Commenting on the increasingly complex Syrian situation, most pundits in Arab papers spotlighted the existential crisis of Arab and Western powers alike in the face of Russian and Chinese muscle. Syria is grabbing all the headlines and the increasing impotency of Arab conservative states -- a euphemism for Gulf Arab nations -- and their Western backers is highlighted as never before. That was the issue lurking in the background even as the Syrian people are bombarded on a daily basis and their homes destroyed. The Syrian opposition counts the costs of the barbarous government attacks but cannot depend on the international community to come to the rescue. Syria needs the international community's attention. Moscow and Beijing have made it absolutely clear that they do not approve of Western intervention in Syria. There will be no duplication of the Libyan scenario in Syria, they insist. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, after meeting with the Arab League and United Nations special envoy to Syria, the former UN secretary-general Kofi Anan, made it abundantly clear that international military intervention was out of the question. The triumph of Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin at the polls only compounded matters. He is a champion of the Syrian regime and has made it clear that the domino effect of one Arab nation after another succumbing to the rigours of the Arab Spring is by no means by chance. Be that as it may, the mouthpiece of the ruling Baath Party in Syria, the daily Al-Thawra, was scathing in its criticism of the oil-rich Gulf Arab states while its habitual opprobrium of Western powers was less pronounced. Al-Thawra hailed this week's UN Security Council statement unprecedently approved by all its 15 member states including Russia and China. The original document, however, was diluted by Russia's demand editing out a specific ultimatum for the Syrian government. Al-Thawra, in line with other official Syrian papers applauded the Russian position. The daily quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying that "of critical importance is that the document contains no ultimatums, threats or theses on whom to blame." The sequencing of a ceasefire has become the buzzword of the international community. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon cited the Syrian crisis as the most pressing international concern at the moment. In an unprecedented development the import of which was not lost on the Syrian government and reflected in the celebratory mood of the Syrian papers, the UN Security Council unanimously approved a statement supporting Anan's peacemaking efforts in Syria. Syrian pro-government papers played down the non-binding nature of the statement and focussed instead on the inclusive Syrian-led political talks "to address the legitimate concerns of the Syrian people". This was seen as a triumph as far as the Syrian government and its allies in Tehran, Moscow and Beijing are concerned. Vitaly Churkin, Russia's UN ambassador, urged the international community to concede that all forces, government and opposition, must work together to arrive at a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis. Editor-in-Chief of Syria's Al-Thawra Ali Kassem wrote an anti-Arabian Gulf states tirade entitled 'Back to the bottleneck' in which he derided the kingdoms, sheikhdoms and emirates of the Gulf as defenders of reactionary ideas, terrorism and religious extremism. "If these states now stand at a difficult and confusing crossroads it is because they had long contended with championing and harbouring terrorists and religious extremists in the region. Today they stand on the edge of a precipice, on the very mouth of a volcano and they are deprived of any assistance from the outside world," wrote Kassem in Syria's Al-Thawra. The London-based pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat headlined with 'Arab rage and frustration at [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei] Lavrov's insinuations of the dangers of "Sunni Muslim rule" of Syria'. Lavrov, the paper lamented, hinted at designs by the Syrian opposition forces and its Gulf Arab backers to overthrow the Al-Assad regime so as to instigate Sunni Muslim rule over a huge swathe of Middle Eastern territory, including Syria. This plot was allegedly fomented in order to frustrate the Iranian blueprint for the creation of a Shia Muslim "empire" in the region. The London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat also spotlighted the Syrian crisis. However, it did place the Syrian conundrum in context. Mustafa El-Feki, Egyptian pundit and former foreign relations parliamentary head under the regime of ex-president Hosni Mubarak, distanced himself from the vagaries of the past and focussed instead on the future. "Dramatic changes were witnessed in the Arab world since the eruption of the Tunisian revolution and after Mohamed Bouazizi, the street vendor who set himself afire in frustration over his deplorable living conditions, oppression corruption, rampant unemployment and a lack of equal opportunities," El-Feki noted. "And, since this courageous feat revolutions have spread to Egypt and Libya, Yemen and Syria�ê� it has also led to a radical transformation of the parliament in two other countries -- Morocco and Kuwait." El-Feki noted that the next Arab summit is not simply a felicitous get-together, but an opportunity for a closer examination of the goals of the Arab Spring and a scrutiny of the objectives of the new crop of Arab leaders. "There are groundbreaking developments in a region that is of paramount importance and it encompasses southern Europe, western Asia and North Africa. In short, this is the budding heart of the world in this age and in all previous eras". The Yemeni daily Al-Thawra, not to be confused with its Syrian namesake, featured an article by Souad Al-Saba in which she both extolled the virtues of Yemeni women and lamented their victimisation by sexist prejudice, misogyny and male chauvinism in Yemeni society at large. "The Yemeni woman suffers from the detrimental effects of underdevelopment such as illiteracy, poverty and disease, just like the Yemeni man. However, her suffering is multiplied because of misogyny widely practised by male chauvinists in Yemeni society," Al-Saba wrote. "The Yemeni woman was present and participated on an equal footing with Yemeni men in the revolution of the Arab Spring. Her contribution to the revolution was attested to in local, regional and international media reports. The Yemeni woman was applauded across the social communication networks including Twitter and Facebook. She was active in social networking," Al-Saba summed up. On a lighter note, the Saudi daily Okaz dwelt at length on sobering social matters. In an article entitled 'The return of the drunkards' Khaled Suleiman lambasted Saudi nationals who make clowns of themselves by getting drunk as soon as they leave the kingdom. "News of returnees banned from boarding planes headed home do not surprise anyone anymore," Suleiman noted. "Every few days we are bombarded in the press with reports in the nation's dailies of Saudi drunks stranded at airports abroad. These passengers or prospective passengers cause a commotion either before boarding the planes or after takeoff. Frankly speaking they are a nuisance and a national disgrace. The last of these stories of Saudi dipsomaniacs relates an incident in which three passengers were banned from boarding a plane headed from Cairo to Riyadh this week".
