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| Morsi addressing the NAM summit in Tehran |
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi poured cold water
today on Iran’s frenzied endeavors to keep Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
afloat.
With Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seated by
his side, Morsi told the opening session of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
summit in Tehran the “oppressive” Assad regime has “lost its legitimacy” and must
go.
Egypt, he said, stands behind the Syrian people and
their struggle for “dignity, freedom” and “a new Syria.”
“Our solidarity with the
struggle of the Syrian people against an oppressive regime that has lost its
legitimacy is an ethical duty, and a political and strategic necessity,” Morsi
said.
“We
all have to express our full solidarity with the struggle of those seeking
freedom and justice in Syria, and translate this sympathy into a clear
political vision that supports a peaceful transition to a democratic system of governance
that reflects the demands of the Syrian people for freedom.”
Morsi’s
remarks certainly did not sit well with his Iranian hosts who remain committed
to Assad, and caused the Syrian delegation to leave the conference hall.
Syrian
Foreign Minister Walid Muallem later
accused Morsi of using his speech to incite further bloodshed in Syria.
Significantly, the Syrian delegation to the NAM
summit walked out as soon as Morsi addressed the Syrian issue in his speech.
It was the third time in a week that the Egyptian
president specifically called for showing Assad the door.
Speaking
to Reuters before travelling this week to China and Iran, two countries which,
along with Russia, have so far opposed Arab and Western calls to end Assad’s
rule, Morsi said, “Now
is the time to stop this bloodshed and for the Syrian people to regain their
full rights and for this regime that kills its people to disappear from the
scene… There is no room to talk
about reform, but the discussion is about change.”
Yesterday
again, the French presidency said the Egyptian president
agreed in a telephone conversation with François Hollande that
there could be no political solution for Syria “without the
departure of Bashar al-Assad.”
But
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would have none of that. He told UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a meeting on the eve of the summit: “The
bitter truth about Syria is that a number of governments have compelled the
groups opposing the Syrian government to wage war on it at their behest.”
Thus,
Khamenei said, “prevention of arms shipment to irresponsible (opposition)
groups” is the sine qua non of a solution in Syria.
Assad
himself was meanwhile telling his cousin’s Addounia TV in an interview aired yesterday
that he was “fighting a regional and global war, so time is
needed to win it.” He said, “Defections are a positive
process. Generally, it is self-cleansing of the state and the nation.”
“Cleaning,
Cleansing and the Shiite Crescent” is the title Lebanese political analyst Zuhair
Qusaybati chooses for his op-ed
published today by the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat.
After
the “cleansing” process assumed by warplanes, tanks and missiles left about
4,000 Syrians dead this month, Qusaybati writes, it took someone like Gen.
Salar Abnoush, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ “Saheb el-Amr”
unit to lay bare Iran’s unbridled involvement in the Syria violence.
"Today
we are involved in fighting every aspect of a war, a military one in Syria and
a cultural one as well," Gen. Abnoush told volunteer trainees in a speech
Monday.
No
wonder, Qusaybati writes, that Assad remains confident of stifling the
opposition, even at the price of tens of thousands of fatalities.
Moreover,
“isn’t Tehran always in the habit of saying what it doesn’t do and doing what
it wouldn’t say as regards confessional incitement liable to destroy Muslim countries?”
Since
Khamenei chooses to lambast the West’s “arrogance” at every opportunity, how
come he never mentions the “arrogance” of Russia and its lock-jawed reaction to
the daily killings of children in Syria? Qusaybati asks.
How
can Iran offer with one hand to reconcile the Syrian opposition and the regime
and deliver with the other hand hundreds of missiles to its ally in Damascus?
Qusaybati
goes on to quote from a Wall
Street Journal report this week about Iran sending troops to bolster the
Assad regime:
In
Tehran, Syrian National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar met Monday with
several Iranian officials and expressed Syria's gratitude. “The people of Syria
will never forget the support of Iran during these difficult times,” Mr. Haidar
said, according to Iranian media.
Iranian
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word in all state matters,
has appointed Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the elite Quds Forces, to
spearhead military cooperation with Mr. Assad and his forces, according to an
IRGC member in Tehran with knowledge about deployments to Syria.
The
Quds Forces are the IRGC’s operatives outside Iran, responsible for training
proxy militants and exporting the revolution's ideology. The U.S. blames the
Quds Forces for terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“Soleimani
has convinced Mr. Khamenei that Iran’s borders extend beyond geographic
frontiers, and fighting for Syria is an integral part of keeping the Shiite Crescent
intact,” said the IRGC member in Tehran. The so-called Crescent, which came together
after Saddam Hussein’s fall, includes Shiites from Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and
Syria…
Qusaybati
says Iraq has become a “major component” of the so-called “Axis of Resistance” alongside
Iran, Syria and Lebanese Hezbollah. “The Iraqi opposition that toppled Saddam
Hussein is now facing the twin-dictatorship of the proxy (a reference to Iraqi
Premier Nouri al-Maliki) and the principal (Iran). If not, who is hindering the
unity of Iraq and its people? Who is bombing, killing, torturing and pillaging
and smuggling Iraq’s cash?”
When
Iran and the Assad regime speak of a “global war” on Syria, with Russia, China
and Iraq remaining seated in the stands as spectators, it is no surprise seeing
MIG-23’s chasing Syrian women and children all the way to their home basements.
How
many more Arab children must die for Iran to fulfill its dream? Qusaybati asks.
