Neighbors’ different positions on deepening Syrian crisis
BEIJING: Some Western countries have increased their diplomatic activities in Syria’s neighboring countries in recent days, which showed their intentions to scale up intervention in crisis-stricken Syria, analysts said.
US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has just wrapped up her Turkey visit before French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius kicked off a three-day tour to Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey on Wednesday.
As the crisis deepens in Syria, its neighbors have displayed different stances on the issue.
Iraq for political settlement
The Shiite-dominated Iraqi government has on many occasions expressed the willingness to play its role in solving the Syrian conflict and proposed peaceful settlement by political means.
Iraq said it would not intervene in Syria’s internal affairs and opposed any foreign interference in Syria or the use of force.
However, the analysts said that Baghdad’s stance was based on its own economic, social and political concerns.
Syria’s turmoil would directly led to a downturn in trade between the two countries, the analysts said, because the crisis-hit country has been an important trade partner of Iraq and provided its people with fine and cheap products, including building materials, vegetables and fruits.
The analysts said security problems also emerged when swarms of Iraqi refugees, who fled the Iraqi War to Syria, started to return to their home country.
The sudden influx of Iraqi expatriates created an immense pressure for the Iraqi government to resettle them and stoked uncertainty of its already unstable security situation, the analysts said.
Most importantly, they said, if the crisis was not properly solved and ended up in a civil war, it could lead to sectarian conflicts in Iraq and intensify its political infighting.
The Iraqi Shiites worried that if the Sunni-led Syrian opposition ousted President Bashar al-Assad and took power, it would break the balance of the regional sectarian power and encourage the Iraqi Sunnis, the analysts said.
The Iraqi Sunnis would give the Syrian opposition additional support in fighting with the Iraqi Shiites, they added.
Turkey supports Syrian opposition
Ankara has been supporting Syria’s opposition since the onset of the crisis. Apart from allowing the Syria National Council, the main opposition group, to set up its headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey’s biggest city, Ankara convened the “Friends of Syria” meeting in April to impose sanctions on Damascus, provide weapons for the opposition and demand the Assads step down.
Ankara has been courting the European Union to accept its application for membership, and it aspires to be the No. 1 Islamic power in the Middle East. Hence, Ankara took a similar position with the West on the Syria crisis, the analysts said.
The relations between Ankara and Damascus took a nosedive to the bottom after Ankara’s overt call for Assad to step down.
Recently as thousands of Syrian refugees sought shelter in Turkey, Ankara beefed up military presence along the border in fear of increasing threats from Kurdish rebels in the border areas.
Jordan takes a neutral attitude
As battles between Syrian troops and rebels are surging up, neighboring Jordan also faced mounting pressures not only in dealing with refugees but also in whether and how to pick sides between the Syrian government and the insurgents, analysts said.
Jordanian Prime Minister Fayez Tarawneh said on Tuesday that the kingdom has been hosting more than 150,000 Syrian refugees since early 2011, which added burdens to the country’s economy.
He called on the international community to seek a peaceful and political solution to end the crisis as soon as possible, and underlined the need for an immediate halt of the bloodshed and violence in the country.
As one of the countries most affected by the latest developments in Syria, Jordan is stuck in a dilemma of how to pick sides between the Syrian government and the insurgents, the analysts said.
While repeatedly calling for international efforts to solve the Syrian crisis peacefully and restore its stability, Amman agreed to host former Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab, who defected to Jordan earlier this month.