Syria Squirming
The autocratic government of Syria is on edge about its future and that, say online commentators in the Middle East, is both good and worrisome news.
Detlev Mehlis is the head of a United Nations team investigating the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri last February when a sophisticated remote control bomb exploded underneath his car on a Beirut boulevard. Today, Mehlis interviewed Syrian officials at the Monte Rosa resort near the Lebanese border to find out what role Damascus played in the killing.
Lebanon's Daily Star, citing a Syrian source, says Mehlis is interviewing Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, "said to have been the last Syrian official to see Hariri before his death." The Syrian interior minister has also been interrogated. Last month, Mehlis detained four top Syrian security officials in Lebanon for questioning.
Mehlis, says Spiegel Online, now believes the plot was hatched in a Beirut apartment that investigators have checked for fingerprints. Investigators have secured a gold-brown Opel, apparently used by associates of a Syrian general, that was seen following Hariri's convoy shortly before the attack. Four mobile phone dealers in Beirut have also been arrested, according to aljazeera.net.
Mehlis's investigation is good news and bad news for Arab democrats, says Rami Khouri of the Daily Star. "It's bad news that indigenous Arab political forces on their own cannot assert the rule of law over the power of guns, and that these resignations, detentions and questionings could only be done through the international investigation mandated by a UN resolution; but it's good news that legitimate international interventions such as this can be used to investigate murder, and hopefully bring to justice those who are identified as the killers."
Last weekend, rumors swept Damascus that the entire cabinet of President Bashir Assad was going to resign in advance of Mehlis's visit. Ya Libnan reports that Mehlis wants to interview Maher Assad, the president's brother. The Syrian government is in survival mode, says a columnist for the Khaleej Times in the United Arab Emirates. A Guardian columnist says Assad's government could fall within "a matter of months."
What's worrisome for Syria watchers is that the country has been under dictatorship for so long that no one has a clear scenario for how the country might liberalize. Witness the furious debate among knowledgeable Syria bloggers.
By Jefferson Morley |
September 23, 2005; 10:00 AM ET
| Category:
Mideast
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Posted by: P. J. Casey | September 23, 2005 03:47 PM
Let there be no doubt, in any free and fair election the Muslim Brotherhood wins hands down. But then do we believe in democracy? And if so, then let the chips fall where the may.
The whole Iraqi mess has further alienated the Middle East. Even those who once supported "western, secular" values are loathe to be identified with US.
Posted by: WOW | September 23, 2005 05:31 PM
The Syrian governemnt is one of the worlds worst and I for one will be delighted if it collapses under the weight of its misdeeds.
Posted by: Rashid | September 26, 2005 01:12 PM
Well I certainly hope that Detlev Mehlis has more luck uncovering details of the assassination of the Lebanese head of state than Mr. Morely has had trying to do the same for a former US head of state.
Posted by: B. Jaffe | September 29, 2005 06:50 PM
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What happened in Iraq? Before we went into Iraq, al-Qaeda was not a factor. Now al-Qaeda is running wild in Iraq. Do you want do do al-Qaeda another favor and turn Syria into another tranning ground for al-Qaeda? Syria and Egypt are two of the major Middle Eastern states al-Qaeda wants to eliminate. It is not our business to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries unless they pose a direct threat to the United States. Neither Iran, Syria, or certainly Egypt pose such a threat. This is no game, and you have to worry about real consequences in foreign policy.