Syrian leader gets
top billing in Middle East by doing nothing
By Robert Fisk
04/08/08 "Belfast
Telegraph" -- - President Bashar al-Assad is
once more one of the "triple pillars" of the Middle East. We may
not like that. George Bush may curse the day his invasion of
Iraq helped to shore up the power of the Caliph of Damascus.
But Mr Assad's latest trip to Tehran – just three weeks after he
helped to toast the overthrow of the King of France beside
President Nicolas Sarkozy – seals his place in history. Without
a shot being fired, Mr Assad has ensured anyone who wants
anything in the Middle East has got to talk to Syria. He's done
nothing – and he's won.
The Europeans like to think – or, at least, M. Sarkozy likes to
think – Mr Assad was in Tehran to persuade President Ahmadinejad
not to go nuclear. Even Sana, the official Syrian news agency,
was almost frank about it. The purpose of the Assad visit was
"to consult on the nuclear issue and the right of states to
peaceful enrichment" and "exchange ideas aimed at clarifying
Iran's commitment to all international agreements". Mr Assad was
M. Sarkozy's point-man.
The inevitable followed. President Ahmadinejad expressed his
belief that only diplomacy could deliver us from the nuclear
tangle, leaving us with Mr Assad's statement to M. Sarkozy on 12
July. Asked if the Iranians were trying to develop a nuclear
bomb, Mr Assad told the French President he had asked the
Iranians this very question, they had replied in the negative
and this was good enough for him.
What's interesting about this is that Mr Assad probably believes
it. Indeed, it may be true. Of all people, he knows about trust
– or the lack of it – and his father's main foreign policy
achievement was probably maintaining Syria's relations with
Iran. In the face of every appeal to abandon Tehran, he refused.
The younger Assad's talks with Israel via Turkey suggested to
the Washington commentariat that he may at last be abandoning
Iran and the return of Golan was more powerful to Bashar al-Assad
than Syria's all-embracing role as the postman of Tehran. Not
so.
For there was Mr Assad in Tehran this weekend, praising the
mutual relationship between Iran and Syria and talking with Mr
Ahmadinejad about the Israeli-US "conspiracy". The
Syrian-supported Hizbollah's retrieval of living prisoners from
Israel in return for the remains of two dead Israeli soldiers,
was described by Mr Assad as "one of the achievements of the
resistance". Which, in a way, it was. For Hizbollah's allies in
the Lebanese government now have veto power over the cabinet
majority, and Syria's power has returned to Beirut without the
cost of sending a single Syrian soldier.
In other words, Syria kept its cool. When the US invaded Iraq,
the world wondered if its tanks would turn left to Damascus or
right to Tehran. In fact, they lie still in the Iraqi desert,
where US generals still variously accuse Iran and Syria of
encouraging the insurgency against them. If Washington wants to
leave Iraq, it can call Damascus for help.
And the real cost? The US will have to restore full relations
with Syria. It will have to continue talks with Iran. It will
have to thank Iran for its "help" in Iraq – most of the Iraqi
government, after all, was nurtured in the Islamic Republic
during the Iran-Iraq war in which the US took Saddam's side. It
will have to accept Iran is not making a nuclear bomb. And it
will have to prevent Israel staging a bombing spectacular on
Iran which will destroy every hope of US mediation. It will also
have to produce a just Middle East peace. McCain or Obama,
please note.
And the triple pillars? Well, one is Mr Assad, of course. The
second is the crackpot Mr Ahmadinejad. And the third? It was
once President Bush. Who will take his place? President Assad
must have enjoyed his Iranian caviar.
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