06 April 2012 By
Tariq Alhomayed We are now witnessing
Mr. Kofi Annan's mission in Syria officially failing –
as I said yesterday – as Bashar al-Assad fails to
abide by any of the points of Annan's initiative.
However rather than seeing decisive international
positions being taken against al-Assad, we find that
everybody today – whether the al-Assad regime itself
or the international community – is trying to wrap
themselves in Annan's cover, namely his initiative;
however this cover is short, and will always leave
something exposed. Annan himself said
that it was too early to say that his plan had failed,
urging everybody to wait until 12 April to judge the
initiative. Indeed, Annan also said that it would be
wrong to withdraw his initiative now unless there is
another initiative on the table, however this is
absurd, for Annan's mission has cost the Syrians close
to 1,000 lives in over 10 days, so must the Syrians
now bear more suffering with the extension of Annan's
mission, or in order for a new initiative to be put
forward which will result in the deaths of another
1,000 Syrians? This is truly absurd, particularly as
the Syrian death toll is verging on 11,000! Here it is
clear that Annan's "cover" is not even sufficient to
cover his own mission! It is also clear that
internationally, everybody wants to wrap themselves in
Annan's mission. Washington said that "if" Annan
announces his mission's failure, then the United
Nations [UN] must take action at this point, whilst
France said that the claims that al-Assad forces had
withdrawn from Syria's cities was a "flagrant and
unacceptable lie". For its part, the European Union [EU]
also asserted that al-Assad had not implemented
Annan's plan. Everybody is repeating the same thing,
but nobody is saying "what next!" This isn't rushing
to conclusions, but due to the fact that innocents are
being killed every day in Syria: so why do the lives
of the Syrian people have no value? This is not just
puzzling, it is sickening! Walid Muallem tried to
do the same thing in Moscow, especially when he
boastfully and arrogantly stated that the al-Assad
regime had taken action to show its goodwill, however
if "goodwill" is killing men, women and children and
destroying homes, then we would hate to see their ill
will! Muallem did not stop here; for he also said that
his country was committed to implementing Annan's
plan…Muallem was repeating these lies whilst Arab
satellite television was reporting the number of
Syrians who had been killed that day at the hands of
al-Assad regime forces, which stood at 50 at the time
of writing! Here we see that even Muallem was trying
to wrap himself in Annan's cover, which cannot
possibly cover him, not just because of his size, but
also the size of the "flagrant and unacceptable" lies
of his regime, according to the French. Here we find that
everybody is trying to wrap themselves with Annan's
cover, however – as we stated – this cover is short
and will always leave something exposed. Therefore it
is shameful that the international community should
continue keeping pace with the al-Assad regime's
flagrant lies, and its heinous crimes against the
Syrian people. What we should see today is real action
on the ground to end this dark period in our region,
as well as end the suffering of the Syrian people at
the hands of the tyrant of Damascus, Bashar al-Assad! Tariq Alhomayed is the Editor-in-Chief of Asharq
Al-Awsat, the youngest person to be appointed that
position. He holds a BA degree in Media studies from
King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, and has also
completed his Introductory courses towards a Master's
degree from George Washington University in Washington
D.C. He is based in London.
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