Rasha Sadek sets the stage for what might happen in tomorrow's Tahrir demonstrations and Rasha Saad looks at Damascus's post-revolution ties with Tehran Pundits focussed this week on developments in Syria and how the country's regional ally, Iran, shifted its stance and is preparing itself for a post-Assad era. In 'Planning for the post-Assad period', Hoda Al-Husseini pointed out a shift in Iran's support of Al-Assad's regime during the past six months of fighting. According to Al-Husseini, Iran seems to have come to the conclusion that Al-Assad's days are coming to an end. In the London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat, Al-Husseini cited Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi's recent statements calling on Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to respond to his people's legitimate demands whilst warning NATO of becoming embroiled in a "quagmire from which it would never be able to escape." The reason for this warning from Tehran, Al-Husseini explains, is that Iran does not want to find itself embroiled in a war outside of its own borders "for what if Tehran becomes embroiled in such a war, and then the expected popular uprising breaks out in Iran?" According to Al-Husseini, the change in the positions taken by Iran towards Syria reveals that the Iranians are planning for a post-Assad Syria. Al-Husseini disclosed that reliable information coming out of Tehran indicates that despite the considerable military and economic support that Iran is providing Syria in a bid to rescue the regime from collapse, Iran is preparing itself for "the day after Al-Assad". Iran's fears, Al-Husseini wrote, are firstly, that the vital route through which Iran provides Hizbullah in Lebanon and the Palestinians -- particularly the Hamas movement -- with military and logistical supplies and funding will be blocked. Secondly, that the main source through which Iran provides support to resistance groups, namely Syria, will be shut down. Against this backdrop, "the Iranian intelligence apparatus was assigned to make extensive clandestine contacts with new [potential] Syrian leaders outside of Al-Assad's inner circle and help strengthen them." Al-Husseini wrote. In the London-based daily Al-Hayat, Jihad Al-Khazen wrote that "this century will know no war criminal more contemptible than Dick Cheney." In a comment on Cheney's release of his memoirs, Al-Khazen wrote that "the terror of 11 September 2001 killed around 3,000 Americans, but the former US vice president was responsible for the deaths of 6,000 American soldiers, for oil and Israel, and the deaths of a million Arabs and Muslims." "This murderer," wrote Al-Khazen, should stand before the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague before any accused from Africa or the former Yugoslavia. However, laments Al-Khazen, Cheney has not been tried for what he carried out in full view of the entire world. "Instead, he writes his memoirs as if he is a sane human being," Al-Khazen wrote. Cheney, maintains Al-Khazen, says in his memoirs that he advised President Bush in June 2007 to launch air strikes to destroy a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor, which is what Israel did in September of that year "certainly after coordinating with the Bush administration and receiving spy satellite information and other things to carry out the mission." In 'Syria and Iran defeated the United States,' Al-Khazen wrote that the incitement against attacking Syria was also because of its role in the war on Iraq. Al-Khazen reminded readers that the stated policy of the Bush administration was "regime change" in Syria and Iran. Accordingly, "I say today that Syria and Iran defeated the US in Iraq, and Cheney's imperial aspirations ended there; he was unable to complete the job against Syria and Iran." Shifting to NATO's involvement in Libya, Mustafa Zein wrote that "colonialism is returning to the Arab world through the broadest of gates, supported by popular forces, which are said to have no other way of getting rid of their tyrannical ruling regimes." In 'The return of colonialism,' also in Al-Hayat, Zein wrote that the talk of Western democratic values being brought to the Middle East "is no more than cover for the return of the colonisers to this region." In the past, Zein explained, Europe had justified its colonialism with the slogan of civilising barbaric peoples. Today, Zein added, the slogan has turned into that of ridding those peoples of their tyrannical rulers. Thus, according to Zein, "Obama, Sarkozy, Cameron and Berlusconi have become the spokespersons of oppressed peoples, depriving one ruler of legitimacy and bestowing it on another, fighting one dictator and befriending another." "Those who ensure their political and economic interests and normalising relations with Israel are friends, while those who object to this are enemies that must be gotten rid of," Zein wrote. "Colonialism has returned to Libya. From there it will observe the changes taking place in Egypt and in Tunisia, and will subject Algeria to a new experience, after France left it decades ago and became convinced that it was not part of its territory," Zein wrote. In Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Abdel-Bari Atwan warned against the possible dangers of storming Bani Al-Walid, the stronghold of the Warfallah tribe, who largely support Gaddafi. Atwan fears a decisive military solution by the opposition forces is now more likely following the collapse of negotiations. The tribesmen, Atwan wrote, have barricaded themselves in the town. The negotiations collapsed after Gaddafi supporters insisted that the opposition forces enter the town without their weapons, which would expose them to an ambush. Warfallah is one of the biggest Libyan tribes and is particularly strong in the Western part of the country. Atwan warns that if Bani Al-Walid is stormed and a bloody confrontation ensues, the Libyan crisis would enter a new phase and the repercussions would affect stability and the new regime in Libya. "So, it is hoped that those concerned will address the situation and find a peaceful way out of the crisis to spare the blood of the Libyan people. This is possible if both parties resort to reason and wisdom," wrote Atwan.
