Assad Has Entered… The Twilight Zone
December 31, 2005, 1:41 pm |
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The situation for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad just keeps getting more untenable by the day. Abdul Halim Khaddam, Assad’s former Vice-President, admitted to al-Arabiya TV that the Syrian President personally “threatened former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri only months before his death.” Assad has entered the Twilight Zone — or, analogously, an O. Henry novella — in which the calculating antagonist gets his just deserts under completely ironic circumstances.
Hariri’s crime was to publicly call for an end to Syria’s occupation of Lebanon. But this was apparently too much to ask of Assad, because:
Syrian gains from occupying Lebanon are several:
- Economic self-interest. About 1.2 million untaxed and unregulated Syrian workers are employed in Lebanon generating over $3 billion for the ailing Syrian command-and-control economy. Lebanon also serves as a closed market for Syrian products, not widely desirable in other parts of the world.
- Diplomatic advantages. During Arab summits or conferences, Damascus often uses Lebanese proxies to advance its own political interests. When Syria seeks to sponsor anti-American resolutions, Lebanon will most likely do the heavy lifting.
- Geostrategic gains. Lebanon is the most direct land route to invade Israel (and vice versa). Also, Lebanon is host to a multitude of Syrian-backed terrorist organizations, which operate with greater impunity there than they do in Syria itself and use Lebanon as a launch pad for cross border attacks on Israel (Damascus would never dream of allowing terrorist groups to attack Israel directly from Syrian soil).
Khaddam’s revelations will only add fuel to the growing fire burning under Assad:
A UN investigation has implicated Syria in the assassination. Syria denies it was involved.
UN investigator Detlev Mehlis said several sources had said they had been told by Hariri that Mr Assad had threatened “to break Lebanon over [his] head”, if he did not support the extension of Lebanese President Emil Lahoud’s term.
Mr Khaddam told al-Arabiya television: “Assad told me he had delivered some very, very harsh words to Hariri… something like ‘I will crush anyone who tries to disobey us’.” …
He told al-Arabiya he was “convinced that the process of development and reforms, be they political, economic or administrative, will not succeed”.
No reform will be possible while Syria is held captive by the Assad dynasty. Regime change is in order, but this time it will hopefully come from within.
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