Imperialism and foreign intervention top the discussion at the Save Syria conference at Egypt's Doctors Syndicate, reports Osman El-Sharnoubi The Humanitarian Relief Committee of the Egyptian Doctors Syndicate on Tuesday 28 February organised a conference called Save Syria in which Arab public intellectuals and activists discussed the worsening humanitarian condition in Syria, proposed solutions and discussed future scenarios. The conference, held in Cairo, opened with the screening of videos showing footage of what is believed to be the aftermath of the Syrian regime's violence against civilians and the now armed Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighting on the side of anti-regime protesters. Charred interiors of buildings and corpses (of children and adults) laying next to mourners, were displayed as Syrian pro-revolution songs played in the background. Head of the Arab Doctors Union's culture centre Hisham El-Hamami presented the issue and the panel of speakers, which included Palestinian intellectual Mazen Al-Najjar, Egyptian activist and political science professor Rabab El-Mahdi and Nezar Al-Kharrat, head of the Syrian Revolution Association in Egypt (SRAE). El-Hamami highlighted the regional importance of Syria, saying it was one of the main supporting legs of any Arab burden, and that for this reason there is a great deal of manipulation and plotting against it regionally and by the international community but insisted that such abuse and more notably the abuse by the brutal regime of President Bashar Al-Assad in Syria will not be victorious. El-Hamami added that the aim of the conference was to participate in supporting "our brothers" in Syria, as a number of workshops would follow the conference focussing on the methods and mechanisms by which Egyptians could provide support for Syrians on both the humanitarian and political sides. The Syrian uprising which erupted in March 2011 was subject to a brutal military crackdown by Al-Assad's regime. The UN's latest estimate of the death toll is "well over" 7,500 while Syrian government figures of soldiers killed reach 2,000. Now that Syrians against the regime have joined soldiers who have defected in the Free Syrian Army, civil war looms over the country especially as calls to support the FSA, most recently by Qatar, are being heard repeatedly. A main concern in the Syrian situation is the breakdown of security in one of the main countries in what is now known as the "resistance camp", which includes Iran and Hizbullah, based mainly in Gaza and Lebanon, who support resistance to Israel. Fears exist that the fall of the Al-Assad regime would lead to cutting off of the Iranian link in the region and cornering Hizbullah thus weakening resistance to Israel. This issue reached the forefront of the discussion in the conference aside from the main issue which was aiding Syrians suffering from regime violence via Egypt. Palestinian intellectual Al-Najjar, earlier deported from the US for alleged links with the Palestinian resistance group Al-Jihad Al-Islami spoke against the notion of the weakening of resistance against Israel if the Syrian regime falls. In contrast, Al-Najjar believes that what is present in Syria is a banana republic-like situation where a plutocracy controls most resources impoverishing the population and creating a situation that prevents the establishment of a real resistance regime. "No contradiction exists between resistance and freedom, only free nations can resist, those who aren't enslaved and tied down" he said. Al-Najjar said that any imperialist project in the region passes from west to east, making Syria on a collision course with any such project, hinting at western imperialist projects in the region, complicated by "planting" Israel in the Arab region over 60 years ago. Leftist Egyptian professor El-Mahdi had similar concerns. She rejected the position taken by some revolutionaries showing timid support for the Syrian revolution, due to the apprehensions Al-Najjar spoke of. El-Mahdi said this was flawed logic, believing that for the first time democracy had been directly linked to facing Israel, saying that while decades ago resistance to Zionism and Arabism was linked to dictatorial projects such as Nasserism, now the situation was different where Arabism can be a grassroots, popular project. El-Mahdi expressed her belief that the solidarity resulting from Arab revolutions, and the potential democracies that may be established afterwards, are the most feasible means of facing the threat of Israel and imperialist forces in the region. To the objections of many of the Syrians present at the conference, El-Mahdi warned against foreign military intervention in Syria, insisting that military intervention like the one in Libya would lead to the destruction of any hopes of success for the Syrian revolution, saying that international forces backing the Syrian revolution are imperialist forces -- the US and Saudi Arabia most prominent among them. Voices protesting against El-Mahdi's cautionary statements rose after SRAE chief Al-Kharrat spoke, saying that foreign intervention is already there from Iran, Russia, China and Hizbullah, referring to Syria's current allies. "We demand foreign intervention", Al-Kharrat raised his voice to the applause of many of those present, saying Arab initiatives to help Syria -- referring to the Arab League observer mission in Syria -- only led to more violence from the regime. Al-Kharrat added that any ruler in the world does not want to see the Syrian revolution succeed and that the revolution will eventually reach Iran. Al-Kharrat went on about the "corpses, body parts and rape" in Syria now, saying it was a humanitarian crisis which requires humanitarian intervention to stop. El-Mahdi expressed her concern that a result of foreign intervention, aside from the casualties that would exceed those of Al-Assad's bloody crackdown, would christen him the Syrian leader an icon of anti-Zionist and imperialist struggle, "which he is not", and so destroy the idea that the revolutions erupting in the Arab world are a struggle between imperialist and anti-imperialist forces. El-Mahdi rejected the argument that foreign forces would enter the region as an apolitical player for a humanitarian cause. Al-Najjar agreed, saying that "intervention isn't an item you pick off a supermarket rack," adding that it only happens when the intervening forces foresee interests to do so, giving the example of oil concessions for Western forces after Libya's NATO intervention. The speakers all agreed that the success of the Syrian revolution would be a watershed moment in the history of the region, more so a prerequisite for the success and further spreading of revolutions in the rest of the region, including Egypt.
