This blog post was published on January 17 2012. §
Arab forces to Syria? The mistake of 1976 once again
Image above from the headline of the Guardian 1976
Race against time before the coming Arab Summit in Baghdad next March (Three GCC countries Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain are already plotting to postpone the Summit, according to to Al-Seyassah). Emir of Qatar’s call of sending Arab troops to Syria to stop the bloodshed and protect civilians is an odd suggestion contradicts the facts on the ground.
Syria already rejected this plan, because it will create a new atmosphere of the conflict, which is undoubtedly will embarrass Russia and the China in case that some Arab countries to support such a proposal.
Probably, Qatar is pushed by Western power to announce this plan for two reasons:
- Indirect giving endorsement and legitimacy to the formation of the so called “Syrian army free”
– May soon help in activating the idea of the buffer zone (humanitarian corridors or any other dubious name) that can be set up by Turkey, and protected with the participation of Arab military.
But it seems that the Arab League is not interested in this option including the Saudi media who criticized this option. This is Saudi newspaper alriyadh:
There is no legislation approved by the Arab League countries, and even the terms of the common defense protocol are still hazy, directed against any external aggression, not an interference in the Arab countries affairs.
Arabs already tried this option in Oct. 1976 in Lebanon. Under the same recent reason “preventing a civil war”, Arab heads of state endorsed a peace plan calling for deployment of 30,000-man joint Arab peacekeeping force in Lebanon (interesting is that at that time, Iraq is the only Arab country opposed sending troops).
Arabs sent their forces, but the plan was a total failure and the presence of the forces created more troubles and conflicts in Lebanon than before. The Arabs withdrew the military peace keepers from Lebanon, except the Syrian forces who remained until 2005.