Developments in recent weeks have escalated the internal struggle in Syria and possibly set the stage for another imperialist intervention in the Middle East. On Nov. 12, the 22-member Arab league suspended Syria’s membership. Syria was subsequently forced to accept Arab League observers onto its soil.
The Arab ministers’ visit brought tens of thousands into the streets for a huge demonstration at Omayyad Square in Damascus carrying white, red and black flags, and posters in support of Syrian President Bahsar Assad. There were also large demonstrations in the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartous and the eastern city of Raqqa. Some angry protesters stormed the embassies of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the main countries pushing for Syria’s removal from the Arab League.
The Arab League vote for the suspension of Syria, taken in an emergency meeting in Egypt—under a military dictatorship—was portrayed by the corporate media as recognition by the “international community” of the need for regime change in Syria. In the lead-up to the NATO bombing of Libya, it was the Arab League’s approval that gave the United States and its allies legitimacy for the imposition of a “no-fly zone.”
Imperialists and their media mouthpieces are quite selective in their interpretation of which bodies represent the “international community.” For example, while the Arab League’s endorsement of the NATO bombing campaign directed against Libya was portrayed as a green light by the “international community,” the strong opposition of the African Union was ignored, and subsequent efforts of the African Union at mediation were sabotaged. On Oct. 25, when the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly voted 186-to-2 to end U.S. sanctions against Cuba, one would not see headlines in the business media declaring the “international community” opposed to the U.S. blockade of Cuba.
What makes the Arab League a trustworthy member of the “international community” is the fact that it largely operates as an arm of the U.S. government. The Arab League is composed almost entirely of U.S. client states, regimes that U.S. imperialism has gone to great lengths to prop up over the last several decades. These same states tend to be extremely repressive against their populations; some are ruthless reactionary kingdoms without even a pretense of democratic rule—for example, Saudi Arabia.
Arab League inconsistency?
It may seem paradoxical that many states that have recently drowned uprisings in their own countries in blood—for example, Bahrain—would rush to the defense of “human rights” and “democracy” in Libya and now Syria. Even more paradoxical may be the fact that the Arab League has taken a hands-off approach to other cases of bloody repression among its own members. Since the beginning of the Arab Spring, Yemen and Bahrain have witnessed a bloody crackdown on demonstrators. In Bahrain, Saudi Arabia intervened, not on the side of unarmed demonstrators being mowed down by the state but on the side of the repressive al Khalifa royal family. Other Arab League members have also successfully crushed opposition demonstrations — Jordan, Oman and, of course, Saudi Arabia.
The Arab League and its imperialist patrons may seem inconsistent in their approach to the Arab Spring if we think of their actions as motivated by a drive for democracy and human rights. But they are quite consistent when considering the real motivations behind their actions—their class interests.
U.S. policy in the Middle East has long been anchored in the drive to install and prop up client states and to weaken and overthrow independent ones. U.S. support for arch-reactionary states like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan demonstrates this point. Client states see every independent state as a threat to their own regime and are willing to participate, and even play key roles, in imperialist plots to overthrow them.
The fact is that the U.S. government and its allies have long sought regime change in Syria, hence their rush to the defense of the Syrian opposition. Bahrain, Yemen and others are U.S. client states; therefore, dictatorship and repression are not issues.
As in the case of Libya, the Syrian state is not a workers’ state or a socialist country even though there is state ownership of large industrial enterprises. Many Syrians are opposed to Assad’s government for a variety of reasons, including economic problems, rising unemployment, religious conflicts, regional tensions and others. And the Syrian state has certainly taken a hard line against opposition protests, including violently repressing peaceful marches.
However, with Syria being a target for regime change, almost all media coverage of Syria, including and especially that of Al Jazeera, funded by Qatar’s ruling class, is more propaganda than news reporting. For instance, one rarely reads a report about Syria without reading that Assad’s regime has killed over 3,500 people, a number validated by the U.N. However, even assuming it is accurate, the number 3,500 includes people killed on both sides of the conflict, not just the opposition, as begrudgingly accepted by the U.N. representative. The Syrian government reports 1,100 government troops and police have been killed.
What is the likely outcome of the conflict if the Syrian regime collapses? What kind of a regime is likely to replace Assad? These must be key components of any analysis on Syria. Those progressives and liberals who rushed to the defense of the rebels in Libya never asked these elementary questions. They are now left to make excuses for a group of NATO-installed criminals whose short record features racist lynchings, mass graves and serving up a “bonanza” for Western governments and investors.
Opposition leadership is formed
Recent developments provide the imperialists more assurances of a favorable outcome for their interests if the Syrian opposition is to prevail. The Syrian National Council, formerly the Syrian National Transitional Council, has shown itself to be worthy of imperialist confidence. Many members of the SNC are pro-Western intellectuals living abroad who have no real base within Syria. Case in point is the leader of the SNC, Dr. Burhan Ghalyoun, who lives in Paris. The Muslim Brotherhood is the only real force within the SNC. And in recent weeks, Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood has shown increasing willingness to call for foreign intervention.
In contrast to the SNC, the National Coordination Committee is led by opposition figures living inside Syria. The NCC follows a program of the “the three no’s,” no to foreign intervention, sectarianism and violence. The NCC is open to dialogue with the Assad regime and takes a strong position against the imperialist-supported SNC. One of the leaders of the NCC, Haytham Manna, calls the SNC “a Washington Club” and considers anyone calling for foreign intervention a “traitor.” Qadri Jamil, another NCC leader, calls the SNC an “unpatriotic opposition in Istanbul that calls for and works towards western interference in Syria.” But the vast resources of the imperialist establishment continue to marginalize the NCC and push forward the SNC as representative of the Syrian people.
On Nov. 17, Mohammad Riad Shaqfa, a leader of Muslim Brotherhood who lives in Saudi Arabia, stated: “If the international community procrastinates then more is required from Turkey. … If other interventions are required, such as air protection, because of the regime’s intransigence, then the people will accept Turkish intervention. …We and our people admire the Turkish experiment.”
Considering that the Syrian opposition includes many Kurds, Shaqfa’s admiration of Turkey is especially significant. Of the four countries that have a significant Kurdish population—Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria—Turkey has by far the largest. Part of the Turkish “experiment” that the Muslim Brotherhood approves of has been responding to the decades-old Kurdish struggle for autonomy through extreme violence, including extensive bombing of Kurdish villages within Turkey. Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party represents a pro-West political line in a country that is a member of NATO. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Erdogan and President Gul, Turkey has continued to serve as a client state, while playing a more assertive regional role and giving the government a mild Islamic flavor and an aura of independence.
On the diplomatic front, after a flurry of meetings between the SNC and the British and French governments, Shaqfa stated: “They [British officials] have told us that they will soon recognize the Syrian National Council as a representative of the Syrian opposition and the Syrian people.” Shaqfa did not explain what qualifies the British government to determine who represents the Syrian people.
On the military front, a relatively small number of army defectors headed by a 10-member military council has declared the formation of a “Free Syria Army.” Contrary to the common narrative of the Syrian state indiscriminately killing unarmed civilians, the FSA boasts of successful armed attacks on the government. As only one example, on Nov. 17, the FSA reported an ambush of government forces, killing 34 soldiers.
The FSA has called on Turkey to enforce a buffer zone in the north of Syria, and on Jordan to enforce another in the south of Syria. If Turkey and Jordan proceed to violate Syrian air space, depending on how things proceed, that may well open the way for a Libyan style NATO “no-fly zone.”
For the time being, Russia and China have refused to go along with the U.S. push for sanctions against Syria. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov said: “There are more and more weapons that are being smuggled in from neighboring countries. … This was quite similar to a true civil war.”
But if all other forms of pressure prove ineffective in bringing down the Syrian regime, the United States and its junior partners may well go the route of an aerial bombing of Syria, with or without U.N. approval. If the imperialists succeed in bringing Syria into their sphere of influence, it will be a great defeat for the people of Syria and the Middle East. It is the responsibility of progressive and revolutionary forces to oppose all forms of foreign intervention in Syria, whether by the U.S. government and its imperialist allies or by their proxies. Hands off Syria!
