The Arab League voted yesterday to suspend Syria, purportedly over the killings of civilians by the Assad regime during the months long crackdown on dissidents. The UN estimates that the death toll is now around 3,500 which I personally think is low. It likely doesn't account for those who have been arrested and quietly murdered in Syria's prisons.
"Syria is a dear country for all of us and it pains us to make this decision," Qatar's Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim told reporters. "We hope there will be a brave move from Syria to stop the violence and begin a real dialogue toward real reform."
Needless to say, President Obama voiced his approval.
I invite anyone who thinks the the Arab League made this move for humanitarian reasons to guess again. After all, the League has never suspended The Sudan or voiced any disapproval whatever over its leader Omar al-Bashir, who has actually been indicted by the ICC for genocidal activities in Darfur that killed far more than 3,500 people, many of whom were Muslim. In fact, they've gone out of their way on a number of occasions to voice support for him.
Part of the reason al-Bashir got a pass was good old fashioned Arab racism, but there's a bit more to Assad not getting one than meets the eye.
Syria's regime is run by the minority Alawite sect, a Shia offshoot who rules over a Sunni majority. Thus Syrian leader Basher Assad's alignment with Iran has religious and cultural overtones as well as political ones.
Saturday's vote actually represents a Sunni vote against Iran and its allies...not a huge step, since the League made it clear they don't favor a Libya-style intervention, but a symbolic one and a gesture of Sunni solidarity. They understand full well that with the US abandoning the region at the end of the year, they are going to have to stick together to have any chance of counteracting the Iranian Shi'ite bloc.
You won't read it in the dinosaur media, but that's the real story.
No comments:
Post a Comment