Al-Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, September 6
Don’t believe all the nonsense you’re hearing these days about a diplomatic solution in Syria. A just solution to the crisis there is far from being achieved. The very problem lies with negotiations themselves, which are conducted by Russian officials. How can anyone expect a Russian general, whose country drops dozens of bombs a day on the Syrian opposition, to be a fair mediator? This is almost as foolish as believing that the United States could ever conduct fair negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Russia and Iran are the ultimate rulers in Syria today. Whatever they decide will happen. Sadly, it is in their best interest for the current regime to remain in power, so any agreement they offer will be inherently bad for the Syrian people. Just as the Taif Agreement that ended the Lebanese Civil War empowered Hezbollah over all other Lebanese factions, so, too, will any solution imposed by the Russians in Syria empower Bashar al-Assad and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. In fact, in Syria it might be even worse because the power disparities between the regime and the opposition there are even bigger than those that existed at the time in Lebanon. If the Syrian people don’t want to return back to square one then they must fight for their country. Yes, the human toll has already been devastating and frightening. Yet any compromise that risks a takeover of the country by a small minority that tyrannized the people over the past few decades is worse than the current state of war. –Faisel Kassem