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The Arab League has suspended Syria over security forces murdering and torturing thousands of protesters during a months-long uprising, potentially setting the stage for an intervention into the country.
The action by the collection of Arab states against the Syrian regime followed a so-called peace agreement that the Arab League brokered with Bashar al-Assad, which was supposed to end violence by security forces. However, a day after agreeing to the peace deal, Syrian security killed 10 protesters, and since that time Syria has continued to lay waste to the country, killing 250 protesters in 11 days. According to the UN, this puts the death toll at close to 4,000. Over the past few days, protesters have reportedly been fighting back against the crackdown, with army defectors and ordinary citizens challenging the security forces, and taking up arms to defend themselves.
This paroxysm of violence could not have escaped the eye of the Arab League, who thought they brought an end to the bloodshed just a couple weeks ago. So they were forced to react.
The decision to freeze Syrian delegates’ activities stopped just short of full membership suspension. In addition, the Arab League warned of political and economic sanctions, urged Arab states to withdraw their envoys from Damascus, and called on Syrian forces to reject orders to fire on the protesters revolting against President Bashar Assad’s authoritarian rule.
“We were criticized for taking a long time, but this was out of our concern for Syria,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al Thani, who led the committee on Syria, told reporters in Cairo. “We needed to have a majority to approve those decisions.”
The 22-member, Cairo-based Arab League surprised political observers with Saturday’s measures, which went well beyond what anyone had expected from a body long regarded as calcified and toothless. Analysts used words such as “watershed” and “historic” as they parsed the announcement on Twitter.
This matters more than any old coalition rejecting Syria, because it was the Arab League’s suspension of Libya, and endorsement of military action, which spurred the NATO intervention. Time after time, President Obama and other world leaders cited the Arab League’s support as the primary reason for deciding to intervene. In fact, when asked why the West hasn’t intervened in other repressive states which cut down their own people during protests, Obama and others repeatedly said that they didn’t have the circumstances with the Arab League rejecting those other countries.
Now they have that. And with the Libyan conflict officially over, and the Iraq war about to draw to a close from a US military standpoint, I’d at least expect a drumbeat from neoconservatives to engage Syria militarily. A no-fly zone would make no sense here, by the way, because Assad has used security forces and not warplanes to strike at protesters. Here was President Obama’s statement on the Arab League action:
I applaud the important decisions taken by the Arab League today, including the suspension of Syria’s membership, consideration of economic sanctions, and downgrading of diplomatic relations. After the Assad regime flagrantly failed to keep its commitments, the Arab League has demonstrated leadership in its effort to end the crisis and hold the Syrian government accountable. These significant steps expose the increasing diplomatic isolation of a regime that has systematically violated human rights and repressed peaceful protests. The United States joins with the Arab League in its support for the Syrian people, who continue to demand their universal rights in the face of the regime’s callous violence. We will continue to work with our friends and allies to pressure the Assad regime and support the Syrian people as they pursue the dignity and transition to democracy that they deserve.
I don’t know that Obama would have the stomach for yet another military action, regardless of the perceived success of the Libya mission (setting aside the war crimes). The military is likely stronger in Syria than Libya, too, and there’s less strategic significance. But it bears watching.
In particular, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, all members of the Arab League, pushed through these sanctions on Syria. It is in this sense that the Arab uprising is self-sustaining. There are implications for Iran as well. From McClatchy:
“This decision finally kicked Iran out of our Arab nation,” said Abdulla al Athbah, a Qatari columnist for Al Arab newspaper in Doha. “This is for the protection of the Syrian people, but at the same time the result is a message to Assad and Iran that Syrians won’t accept (indirect) rule by the Iranian regime.”
The fact that Syria has allied more with Iran in recent years, and that the Saudis, the main competition for Iran in the region, has basically led the Western response to Arab uprising states, has some import as well. A pro-Assad mob in Damascus attacked the Saudi embassy last night. The Saudi ambassador was withdrawn from Syria back in August.
Only Yemen (itself embroiled in an uprising) and Lebanon (with Iran-allied Hezbollah) voted against the resolution, with Iraq abstaining, pointedly.
At the very least, this alienates Syria from the international community, which could hasten Assad’s fall.
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“… (setting aside the war crimes) … and … less strategic significance. But it bears watching.”
Yes, will “it” titillate the “interests” of $omeone (“civilian” or … “military”) or merely allow the further expansion of American hegemony in the region, leading to “engaging” Iran?
Thank you, DDay, The Tireless, for putting genuinely newsworthy issues and questions before us.
I am going to say to you what I have said to Marcy Wheeler; Should this nation and this society, somehow, manage to find their moral compass and grow to become truly civilized and of actual value to humanity and the world, then it will be owing to people such as the two of you, for you, DDay, are not merely an asset to FDL, you are a voice of conscience and reason in a time in despearte need of both.
DW
I don’t recall. . . What was the Arab League’s response to Assad the Greater’s mayhem so many years ago?
Junior has recently killed only a few thousand, no? Wasn’t the dad’s tally 20 to 40 thousand back then?
Most admired commenter admires most admired writer. It’s good to have targets for one’s admiration in these trying times. ;-)
Wonder where was Arab League when Saudis/Bharainis and Yemenis were killing their own (protestors).
“The United States joins with the Arab League in its support for the Syrian people, who continue to demand their universal rights in the face of the regime’s callous violence. We will continue to work with our friends and allies to pressure the Assad regime and support the Syrian people as they pursue the dignity and transition to democracy that they deserve.”
Thanks for the memo, President Obama!
Now, about those violent Democratic mayoral attacks on peaceful protesters in OccupyDenver, OccupyPortland, Occupy….
Syria would be a huge “get” for the We Own the World crowd – a poke in the eye of Iran. I think I hear the drones warming up right now.
and yes, I’ve asked Obama at http://www.whitehouse.com. I requested a reply. If there is one, it will be a first.
I am very opposed to Western military “intervention” (invasion, occupation, and exploitation) in the Middle East and SW Asia; conversely, the Syrian government is certainly going out of its way to invite such a disaster.
That would fall into the “log in one’s own eye” category.
Who comes after Assad?
Two things:
1) I disagree with your belief that the Obama administration wouldn’t have whatever stomach for whatever they might or might not be planning. Their language, diplomatically, is extremely strong: They don’t refer to the government of Syria, they refer to the ‘Assad regime’. That’s language that asserts the government having lost it’s legitimacy.
2) People should watch this. In it, you’ll find that the so-called “Green Revolution” is furtively still going on, albeit more like the mothers of the missing in Argentina than like the huge crowds of 2009, but late in the documentary, there is footage where they assert that the Syrian troops and police are being trained by Iran. So the two are interconnected, somehow, and it would be good to find out what Our government actually thinks about both Syria and Iran right now, for real.
Thank you, DW for expressing our combined gratitude to the newsrelayers here at FDL so eloquently and correctly. David’s post contains the essence of what we all need to know about the tangled situation of war upon war.
My thinking is that we, our government here in the US, are to blame for the onslaught of mechanized destruction that has engulfed the world since we, our government here in the US, responded so out of proportion to the tragedy that occurred on 9-11-01. All of the uprisings of ordinary folk protesting extraordinary injustices, in my view, are responding to that original disproportionate action, when we mounted wars against populaces which had no responsibility for the murders that occurred on that day.
Presidents since then have acted like emperors, and in doing so have destroyed the respect held by people across the world for what this country used to represent. That respect was more precious than gold, but the goldseekers cast it aside. We are digging in, occupy by occupy to get it back. It is very, very hard to do but we have no choice in the matter. It has to be done.
No more wars. Please, no more wars. Stop the madness.
They still are murdering their people daily, for all the world to see. Except the International “News” Media does their best to blind everyone by ignoring it for the most part. To compensate, they triple-down on reporting Syria’s civil war to make up for it. And of course, “reporting” ad naseum on Iran’s dogged “attempts to develop nuclear weapons.” Moving on from the propaganda as “news” front, a gargantuan war in the Middle East should be coming soon enough. Are you ready for a 50% cut in oil imports, gasoline at $10-$20/gal, heating oil at $100+/gal, and a concomitant tripling or quadrupling of the price of natural gas?
Assad is either ordering the killings or he has lost control of his military. Either way the killings had to be answered. I’m glad the Arab League made this statement. I wonder if they would back it up with military force if America helped with intelligence information or other non-force support. Would they reimburse us for such support?
America’s strategic interests aren’t large wrt Syria, but if our involvement were only a minor support position, then it would relate to our justifiable outrage over the deaths of civilians.