I think that al-Assad's envoy to the United Nations, whose name appears in the title, sums up the whole story of Syria under its repressive, murderous regime. Al-Jaafari's presentation to the Security Council, the day before yesterday, contained wholly unconvincing statements, especially when talking about the Arabs, and specifically Lawrence of Arabia.

In his speech before the Security Council, al-Assad's envoy Bashar al-Jaafari said that Syria had a parliamentary government in 1919, "one year after the fall of the Ottoman Empire while Lawrence of Arabia was wreaking havoc with the destinies and resources of the states and was trying to turn the bloc back to obscurantism". The question here for the al-Assad envoy is: Why since that date, and particularly since Hafez al-Assad came to power, has Syria no longer had any sort of parliamentary rule? Even when al-Jaafari talks about Lawrence of Arabia, does he not know that his era was famous for the Arab revolt, whilst al-Jaafari and his president's era represents a Khomeinist Persian revolution? It is suffice that at the time of al-Jaafari's address to the Security Council, news agencies were circulating reports that Iran's Supreme Leader had declared his support for al-Assad, and warned of interference in Syrian affairs!

Of course, the peculiarities of al-Assad's envoy to the Security Council - who said at the start of his speech "I will speak in Arabic, and this is an honor for me" - do not stop here. He also lectured his global audience with poetry, quoting the words of the Damascus poet Nizar Qabbani, saying:

Damascus, the treasure of my dreams;

Shall I bemoan to you Arabism or bemoan my fellow Arabs?

The question here is: Why then, did Qabbani live in exile in London? The other question is: What does al-Assad have to do with the Arabs and Arabism, he being the one who hides under the turban of Iran's mullahs, having never fired a single bullet towards Israel? Al-Jaafari told the Security Council that Israel has not once received any sort of condemnation, so why did al-Assad not punish it for occupying the Golan Heights, like he is currently punishing the Syrians demanding reform? Of course, this is a question that al-Jaafari would not dare to answer; al-Assad's envoy is only fluent in flattering Al-Assad. Otherwise if he had a degree of awareness and prudence when talking about what he called the "oligarchical" states, he would realize that he represents a republican regime governed by a man who inherited power. Syria is not a monarchy, and yet al-Assad did not come to power via free and fair elections. The regimes that al-Jaafari described as oligarchical do not kill their own citizens, and do not make them live in a sea of underdevelopment; rather they have raced against time in order to advance their people. Also, those regimes that al-Jaafari was alluding to do not take from their people every day with Persian support; rather these regimes in fact represent their people!

Therefore, al-Jaafari's speech in front of the Security Council, and before him the performance of al-Assad's envoy to the Arab League, show that the Arab League and the United Nations today should eradicate their institutions of al-Assad delegates, just as they got rid of representatives of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi in the past.
 

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.