Syria closing the deal!?
By: Eli Atmé
UALM - Australia
 Date: 21/10/2005

In an interview with CNN last week, Assad was clear when he said “If indeed there is a Syrian national implicated (in the killing of Harrir), he would be considered traitor and most severely punished… in Syria or outside.” We already know that Syria’s justice system (dictatorship) already indicted, convicted and executed one of the perpetrators Mr. Ghazi Kanaan, Syria’s current Interior Minister and the once known the King Pin of Lebanon. 

The deal which was dubbed by the western media as a “Ghadafi deal” includes a long list of painful concessions that Syria must take if it is to avoid international sanctions and further isolation.  

These concessions include cooperation fully with the investigation into Harriri’s murder and handing over of any suspect for trial. The other concession is to stop meddling into Lebanon’s internal affairs, sealing the borders with Iraq, preventing infiltration by foreign fighters and stop supporting terrorist groups such as Hamas, Jihad and most of all Hezbollah. This offer was presented to Syria as a “take or leave”, no negotiation, no bargaining and certainly no deference. This is what the Bush administration has been seeking throughout the months of continuous pressure: corner the Assad regime and present him with non-negotiable demands.

As for sealing the borders with Iraq, Syria has been trying fro some times to do this gradually without the die-hard terrorist noticing their doing and turning their anger on Assad’s regime, it has built a sand wall along its 600 Km long border, deployed some 7000 soldiers to patrol it, and more recently it has been cracking down on would-be infiltrators into Iraq and the usual pushing over the border under the darkness of night ex-Iraqi government officials or Saddam’s relatives as a token of good faith by the Syrian regime. 

On the Palestinian front, following the famous visit to Damascus by former Secretary of State Mr. Colin Powell in May 2003, Syria has shut down the offices of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Damascus but stopped short of expelling the leaders of the two Palestinian groups for no other reason than to please the US, Syria also received Abu Mazen, Chairman of the Palestinian National Authority, and has lent him support in persuading the rejectionist groups to cooperate with him. 

The question now is: Can Syria really takes such an offer? The answer is “Yes” and “No”. In fact, Syria over the past two months has been sending all sorts of signals that it was willing to accept the US demands. Survival is the top priority of the Syrian leadership and hence no one expects Syria really to embrace a suicidal thinking and opt for an open confrontation with the US. Consequently, most dictatorship in the region has taken to the heart the humiliating lesson of no other than the butcher of Baghdad. Overwhelmed by this ‘rosy’ picture, Syria is doing everything possible to avoid just that.    

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