Hizbullah, Iran and Hamas all but ignore the death toll in Syria
Syria was noticeably absent from Hizbullah’s "news of Arab revolutions" bulletin on Al-Manar, the website of Lebanon’s armed Shiite faction and close ally of Damascus.
Across the Arab and Islamic world, Syria’s allies are treading cautiously as they watch one of the last remaining bastions of autocracy grapple with internal unrest. President Bashar Al-Assad may follow his peers in Egypt or Tunisia, who were forced to step down. But, if he doesn’t, friends and foes alike are wary about how the Syrian leader will act the day after.
"Lebanese media are careful not to take sides with regards to Syria," Samir Al-Saadawi, the Beirut-based editor of foreign affairs for the Arab daily Al-Hayat, told The Media Line. "They don’t want to portray themselves as part of an anti-Syrian campaign. There is also a feeling that the Syrian president will prevail, and people don’t want to bet on the other side."
In the most serious challenge to his rule since succeeding his father 11 years ago, as many as 100 protesters have been killed as security forces seek to put down a rebellion that erupted last week. At least six were killed in the coastal Syrian city of Latakia on Saturday in the second consecutive day of protests that began in the southern city of Deraa last week and spread across the country. On Friday, Syrian soldiers reportedly opened fire in at least six cities killing some 15.
Syria occupied Lebanon shortly after the start of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. The Syrian presence reached its peak in the 1980s when as many as 30,000 troops were stationed in the country. Damascus was forced to withdraw its forces only in April 2005, after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri sparked a chain of popular protests and United Nations pressure to withdraw.
Nevertheless, Syria remains an important factor in Lebanese politics, directly and through its patronage of Hizbullah.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on January 31, Al-Assad acknowledged the economic and social problems plaguing his country. However he ruled out the possibility of Arab unrest reaching Syria because, he argued, the regime’s policies were more in-line with the people’s aspirations.
"We have more difficult circumstances than most of the Arab countries but in spite of that Syria is stable," Al-Assad said. "Why? Because you have to be very closely linked to the beliefs of the people … When there is divergence between your policy and the people’s beliefs and interests, you will have this vacuum that creates disturbance."
Iran, a close ally of Damascus, has imposed a media blackout of events in Syria, said Hamid Tehrani, Iran editor of Global Voices, an international blogger website.
"No government news agency in Iran is releasing any news about demonstrations or killings in Syria," Tehrani told The Media Line. "The only related story was Fars News Agency reporting that one million text messages were sent from Israel to Syria to cause disorder."
Iranian bloggers did, however, remark on the similarities between the Syrian uprising and previous demonstrations that took place in Iran, Tehrani said.
"They noted that the chants emerging from Syria ‘neither Iran nor Hizbullah’ were similar to those in Iranian demonstrations in 2009-2010 where protesters shouted ‘neither Gaza nor Lebanon’," Tehrani said. "Iranians say, ‘They want freedom, just like we want’."
Some Iranian bloggers highlighted the hypocrisy of the Iranian regime in supporting some Arab uprisings while rejecting others.
"The Islamic Republic considers it good when people around the world go to the streets and protest, except when it comes to Iranians, Lebanese, Syrians and Venezuelans," Iranian blogger Irancnn wrote on March 23. "Yesterday Iranian protesters were considered rioters, today it is the turn of Syrians."
Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian group in control of the Gaza Strip, maintains its political bureau in Damascus and enjoys close relations with the Syrian regime. Predictably, Hamas’ official media were also tight-lipped about developments in Syria.
Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, said Hamas faced a dilemma vis-à-vis Syria. On the one hand it received material and political support from the Syrian regime, but on the other some of the protesters demanding change belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood, with which Hamas is affiliated.
"Hamas sees itself as belonging to the ‘resistance camp’ which includes Syria and Iran. It enjoys a very strong relationship with Syria," Abusada told The Media Line.
"After Mubarak’s regime collapsed in Egypt, Hamas celebrated in the streets and handed out sweets, but they will definitely not be happy if something like that happened to the Bashar Al-Assad regime in Syria."