US Manipulation in the Syrian Arena

News agencies have reported on the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s concerns that al-Qaida is behind the two suicide bombings in the Syrian capital of Damascus, killing 55 people and wounding dozens. Ban Ki-moon said that al-Qaida’s intervention in the region “has created again very serious problems.” The secretary general did not reveal his sources, saying only, “I believe.”

There is no doubt that Ban Ki-moon’s statements seek to provide cover — and a bit of justification — for failure that the mission of the secretary general’s envoy, Kofi Annan, is probably facing in Syria. Even after deploying more than 260 UN observers in Syrian cities and their neighborhoods, as well as an influx of Ban Ki-moon’s and Kofi Annan’s representatives, the mission still hasn’t been able to attract any fighting forces. Therefore, there is almost a unanimous stance on the futility of the international observers’ mission, whose role — in the eyes of these forces — is nothing but intensification of visits and of the registration of what is going on there, but without influencing events or contributing to their end, let alone reducing their escalation.

However, all this does not prevent an observer of the Syrian developments from trying to discover the reasons, as well as the interest on the part of a foreign power, in making an internationally respected figure — who is known for his low-key and steady opinions on world events and whose remarks are supported with documents proving correctness of the case — neglect all that and take a step that is likely to damage the professional reputation and credibility he built up over years of service in international organizations.

There is a need to expose this world power, whose interests correspond with dragging Ban Ki-moon and other international figures and countries into a swamp of Syrian conflict and entangling them in tying “responsibility for the events” to al-Qaida. An observer has to see that Ban Ki-moon’s statements are consistent with Syrian authorities’ statements on their fears of being a victim of a terrorist plot financed and directed from abroad to destabilize the country after Syria sent the names of 26 foreigners to the UN, claiming that they were arrested after showing up to fight in Syria. Syrian authorities described 20 of them as members of al-Qaida who entered the country from Turkey.

Much the same way one must listen to the Yemeni army announcement from a few days ago on its victory over the “al-Qaida organization,” followed by the confirmation of the People’s Committee spokesman, Ali Ahmed Eida, while also asserting that they had achieved a great victory over al-Qaida and expelled its fighters “from surrounding suburbs.” It also coincided with the announcement of an airstrike by a U.S. drone that targeted a vehicle in the historic city of Shibam in the province of Hadramout in eastern Yemen, killing two al-Qaida members. Washington didn’t hesitate to claim that it foiled al-Qaida’s conspiracy of providing a suicide bomber with an improvised explosive device made from non-metallic materials in the Arabian Peninsula and its headquarters in Yemen.

If we paid attention to all these statements and actions, we would — without any trouble — point in Washington’s direction, which on one hand has the greatest interest in the continuation of clashes in Syria, and on the other in directing attention to the “al-Qaida organization.” That way, the Obama administration is able to achieve a set of evident and hidden objectives, which can be limited to the following points:

1. Hiding American weakness to buy time for taking a decisive stance, just as the Obama administration did in Libya. Indeed, despite the fact that it has been more than 15 months since the conflict in Syria began, it appears — and has also been leaked from media sources quoting a U.S. official — that the Obama administration is still in a holding-and-waiting mode, since it is waiting for Russia to cease its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. This was clearly indicated by Charles Krauthammer in The Washington Post: “If Obama wants to stay out of Syria, fine. Make the case that it’s none of our business. That it’s too hard. That we have no security/national interests there.” He also concluded by writing: “The tragedies of Rwanda, Darfur and now Syria did not result from lack of information or lack of interagency coordination, but from lack of will.”

2. Distracting the media from the agreement that was signed between U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak, based on which Washington will grant Israel an additional $70 million for the “Iron Dome system,” a project of short-range rockets with a radar able to destroy Katyusha rockets from the air, with a range between 5 to 70 km, in addition to mortars. According to Obama, the aim (of the agreement) is to improve defense capabilities and provide cover for the inhabitants of the south when confronted with a missile attack. It has to be linked to the decision of a Knesset Internal Affairs and Security Committee of two-phase expansion of the Ariel settlement, northwest of the West Bank. The first phase will include establishing 700 new housing units, partly on the territory of Kafr Laqef village in Qalqilya and the second would establish 1,400 housing units on the territories of Baqat al-Hatab, Izzbat Abu Hamada and Kufur Aboush in Tul Karem province.

3. Distorting the parameters of the Syrian conflict by turning it into a fight between the current regime and a terrorist organization — meaning al-Qaida — which would strip the divided Syrian opposition from international or even local sympathy, especially when we take into account the success of the international media — mainly American — in inciting world’s public opinion against this organization. The most important thing from Washington’s perspective is to doctor the results of the conflict in favor of a new Middle Eastern project, which it intends to promote in the coming period.

The U.S. is clearly sticking its meddling fingers in the Syrian arena, and Washington has not and will not hesitate to take advantage of international forums like the UN and figures who possess high credibility, such as Ban Ki-moon, to achieve its objectives in Middle East — guaranteeing safety for the Zionist entity, securing the flow of oil and its affordable prices, and curbing any Iranian defiance that could have unpredictable consequences.