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My first reaction on hearing Kofi Annan’s press
briefing after Saturday’s meeting of the “Action Group on Syria” was that
the UN-Arab League special envoy to Syria has just given himself a one-year job
as “Syria traffic warden.”
Writing in a somewhat similar sarcastic vein, George Semaan, a former
editor-in-chief of pan-Arab al-Hayat,
today suggests “Annan’s mission will be kept alive so long as there remains
living souls in Syria.”
What was required of the Action Group meeting, he
writes, “was to avoid pronouncing the mission dead. Hence the escape forward
and a pseudo-agreement on a declamation that was ambiguous in its wording but
clear in its spirit.
“The aim was to allow all participants – except the
Syrians of course -- to interpret the declamation whimsically to match their
avowed positions and respective links with the protagonists.”
Semaan says, “Annan’s mission is no longer tied to a
timetable. His mandate won’t be ending in mid-month. The new plan gives him a
year or more to go through the roadmap and the transition…
“The deliberate ambiguity in the declamation gives a leeway
to all the sides. In particular, it gives Russia and the United States extra
time. The important thing was to keep the political option as the only one on
the table…
“The policies of ‘gaining time’ and ‘constructive
ambiguity’ allowed the major players to reach an understanding in Geneva.
“But the Syrian sides’ positions can’t afford further
‘destructive clarity.’ Neither is President Assad’s ‘eclipse’ within reach nor
can his adversaries sit down with his puppets. The revolution was meant to
throw him out, so how can (insurrectionists) now risk uplifting him and his
regime? It’s probably too late to envisage a solution like in Egypt or Yemen…”
In the opinion of Egyptian talk show host and columnist
Imad
Adeeb, “Short of an under-the-counter deal between all the delegations and
the one from Russia, the outcome of the (Geneva) meeting is ‘inconsequential’
and ‘vague.’ Like water, it has no taste, color or odor but simply boosts
killings and massacres…
“Washington has no preoccupation other than the
presidential elections in November… the European Union is licking its wounds
and laden with the debts of Greece and Spain… Beijing and Moscow are meantime playing
the role of a skilled opportunist waiting for the right time to sacrifice the
Assad regime in return for winning international guarantees that its
replacement in Damascus would safeguard his interests.”
Fascinatingly, remarks Adeeb, the Geneva meeting’s
closing statement “is equivocal. The Syrian opposition sees it as politically catastrophic
and a license for prolonging killings and massacres. The UN perceives it as a
positive step. Mrs. Clinton claims it clearly outlines the shape of the
post-Assad regime. The Assad regime feels, without explicitly admitting, it won
a minimum six-month extension to its political life.”
Asking, “Now what?” in his leader today, Tariq
Alhomayed, editor-in-chief of the Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat, writes: “The
answer is simple – there is no political solution on the horizon…
“The Geneva conference is not the be-all and end-all
of the crisis. It is not a loss for the Syrian revolution. It is proof that
what the revolutionaries do on the ground is what makes the difference. Consequently,
it is imperative to deem the Geneva conference a non-event and continue arming
the Syrian opposition...”
Mulling over “an extra year for Annan,” brilliant
Lebanese writer and columnist Samir
Atallah writes:
“Annan’s (success) chances are still below 10
percent. They shot so high because the polar Bear decided to send Sergei Lavrov
to Geneva with a ‘yes’ shackled by a thousand conditions. China in turn chose
to doze off on her pillow.
“Who knows? Maybe 20,000 deaths would budge the Bear
or stir the Dragon… Maybe I hastened as well to give vent to my feelings and criticize
the man whose friends call ‘Kofi.’
“Problem is tragic events have left the world numb. It’s
a world of Bears, Dragons and Elephants who do not want to upset the Lion (Arabic for Assad).”
