Gamal Nkrumah highlights whether Arabs have the stomach for yet one more uprising Complete paralysis in the Syrian political crisis is untenable. If the deplorable situation continues to fester, Syria and the Arab region will be doomed politically and economically. That would be a tragedy. Yawning as it is, Syria's economic woes are the least of its challenges. Political reform is paramount. But reforms at the top are not enough. Ali Kassem, editor-in-chief of the Syrian daily Al-Thawra, mouthpiece of the ruling Syrian Arab Baath Socialist Party, wrote in an editorial entitled 'An examination of motives: now and then' that he doubted the sincerity of the Syrian opposition to conclude a peaceful deal with the Syrian government. "We are encouraged by the unanimous decision of the United Nations pragmatism in adopting the cease-fire plan of former UN secretary-general Kofi Anan, the chief international envoy to Syria," Kassem optimistically concedes. But on a more sombre note, Kassem notes that "given the vagueness of the plan we need to think of alternatives". The international community and Arab pundits alike are hoping that the Syrian government and opposition forces abide by Anan's six-point plan for a cease-fire. Since Anan's peace plan began, both sides have accused each other of violations. The Syrian government doubts notwithstanding, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon described Anan's plan as hopeful when putting on a brave face on the international community's agenda for saving Syria. Ban-Ki Moon urged "maximum restraint" from the Syrian regime and co-operation from the opposition as the first UN military observers arrived in Damascus to monitor the fragile cease-fire. "The opposition forces should also fully cooperate," Syria's Al-Thawra quoted Ban-Ki Moon as saying. The advance team of UN monitors arrival in Damascus on Sunday night was the subject of much controversial discussion in the Arab media. Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad accepted the true deal at the prodding of Russia's President-elect Vladimir Putin. In a heart-wrenching soliloquy concerning Syria and the plight of ordinary Syrian citizens Abdel-Rahman Rashed in a pertinent article entitled 'Is the time wrong for Syrians?' wonders if the aspirations of Syrians do not entitle them to a free and prosperous future. Four Arab revolutions have captured world imagination, and it appears that the world does not have the energy or emotional rectitude for enduring yet another Arab revolution after the surprise of the Tunisian Revolution and the magnitude of the Egyptian Revolution, and after the drama in the squares of Sanaa, and the bloodbath in the aftermath of the Libyans revolt against Muammar Gaddafi," writes Al-Rashed in his column in the pan-Arab London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat. "I cannot say that history has denied the Syrian people a chance for survival and political reform and social change. However, I am fully aware that the dependence on foreign interference is not a possibility and has become a weak option precisely because of the Russian intransigence and its insistence on supporting the Syrian regime," Al-Rashed extrapolates. "If there is any real change it could only happen if the Syrian people execute the change," Al-Rashed reasons. The Bahraini academician Shamsan Al-Manie, also writing in Asharq Al-Awsat looks at the future of Gulf security in the aftermath of the Bahraini crisis. "What makes the security situation in the Gulf especially sensitive is that the domestic political upheavals in Iran coincides with the Syrian impasse and both are interrelated because the Iranian regime is obliged to support the Syrian regime for its own survival. The Iranian regime is desperately trying to find a face-saving solution to the Syrian crisis," Al-Manie explains. "All these developments entail that the Gulf Cooperation Council states take the Iranian threat very seriously." In much the same vein, Mashari Al-Thaidi also writing in the same paper warned of the dangers of Iranian expansionist policies. "Iran is the critical key to understanding the political problems of the region. Iran is the country that is scuffling and scrambling for imposing a price for peace with its neighbours. What is alarming is that the West is always taking Iran into consideration before anyone else in the region," Al-Thaidi lamented. "This situation has become intolerable and must be stopped." "What we need to understand is that the Syrian crisis, the Iraqi conundrum and the volatile situation in Lebanon and even Yemen and Bahrain are all dependent on the whims of the decision makers in Iran," Al-Thaidi sums up in Asharq Al-Awsat. The paper featured an article by the former Algerian prime minister Sayed Ahmed Ghazali entitled 'The battle continues.' His commentary tackled the deplorable state of the refugee camps in Arab countries in general and the Ashraf Camp in Iraq in particular where Iranian dissidents were housed. The Iranian opposition Mujahidin Khalq still live in squalid conditions. Not in actual refugee camps, but in shantytowns. They still constitute a bone of contention between Iraq and Iran. Asharq Al-Awsat also quoted Bouthayna Shaaban, Syria's official government spokeswoman and top Syrian presidential aide, as saying that the Syrian government will decide whether the nationality of the UN monitors will be acceptable to authorities or not. "We have urged the Syrian opposition forces to accept dialogue and a peaceful resolution to the crisis but they have adamantly refused our offer," she explained. Shaaban also added that the specified period when the monitors will be permitted to stay in Syria will be decided later." On the question of Yemen's political future commentator Mohamed Gameih was blunt and to the point. In an article entitled 'The defenders of Islamic Sharia and Dialogue in Yemen' Gameih observed that "the Defenders of the Islamic Sharia are not as most people and the media assume, a unified bloc. They are neither an amalgamated ideological or religious organisation either, nor do all its members consider the rest of the community infidels. They do not all uniformly believe in a jihad against infidels". Gameih stressed that many disparate forces joined the Defenders of Islamic Sharia group for reasons that have nothing to do with ideological orientation. Many of them simply joined the organisation in order to fight the Yemeni armed forces and Yemeni state security. Others joined the organisation in order to better coordinate their military efforts to establish an independent state in southern Yemen. So secessionists and even secularists have joined forces under the banner of the Defenders of Islamic Sharia, Gameih summed up. Editor-in-Chief of the London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat Ghassan Charbel commented on the political mayhem in Egypt in a witty and wistful article nostalgically entitled 'The crime of Roushdi Abaza', the late Egyptian cinema heartthrob. I was most curious to decipher Charbel's curious code. "I was prompted to write this column after receiving a letter from a young Egyptian reader who claimed to be one of those youngsters who insisted on going to Tahrir Square on a regular, perhaps daily basis. He defied everyone and stood his ground until the 25 January Revolution succeeded. He was ecstatic that Egyptian voters flocked to the polling stations. "However, after expressing cautious optimism he confided that his hopes were dashed because the same old tactics of the Egyptian state security apparatus have come into play�ê� the censors will now ban the best films of Roushdi Abaza such as the comedy 'Wife Number 13'." But as far as Egypt is concerned, the necessity for entertainment and fun is likely to win the day. Roushdi Abaza cannot be wiped out of the Egyptian national collective memory.
