still discover she walked into a trap
herself after losing a bet in Syria and alienating the Arab, Islamic and
Western worlds.
“Iran in turn will ultimately discover the magnitude
of the trap in which she fell. Her stand on the Syria crisis adds to her Arab,
Islamic and international isolation. It also exposes her to risks in a region
full of surprises.
“Having previously reaped the benefits of America’s
Iraq entrapment, Iran may now have to pay the price of her ambush in Syria. And
so does Hezbollah…”
