Gamal Nkrumah monitors Annan's peace talks in Syria Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Arab whirlwind tour, especially his stopover in Damascus, received wide coverage in the Arab media and no more so than in Syrian government papers such as Al-Thawra, the mouthpiece of the ruling Syrian Baath Party. The paper highlighted attempts by Annan "to start an inclusive political dialogue" between the Syrian government and the opposition forces. The paper naturally played down the intensifying violence in various parts of Syria. Al-Thawra also reported on the meeting of international envoy Annan with Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad and noted that Annan expressed his "deep concern" at certain intransigent attitudes of the opposition forces after meeting opposition leaders, young activists, prominent businessmen and businesswomen. The paper seemed to indicate that life continues as normal as ever in Syria. Al-Thawra noted that Annan also urged access for humanitarian relief agencies and the Red Cross to the areas most affected by the violence. 'Battles in the heart of Damascus and escalation of violence in Aleppo' the front-page headline of the London-based pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat said on Monday. In the same issue of the paper and in a full-page interview Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari was quoted as saying that the Syrian crisis will be the focus of the Arab summit scheduled to take place in the Iraqi capital Baghdad next month. Commentator Hamad Al-Majed in a provocatively titled op-ed 'The war between the Brotherood and Hizbollah in Syria' said that the irony is that Iran has close links with both Lebanon's Hizbollah and Hamas of Gaza "but I believe that while the relationship between Iran and Hizbollah is permanent and enduring, Tehran's relationship with Hamas is ephemeral and temporal." Al-Majed commended Hamas on departing from the Syrian capital Damascus and freeing itself from its Syrian benefactors. "I was especially heartened by the fact that Hamas decided to desert Damascus and in the words of its leader Ismail Haniya in Cairo, hailed the legitimate rights of the Syrian people. This is an unprecedented departure by Hamas from its previous policies," Al-Majed extrapolated. On a somewhat different note, other pundits tackled the Syrian crisis from a contrary perspective, focusing more on the international context rather than on the regional standpoint. Research Fellow at the Centre for Syrian Studies at Saint Andrews University in the United Kingdom Monzer Eid Al-Zamalkani wrote a column in Asharq Al-Awsat condemning the manner in which the US has read the situation in Syria. "Washington was just as surprised by the Arab Spring revolutions as any other country. It misunderstood the causes of the revolutions and it was not sure how to handle matters," noted Al-Zamalkani. "The current situation in Syria especially as far as the opposition is concerned is nowhere near a solution to the crisis," Al-Zamalkani continued. "The transformation of Syria into a state of political chaos is detrimental to the entire region. The frontiers will disintegrate and pandemonium and anarchy will engulf the region. International interests will be impacted negatively... We must take into account the importance of Syria in the Islamic religion, the waves of Arab immigration to Syria and its positive influence of the flowering of Islamic civilisation... The US must not underestimate the critical importance of Syria and its pivotal position in the region," Al-Zamalkani concluded. The Baath Party is not alone in having links with organised crime. The front-page headline of the London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat highlighted the Syrian government's position: 'Al-Assad links a political conclusion of the Syrian crisis with the elimination of the 'terrorist groups'. Editor-in-Chief of Al-Hayat Ghassan Charbel, in his poignant op-ed entitled 'Lessons of the first year' laments the lack of interest in the suffering of the Syrian people. "The incongruous images emanating from Syria in the visual media must not stop people from scrutinising the print media. The Syrian crisis is complex, deep and multi-faceted," Charbel explains. "On one level it is yet another Arab Spring experience. At another level it is a unique example revolving around the proper place of Syria in the region... if the regime in Syria is toppled we might as well call it the 'Islamist Spring' as opposed to the 'Arab Spring'... If not for Russia, and not Iran, the entire Syrian regime would have collapsed," Charbel said. The underlying failings thrown up by this Syrian predicament are stark. The West is reluctant to intervene. The international community is helpless. "This does not mean that the interests and calculations of Moscow and Damascus are identical," Charbel notes in an afterthought. It may be that the Syrian crisis has dominated discussion in the Arab media this week, but other topics were also tackled. Al-Hayat quoted Libyan Prime Minister Abdurrahim Al-Keib as imploring the international community to support Libya's fledgling democracy. The visit of Al-Keib to the United States received wide coverage and concern over the intensifying violence in Libya was voiced. The Saudi pundit Abdel-Nasser Al-Oteibi in an article entitled 'Twitter Saudi, Kuwaiti and Egyptian' touched on a raw nerve. "I spend approximately two hours a day on Twitter," Al-Oteibi confessed. "I read the ideas of all political and ideological orientations -- the militants, the conservatives, the liberals, the secularists, the anarchists -- Saudis, Kuwaitis, Egyptians, Bahrainis, British, Americans and Mauritanians... and I try to follow what is happening in each and every country... in Saudi Arabia every single topic social or political is discussed in detail on Twitter," Al-Oteibi observed. Jameel Al-Thiabi, also writing in Al-Hayat, was more concerned about 'Syria... and the final solution' with its ominous connotations. "What is for sure is that the political map of Syria cannot be re- drawn without the international recognition of the National Syrian Congress," Al-Oteibi summed up. "The revolutionaries in Syria now fear nothing after they have faced torture, terrible repression and cold-blooded murder," he noted. "What is needed now is a definite break by politicians of all parties from criminal gangs," Al-Thiabi pleaded. The Algerian newspaper Al-Watan spotlighted the fight against corruption and nepotism in Algeria. The Lebanese daily Al-Safir concentrated, not surprisingly on Syria and the implications of the Syrian crisis on Lebanon. The Saudi daily Okaz decried the Syrian regime and stressed that Damascus does not have to resort to violence because it will inevitably lose the fight against the armed opposition forces. The Saudi paper in that connection applauded the Free Syrian Army. Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal was quoted as praising the Syrian opposition forces openly.
