‘Exploring’ in Syria!

It is remarkable that the American president said that his country is continuing “to explore every possible avenue to solve this problem” in Syria when the international mediator, Lakhdar Brahimi, announced that talks between the Assad regime and the opposition did not achieve significant progress. James Clapper, director of American intelligence, said that the war in Syria created an “apocalyptic disaster.”

The strangeness did not stop at this point, especially when we remember an important statement from the beginning of this week by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson in which he said “Syria has become a matter of homeland security” for his country and Europe as a whole. How, after all that, could President Obama say that his administration is continuing “to explore every possible avenue to solve this problem” in Syria? This tells us that the American president himself has not resolved his hesitation about Syria, where Obama’s hesitancy since the beginning of the Syrian revolution nearly reversed the equation in a number of situations, from his refusal of General Petraeus’ plan to arm the Free Army with various weapons to his hesitancy to direct a military strike at the Assad regime after the use of chemical weapons.

Naturally, President Obama’s hesitancy in dealing with the Syrian crisis continues. That is what is demonstrated by his latest comments at his press conference with the French president, where the American president said, “Right now, we don’t think there’s a military solution per se to the problem.” The truth is that no one is demanding military intervention, so the military strike that America was hoping to understand, for example, was not a Syrian or international demand except insofar as it is a product of the red line that Obama himself drew for Assad. Demands from Washington were always for supporting the Free Army with various weapons. Intelligence information would permit it [the Free Army] to stop Assad’s killing machine. The story in Syria is that we are facing a criminal who kills defenseless people with Iranian and Russian aid, the participation of Hezbollah militias and clear procurement by al-Qaida to support Assad on the ground. Thus, they support him in the American-Russian sponsored negotiations. It is amazing that Assad’s political patrons support him militarily, whereas the Free Army and the Syrian opposition find themselves in a difficult situation in order to survive on the ground, hence the strengthening of their negotiating terms.

Thus, the demand to Washington and the international community is to empower the Free Army with various weapons and intelligence information to limit the presence of Iran, Hezbollah and al-Qaida, which is necessary to stop Assad’s killing machine and to force Assad to accept a political solution or to break him on the ground. It is not possible that Iran and Russia support Assad militarily and politically, while Washington merely supports the opposition with “nonlethal” aids. What Washington is not aware of is that Assad does not understand anything but the language of force. It is certain that Assad reads Obama’s statements about “exploring” solutions to the crisis as a victory and will interpret these statements as a call to continue his crimes in Syria.