OPINION ARTICLES

Il Giornale, June 12th, 2013

Assad is winning, and we court him

 The rais is gaining ground. He unveiled: The World Bank wants to do business with me.

2013-06-14 by Fiamma Nirestein


 During the cold war the two big blocs crossed geographical borders: each of them fiercely fought for what they felt to be a mopst important victory for the future of the world. Today on the Syrian issue and in the Islamic Middle-East question one bloc only is resolutely fighting, the one of the bad guys. Indeed, they are winning. We have always believed that in the end the good ones would prevail, that’s how American movies accustomed us. This is no longer true. And the bad guys are winning not through the weapons we adfirm to prefer, i.e. words, they do not count on the coming Geneva Conference, on Obama’s speeches or EU’s mumbling: they are winning through intimidation, burning, slaughtering, and bursting. One of the most recent proof is the arrogant statement by Assad to the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar: Western countries, he said, are offering him under-the-table great deals in the field of construction, oil and gas extraction, which is estimated to be present in large amount along his coasts. “Even the World Bank, which moves following US orders, offered me a generous deal: $21 billion loan with concessional terms, showing a wish in financing all the reconstruction projects” he said.


Assad however, after having wrecked his country, wants to make his recostruction his way: he said to have already agreements with Chinese companies, and to have granted the right to extract Syrian to a Russian company … To whoever else?


Assad also announced a real continuous “resistance” from the Golan.,just like the resistance, he pointed out, of Hezbollah against Israel. The Syrian rais has become cocky since his henchmen, on top the Hezbollah, seized the town of Qusair. The town is so close to their home that the radio broadcasts Lebanese not Syrian stations, it fell de facto in the hands of Nasrallah’s men, who prevented ransacking in the wreckage that they themselves caused, confirming to their admirers their fame of mythical Islamist righteous warriors. Indeed, they are now are surrounded by an aura of a bizarre assadist, deformed victory. Which is scary. This is also shown by the fact that in the same hours the new Bulgarian government (after the previous government acknowledged the involvement of the Hezbollah in Burgas attack (a bus full of tourists blown up, 5 dead, 32 wounded) which pushed Europe to realize the risks that the Hezbollah- Iranian terror poses on all of us) denied the coraugeous choice of the previous government: the investigations did not yield positive results, they said trembling.


Europe at its turn is already wobbling: only the UK, France, and Germany want to list the military wing of Hezbollah as a terror organization. Blacklisting the Hezbollah would be the last sign of life that Europe could possibly show in front of the Sirian conflict. It would at least provide a signal that we oppose the idea that the Syrian – Iranian – Hezbollah front may continue to cause thousands of dead through terror, as it was the case of the US and French troops in 1983, as it was the case in Buenos Aires for the Jewish community, as it was the case of Rafik Hariri and many other in Beirut, and in Paris, Cyprus, Israel … Now that the Hezbollah are banqueting with Assad, who at his turn tryes to take the Russian - Chinese – Iranian highway, their front is meant to become increasingly stronger, terror can spread, waves of refugees will destabilize the Middle East. Interestingly, only the six members of the CCASG, the States of the Gulf, decided to condemn the Hezbollah; Bahrain even added it on the list of terror organizations. Awkwardly, Putin does not seem to realize that in order to combat the American – European hegemony he is empowering a front determined to conquer the world all the way to his place.


The Geneva Conference will not succeed in restoring common sense. Assad will be left with some of the coast (the zone of Tartus), a corridor to Damascus, the way opened to Lebanon and Iran, and the hatred of most of his country. The war will go on; Iran and the Hezbollah, like the Queen in Alice in Wonderland, will look around pointing at any given latitude and they will say “Off with his head!”. That’s the world that’s coming up, while Assad said that he will deliver the Golan, which has been quiet for years, to guerrilla groups against Israel. And Israel will certainly not seat quietly. That’s the picture: Obama and Europe will bear the responsibility of knowing it much in advance without reacting.


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