Change ‘soft strategy’ to end Syria turmoil
‘One-sided support’ delaying solution
“THE Chairman of the Syrian Nationalistic Coalition Ahmad Al-Jarba - the sole authority internationally recognized as the representative of the Syrian opposition -recently paid an official visit to Washington. During the visit he called on the US administration to provide the Syrian opposition qualitative military weapons to resist the weapons of mass destruction used by the ‘Alawite regime’ in Damascus to kill the remaining Syrians who are still facing the brunt of the regime inside the country day and night,” columnist and former MP Mubarak AlDuwailah wrote for Al-Qabas daily Sunday.
“Nobody can blame Al-Jarba for his request in question, but I do believe that in this case it looks like the man is asking his foe to rescue him or like the one who craves for victory from those who strive to defeat him.
“Inspite of the above, the sole privilege of Al-Jarba’s recent visit to Washington was represented by the fact that the man has, may be for the first time, realized that he is running behind a mirage and the response to his request has come swiftly without any delay when the American Secretary of State turned down his request.
“In this context, we would like to point out that the foreign policy of the West in general and Europe in particular led by the United States of America is to protect the regime of Bashar Al-Assad, otherwise, Washington with the help of B-52 bombers could have flattened the regime and settle this struggle which is currently taking place in Syria in favor of the revolutionaries and the opposition.
“But it is the Western and Israeli interests that have imposed themselves and resulted in the West leveling some informational criticism at the Syrian regime to save face in front of the international community. In the meantime, the West is seemingly striving to fight the opposition and curb the latter on the ground.
“It is needless to say this is not random talk, rather our logic in this respect is based on signs represented by the enthusiasm which has been shown by the Arab States to participate in the Brussels meeting which will be held under the auspices of the foreign ministers of the European Union to discuss the means that may be required to prevent the volunteers from having access to Syrian territories to join the opposition.
“Not just that, we had previously heard that some other actions were taken by some States in the region to punish those who join the Mujahedin in Syria and put them behind bars for more than 10 years.
“As a matter of fact, anyone who may have observed the situation closely will inevitably be surprised over such a selective manner through which some States and parties are dealing with the Syrian issue.
“In other words, it was obvious that all possible actions have been taken to prevent the revolutionaries from having an access to the Syrian territories in a bid for supporting the opposition in its fight against the ruling regime there.
“They are preventing the volunteers from joining these revolutionaries, but they didn’t prevent the volunteers coming from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon to join the Syrian regime troops. They are preventing qualitative weapons from falling in the hands of the Mujahedin, but they didn’t attempt to prevent the military aid coming from Iran, Iraq and South Lebanon to government troops in Damascus.
“In this context, we cite how some of our columnists colleagues had called on the government of Kuwait to prevent Kuwaiti volunteers from supporting the Syrian opposition, but these columnists had closed their eyes when scores of Kuwaitis were fighting alongside soldiers of the Bashar Al-Assad regime.
“Anyway, in the wake of Al-Jarba’s recent visit to Washington, we suggest the Command of the Syrian National Coalition should hasten to change its ‘soft strategy’ if this command is serious about ending the tragedy and torment by the Syrian people since many years, to which no end in sight so far.”
Also: “The political reform program declared recently by the Kuwaiti opposition includes two or may be three paragraphs that talks about economy,” columnist and attorney Hassan Al-Issa wrote for Al-Jarida daily Sunday.
“The paragraphs in question begin with the phrase ‘our national economy depends basically on a single source of income, namely the oil where the revenues of the latter constitute more than ninety percent of the State budget provisions. The paragraphs add, the government expenditure represents major source or (semi) sole source for all economic activities in the country, and then our development at the moment depends only on the oil industry and its derivatives.
“However, these paragraphs conclude with ‘a general sentence’ revolving around social justice and disparity in the income and concentration of the latter in the hands of a very few people.
“Anyway, the source of devilish actions doesn’t rest in the current reality and that the country depends on a single source of income, rather it rests in who dominates the oil wealth and who is in charge of distributing the income generated from this wealth to the communal components?
“In this context, we cite Article 21 of the Constitution which stipulates ‘Natural resources and all revenues there from are the property of the State. It shall ensure their preservation and proper exploitation due regard being given to the requirements of the State security and the national economy’.
“But although the State owns the country’s natural resources, these resources are absolutely managed by the ruling family party with a marginal partnership of the Parliament even when the latter was at the top of its strength.
“In other words, the party of the ruling family is the sole party which is sanctioned to practice the political action - it is also the sole party which is monopolizing the natural resources and spends the same through a known manner followed in this connection.”
“It is a huge problem to hear a person who was directly behind the street protests in which many people violated the Constitution and social norms say the current period is worse than the era of the Iraqi invasion after he led a protest to deceive several people and later abandoned them to their fate while they are undergoing court prosecution now,” Talal Al-Sa’eed wrote for Al-Seyassah daily.
“He forgets the Iraqi invasion was an external aggression while he had led the internal aggression. He is also directly behind the political crisis perverting Kuwait until today. We hardly sort out one problem before another one begins! It seems that he doesn’t want the country to enjoy political stability until he is part of the system.
“He has forgotten he was the one who ruled himself out of political relevance, supposing he could hold everybody to ransom. He ignored the fact that the national train waits for nobody, and the current political dispute is probably a spillover of the protests he led.”
“I feel pain over the situation of this society especially when I watch news about the Syrian crisis, which has been the main topic for most analyses and comments regarding compromises over a long period of time to the extent that we are starting to lose hope and feel dejected about the entire scenario,” Abdullah Al-Haider wrote for Al-Anba daily.
“The situation is so bad that death is considered as normal as eating or drinking. We are feeling depressed over the circumstances of our society which are worsening every day. We feel the whole world is treating such an enormous crisis as marginal. Lakhdar Ebrahimi went around the world to discuss and find solutions to this crisis but in vain. I visited Al-Zaatari Refugee Camp where my heart broke when I saw eyes that were seeking solutions.
“The principles of the United Nations were lost at the threshold of the Al-Zaatari Refugee Camp followed by the Geneva conferences where solutions eluded the conferees. The mothers are shouting with pain over the cries of their suffering children while men maintain silence due to their helplessness and hopelessness over the lack of solutions.”
“The Jahra police have succeeded in solving the murder mystery of the two Indians working for the money transport company who were gunned down near the Sulaibiya Vegetable Market as usual. Earlier, they had solved many complicated mysteries such as the theft of ammunition from the firing range. All these successes have come by the grace of God and directives from senior officials,” columnist, former MP and General Manager of Scope Television Talal Al-Saeed wrote for Al-Seyassah daily.
“We wish to see fair punishment for the culprits soon in public and this should serve as deterrent for others for crimes that have been committed which are alien to our society.
“It is unimaginable to think of murders and thefts and the spread of drugs. Since trafficking in drugs is punishable by death, the suspects don’t fear to use guns whenever they feel they are pursued by the law. Therefore, it is necessary to give powers to the policemen to defend themselves when in dire need.”