Discussing Syria’s Future: New Age Islam's Selection, 04 April 2016
New Age
Islam Edit Bureau
04 April 2016
• Discussing Syria’s Future
By Hassan Barari
• Refugees Are Not Criminals
By Linda S. Heard
• The Trump Phenomenon
By Elizabeth Drew
Compiled By New Age Islam Edit Bureau
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Discussing Syria’s Future
By Hassan Barari
4 April 2016
The Kremlin said on Thursday that there was no agreement between Russia and the United States on the future of the Syrian President Bashar Assad. The Kremlin’s denial of such an agreement came in the wake of a leaked report about the latest meeting between Kerry and Lavrov in Moscow.
US Secretary of State John Kerry was reported to have told several Arab countries that Moscow and Washington reached an understanding on the departure of Assad to a third country at some unspecified stage of the transitional period. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said “Russia is advantageously different from other nations because it does not discuss the issue of the self-determination of third countries either through diplomatic or other channels.”
The talk about the future of Assad has suddenly gained relevance and momentum after the long-awaited talks designed to end the Syrian crisis started last month in Geneva. While the opposition made it perfectly clear that Assad would have no role in Syria during the transitional period, the government delegation considered that as redline. Kerry was not happy with the Syrian government’s comment and snapped back describing such comments as spoilers.
The Geneva proximity talks will be resumed soon under the supervision of the United Nations special envoy Steffan de Mistura. During the next round of talks, the opposition is dead set on pressing all sides to agree on one thing: There must be no role whatsoever for Assad in the transitional period. Seen in this way, Assad’s proposal that the opposition join him in a national unity government fell on deaf ears.
To be sure, Moscow understands that Assad is a sticking point and that any failure to come up with an acceptable solution would mean another round of hostilities. It does not seem that this is what Russia seeks after it withdrew the bulk of its air force from Syria. By the same token, the leakage of the report has embarrassed Russia at a time the terms of peace are yet to be reached. Russia believes that such leakage will only make the opposition more determined to discuss Assad’s future as a precondition before the start of the second round to be held some time this month.
While Russia is a key player in the Syrian crisis — thanks to its military intervention — it cannot prevent the opposition from throwing this idea anytime. Assad’s future should be the core of the peace talks in Geneva according to the opposition. Besides, Russia’s insistence on the mantra that “the fate of Assad is decided by the Syrians themselves” could undermine the process of negotiations and push many in the opposition to come to the conclusion that resuming fight is a better option.
Whether or not that there is an agreement between Russia and the United States on the future of Assad, the final objective of the talks should be vividly remembered.
The need to end the crisis is way more important than this or that leader. At one point, Russia should decide that Assad’s removal could be the only way to push for a genuine solution in Syria. Assad’s attempts to offer himself as a partner with the West to defeat radicalism and terrorism are not going to work in the end simply because his survival is widely considered as a magnet for radicalism and terrorism.
Besides, some key regional players consider Assad’s regime itself as nothing but a terrorist gangster that should be dealt with as Daesh. And yet, in order not to repeat the same mistakes of Iraq in 2003, some suggest that the institutions of Syria should be kept intact and that a way out for Assad should be sought.
And to be sure, ensuring the territorial integrity of a stable Syria is a challenge that could be addressed more effectively if Assad leaves the country.
Source: arabnews.com/columns/news/905241
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Refugees Are Not Criminals
By Linda S. Heard
4 April 2016
The refugee problem in Europe has been bundled-up and dumped like an unwanted baby left on a doorstep. Humanitarian considerations have been binned. The media has conveniently placed this never-ending crisis on the backburner.
The shenanigans of Donald Trump deemed far more newsworthy than the tens of thousands who fled terrorism and bombs and who have little, except their will to live in dignity and safety. When it comes to refugees viewer-fatigue has set-in. For most of us, sitting in front of our laptops or chatting with friends on our Smartphones, empathizing with those poor people is a stretch too far.
We can’t or won’t imagine our cozy little worlds crumbling to smoldering ashes like theirs did. We don’t want to feel what it must be like to hear our kids crying from hunger or cold knowing we have nothing to offer and there’s no light at the end of a dark tunnel in sight.
At first, they had hope. Their compatriots among earlier waves had been received in Austria and Germany with applause, hot drinks and new clothes before being taken to comfortable temporary reception centers. But even “Mama Merkel’s” welcome went cold following last year’s attacks on Paris when it was discovered that one of the terrorists had taken the refugee route using a fake Syrian passport. She tried but when confronted by rising xenophobia and a loss of popularity, she folded.
Now they are being shuttled from pillar to post abandoned in makeshift camps to fend without food, water and medicines apart from the sporadic generosity of a few small human rights groups and dedicated activists without the means to do more. Many have lost family members during their epic journeys from war-torn Syria and Iraq and now it looks like their Herculean efforts have gone for nothing.
Their frustration at being met with barbed wire fences and armed riot police is understandable after all that they’ve been through. Some say if they are forced to return, they will kill themselves and their children; others refuse to believe they’re stranded in a dead-end street imagining today maybe the day the door to their dreams will reopen.
The EU stretches over almost 4.5 million miles, boasts a GDP of $18.5 trillion and this year’s budget tops 141 billion Euros yet it’s not embarrassed to put up a sign reading “No room at the Inn,” particularly when countries, such as Lebanon and Jordan with serious economic problems have generously absorbed over 2.7 million. The US, the world’s wealthiest country, which contributed to the problem by invading Iraq, has done even less and just a few days ago, Trump reiterated that he would send all asylum-seekers back.
Turkey has shouldered more than its fair share of the problem and in response to a deal with the EU permitting Turkish nationals visa-free travel within the Schengen zone, while promising to fast-track Turkey’s application to join the Union. Greece has now been tasked with returning refugees to Turkey but it is no simple task to persuade them to go back to square one where they know virtual imprisonment awaits and Athens is reluctant to use force. Plus Turkish residents around areas where camps are being constructed to house the returnees are angry fearing there may be PKK militants or Daesh terrorists among them.
Those seeking sanctuary until their own countries have stabilized are being treated as potential criminals and terrorists. They are the guests that nobody wants, never mind that many are doctors, teachers, artists, engineers, architects and students hungry to learn. They should be permitted to work and study within their host countries rather than be forced to send their young children to the streets to beg as so many are doing vulnerable to being abused or abducted.
An account by my friend Franklin Lamb, an American professor and volunteer with the Sabra-Shatila Scholarship Program, titled “Why I bought four children off a Beirut Street” is heartwrenching. He came across a woman who said she could no longer take care of the orphans — five-year-old twin boys, a baby around a year-old and his eight-year-old brother — and offered to sell them for $250 each.
Initially disgusted, he got on his motorbike to drive off but when he looked back and saw how frightened they looked “soaked from the rain, very cold and apparently hungry,” he went to the nearest ATM, handed over the cash, and took them home to be cared for by a kind Ethiopian woman. He says he is honoured to be their American uncle and appeals to all of us “to make these angels feel protected and safe.”
The youngsters in the custody of this big-hearted man are among the lucky ones. But the 10,000 children who undertook the trek to Europe unaccompanied by an adult now missing hardly get a mention and since France demolished the Calais “Jungle,” 129 children have disappeared amid fears they’ve fallen into the hands of gangs or predators. It seems to be that our world is fast becoming a dog-eat-dog jungle where people in genuine need are just numbers, irritants to be hidden away behind wire. I always wondered why the internationally community didn’t do more to rescue the millions in Nazi death camps and why so states turned their backs on World War II refugees. That question has now been answered.
Source: www.arabnews.com/columns/news/905246
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The Trump Phenomenon
By Elizabeth Drew
4 April 2016
Whatever becomes of his candidacy, Americans and the rest of the world will be wondering for a long time how the phenomenon of Donald Trump happened. They are already doing so.
The first thing to understand is that US political parties have nothing to do with who runs for the presidency. In fact, US political parties amount to a collection of functionaries who arrange the process of selecting a presidential nominee and push for victories for the party in the November elections.
Presidential candidates are, in reality, freelancers. They decide on their own whether to run, and the decision is based on their sense (and perhaps polling) of how they would do and whether they can collect the necessary funds. Some people run simply out of ego or greed. The publicity that attends a presidential bid can garner even a failed candidate a book contract, a television gig, or a well-paid speaking career. Trump ran on the basis of his celebrity. A famous developer with his name on all sorts of edifices and a personal fortune, he had been the star of a long-running prime-time “reality” show — a lodestone of US popular culture. He knew that America’s party system is so nebulous that he could decide on his own to run for President, and that there was no party structure to stop him.
Trump read the zeitgeist well: He played to the anger of the working class — those left behind in the shift from a manufacturing-led economy to one based on information. This was the group most hurt by trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which encouraged US companies to move their factories to Mexico and gave business owners who remained leverage to hold down wages. Trump lambastes NAFTA and promises that, as President, he would make trade deals that are more favorable to workers. Early on, he based his campaign on anti-immigration sentiment, launching his run by calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” and “murderers.”
Trump’s campaign is premised on his reputation as a fabulously successful businessman, though it’s not clear just how successful he’s been; there have been four bankruptcies, and some of the businesses based on his brand have failed. Though Trump still mentions the preposterous wall he has vowed to build along the border with Mexico (with Mexico footing the bill), he has now made trade his main issue. A whiff of fascism was apparent in Trump’s campaign from the outset.
Spurring violence is one of Trump’s instruments for gaining power. Were he to become president, there is little reason to doubt that he would exploit violence to maintain power.
The panicked Republican establishment that is now scrambling to block Trump from gaining enough delegates to win the nomination may be too divided and ineffectual to succeed. They are also torn over whether to try to block him at the convention, knowing that if they do, his followers may rebel. A few weeks ago, a small number of Republicans began to reconcile themselves to the idea that a President Trump wouldn’t be so bad; but this stopped when Trump continued apparently to encourage violence. Other Republicans concluded that his nationalism and nativism, as well as his ignorance about public affairs, make him dangerous. And now they have reason to fear that something has been unleashed that no one can stop.
Source: arabnews.com/columns/news/905231
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URL: https://newageislam.com/middle-east-press/discussing-syria’s-future-new-age/d/106855