International outcry: Arabs throughout the world, like this Syrian girl in Turkey, are protesting the Assad dictatorship’s daily killings. (AFP/Getty Images)
Whichever way one looks at it, the revolution in Syria is a classic example of an event that should prompt the United Nations into action.
Every day, large numbers of Syrians take to the streets to call for the departure of Bashar al-Assad, the despot who has ruled them for 12 years. Each time, the despot’s henchmen fire on unarmed civilians with the publicly stated intention to kill.
Over the last eight months, thousands have been killed and thousands more thrown into prison. Many more have been forced into exile. The despot’s actions make the case for the “duty to intervene” (which the Obama administration cited on Libya) as never before.
The Syrian “situation” (as forked-tongued diplomats like to call this tragedy) is also threatening regional peace, providing yet another justification for UN intervention.
Claiming hot pursuit of army deserters, Assad’s forces have violated Lebanon’s territorial integrity several times. Also in Lebanon, the despot’s secret services have organized the kidnapping of Syrian dissidents with help from Hezbollah and its Iranian masters, often under the nose of the Lebanese police.
Assad has also renewed terrorist attacks against selected targets in Turkey, often using remnants of the Kurdistan Workers Party, a Marxist guerrilla outfit. Syrian propaganda publicly threatens Turkey with a “bloodbath worse than Afghanistan.”
And Iraqi government spokesman Muwaffaq al-Rubaie has warned against the “crisis” spilling into Iraq, more than hinting that Assad is trying to foment armed clashes in the Jazirah, an area straddling the Syria-Iraq border.
Assad has also ordered a military buildup near the border with Jordan, threatening to plunge the Hauran upland, shared by the two countries, into chaos.
Yet another development gives the Syrian tragedy an international dimension.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is reportedly expanding its presence in Syria to supervise a dramatic increase in the shipment of weapons to Damascus from Tehran. The Guard’s “military assistance” project is headed by a rising star of the Iranian military, Gen. Reza Zahedi. As the official Syrian army is weakened by desertions and demoralization from Assad’s policy of rule by massacre, Zahedi’s elite force enhances its position as a bigger player in Syrian politics.
Against such a background, the Arab League’s desperate efforts to persuade Assad to stop the killing may seem derisory. However, the fact that the moribund league has sprung back to life to do something is encouraging. It shows that Arab public opinion shares the Syrian people’s desire for an end to the Assad clan’s rule.
The trouble is that, as a grouping of weak countries bedeviled by their own contradictions, the league can’t do much on its own. Only intervention by the major powers, with the United Nations as an umbrella, could prevent a much bigger tragedy.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague took a first step in that direction the other day, when he announced the establishment of official contact with the pro-democracy opposition in Syria.
The European Union is expected to follow the British lead. France has already announced a coming meeting between Foreign Minister Alain Juppé and the Syrian National Council, the umbrella group of the pro-democracy uprising.
Yet the Assad clan is still encouraged by the fact that the Obama administration appears undecided on a course of action. While the State Department seems sympathetic to the Syrian revolution, the White House is sending mixed signals.
A public admission by Washington that Assad has no future could make it easier for the United Nations to put the Syrian dossier back on the table and try to work for a peaceful transition. The debate on direct UN intervention to protect civilians against Assad’s death machine can’t be postponed.
The configurations that persuaded Russia and China to veto a resolution on Syria last month no longer hold. Things are changing fast in Syria in favor of the uprising. If a week is a long time in politics, in a revolution a day can be longer still.