Discovering MENA and other thoughts

Death toll approaching 40,000 (plus those wounded, arrested, psychologically injured... and approximately 2.5 million refugees (both internally and abroad)!)... Struggle approaching its 20th month... Winter approaching in destroyed towns and refugee camps throughout the region... Update on the new opposition here   The situation thus remains extremely dire and worrying from all points of view. Heavy fighting continues and shows no sign of abating. Neither side seems capable of putting an end to the conflict. And civilians are the ones who mainly bear the brunt: the civil war is resulting in a notable disintegration of a Syrian society which was once hailed as a model for the rest of Arab countries, principally characterized by its inclusiveness and an exemplary secular core. Citing an alarming deterioration of the security situation on the ground (though I find it hard to believe things can get even worse), the UN OCHA has announced the withdrawal of all its remaining non-essential st...

It seems the new Syrian coalition is having a huge success and is making strides in what has already been called the "Doha Process". The UK has been the ninth country to grant the group full recognition, together with the Gulf States, Turkey, France and Italy. Other international actors have stopped short of recognising the group as a Government in-waiting or the sole representative of the Syrian opposition: that has been the stance chosen by both the EU and the United States. Qatar, France and the UK have even asked the opposition to appoint an ambassador to the country, a perfect first step towards an enhanced representation throughout the world. Why some authorities have doubts when it comes to give the final push to the body? First of all, probably because it is still too soon: recognition comes hand in hand with responsibilities, and the group hasn't still achieved anything near of coordinated military action. The new authorities have been accused of being to...

UN/LAS Special Envoy Brahimi met Russian Foreign Minister today: "the [Syrian] government says they are fighting terrorists and only terrorists, and that it is their duty to do so -- to protect their people. And the other side [the rebels] says they're fighting a very cruel government that is persecuting them, and they are just defending themselves", he said after the meeting. He also recalled talking to a Syrian woman who has one son in the Syrian regular military and another son in the Free Syrian Army, and that's when he stated the poignant truth: "if that's not a civil war, I don't know what is". Neither do we. Neither do they.

It seems both fronts in Syria's civil war have agreed to respect a ceasefire brokered by UN and LAS special envoy. However, jihadist groups have not. And that adds to warnings by both the Syrian army and the rebels, who have nonetheless affirmed that they will strike back if they are attacked or even feel threatened in that respect. Previous truces have been ignored, and have even been witnesses to a surge in the number of deaths. Will this time be different? It seems it won't: the ceasefire is already in tatters, as within hours of the announcement, clashes have resumed, leaving behind several people killed, and various demonstrations have broken out across the country.

Most important data: death toll dangerously approaching an outrageous number: 35,000 (mostly civilians, and too many innocent children amongst them) since the outset of the uprising in March 2011, with countless injured and more than 25,000 detained. Moreover, more than 260,000 Syrians have fled to neighbouring countries (moreover,  the number of internally displaced persons is now estimated at 1.2 million)  and approximately 2.5 million are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, according to official UN sources. As I said in my last entry (paraphrasing the admirable Sartre), our hands (all of us') are dirty. On 24 September,  Lakhdar Brahimi , Joint United Nations and League of Arab States' Envoy for Syria, briefed the United Nations Security Council on his recent visit to the region (Syria, neighbouring countries and Cairo), announcing the situation is still "very grim", but nonetheless showed an optimistic stance, and even foresaw a ...

I wake up with a poignant article by Nagib Aoun drawing a parallel between what is happening in Syria and the magnificent novel by Jean Paul Sartre "Les mains sales" (" As for myself, my hands  are dirty. I have plunged my arms up to the elbows in excrement and blood. And what else should one do? Do you suppose that it is possible to govern  innocently?" ). According to the author, the "Arab Spring" is being kidnapped by jihadist groups (definition of the BBC: " those committed to establishing an Islamic state by violent means ") with only one ambition in mind: replacing dictatorships with theocracies and removing any little remembrance of what could have been a civil society, eventually turned into an homogeneous mass following the Sharia's dictates. Are we facing the possibility of what some call an "Arab Autumn"? This has also been the ongoing warning (and justification) of the Syrian regime since the outset of the upr...

So everyone speaking about the Syrian conflict knows the country is heading towards a full blown-out civil war (some consider it is already the case) waged by the Syrian regular Army (mainly controlled by Assad's Alawites closest allies) and its thuggish militia, the shabiba, against the rebels, most of them organized under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). According to our beloved Wikipedia, "the Free Syrian Army is the main armed opposition group operating in Syria" [...] "composed of defected Syrian Armed Forces personnel and volunteers" [...] "its formation was announced on 29 July 2011 in a video released on the Internet by a uniformed group of deserters from the Syrian military who called upon members of the Syrian army to defect and join them". First of all, the FSA is composed of civilians who took up arms. The peaceful demonstrations, following the example of their Arab brothers in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain, st...