What led to this is a mixture of Syria’s blindness to — or at least determination to ignore - change brought with the Arab Spring; Damascus’s choice of friends which has for years riled Arabs particularly in the Gulf; and a new chief at the League with a record of human rights work he is now bringing to bear.
Damascus had agreed to an Arab League plan on Nov. 2 that would have meant drawing its troops out of cities, allowing in monitors and starting talks with the opposition. But scores have been killed since then as tanks and troops have bombarded towns. Leading the campaign are Gulf states that have long fretted about Syria’s alliance with their non-Arab rival Shiite Iran and accuse it of trying to unsettle the region. Qatar and Saudi Arabia are at the forefront of League action against Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Uprisings sweeping the region have broadened Arab support for action, drawing in governments newly keen for public favor. Egypt, long wary of change, voted for action against Damascus. Libya went a step further. After ousting its leader of 42 years, it recognized Syria’s opposition as the legitimate government. “The first factor for the change is the Arab Spring and the challenge which is unprecedented. It is extremely difficult for other states not to react” to bloodshed in Syria, said Ezzedine Choukri-Fishere, an experienced Egyptian diplomat and now on a panel that will outline reforms at the League. Change at the pan-Arab body began with Libya, when in March it suspended Tripoli and called for a no-fly zone after Muammar Qaddafi’s forces pummeled a rebellion against his rule. But Libya was long a maverick in the 22-member organization. Qaddafi routinely sparred publicly with other Arab leaders and, in recent years, he had turned his attention to Africa.
A move against Syria targets a country at the heart of the Arab world, a front-line state with Israel and champion of Arab unity, though analysts say its policies were often divisive.
Gulf rulers fear the growing influence of Iran on Shiite populations in an arc sweeping from the Gulf, through Iraq to Lebanon, where Shiite Hezbollah wields considerable power. Qatar’s role in leading the charge appears to have more varied motivations. The tiny state with huge gas resources has taken an increasingly prominent regional diplomatic role. It was an early backer of the rebels in Libya and has sought to provide support to Palestinians in Gaza, controlled by Islamist Hamas.
It riled Egypt’s authorities under now ousted President Hosni Mubarak when the Doha-based Al Jazeera television provided graphic coverage of the uprising against his rule.
Qatar heads a small steering committee of League states in dealing with Syria. The League has voiced increasing frustration with Damascus for not cooperating with mediation efforts. When Syria accepted the Arab plan on Nov. 2, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani pointedly said after the meeting: “We are happy to have reached this agreement and we will be even happier when it is implemented immediately.”
The deal was not and the League voted to suspend Damascus. The move was opposed by Lebanon, where Syria for years had a military presence, and Yemen, battling its own uprising. Iraq, whose government is wary of offending neighboring Iran, abstained. But 18 states backed the move.
“Syria has not offered anything to move the situation forward,” said one senior Arab diplomat at the League, adding that changes in the region meant that there was a new alignment of interests in the Arab world helping the League act. Some however were still cautious. Egypt’s ruling generals, say analysts, still have Mubarak’s reluctance for dramatic shifts but have been swayed because they don’t want to risk a public backlash for backing a repression in Syria, even as they have poured tear gas on their opponents in Cairo.
Others were also wary but have been won over. The Islamist government of Sudan, which traditionally sides with Syria’s hard line on negotiations with Israel, was swayed to back steps against Damascus by Egypt’s influential Islamists, who have ties to their oppressed Syrian counterparts, one League source said. “Now the Arab League is flexible in taking action. We must give value to the Arab League, which Arab people think has not accomplished anything for 60 years,” said the Arab diplomat.
Founded in 1945, the only action it could agree on for years was to boycott Israeli goods. Even that unity gradually fell apart after 1979 when Egypt, the most populous Arab state, became the first to sign a peace treaty with Israel. It has barely moved against an Arab state. No action was taken when Assad’s father, Hafez Assad, pounded the city of Hama in 1982, killing thousands to quash an Islamist uprising. The League did authorize a peacekeeping force for war-torn Lebanon in 1976, but that force turned into Syria’s virtual occupying army. It ordered a force to Kuwait in the 1960s when Iraq threatened, but couldn’t agree to act when Iraq actually invaded in 1990, though some Arabs joined a US-led coalition.
The picture could not be more different with Syria. The League is demanding Syria agree to receive a monitoring team, including military personnel, and it is considering sanctions. “There are many ideas and suggestions for sanctions that can be imposed on the Syrian regime,” said one Arab government representative at the League. They include imposing a travel ban on Syrian officials, freezing bank transfers or funds in Arab states related to Assad’s government and stopping Arab projects in Syria. For most of its 60 years, the League has been led by former Egyptian foreign ministers. Elaraby, 76, is no exception though his tenure at the ministry lasted just two months before he was picked as the League’s secretary-general. Yet in that short time, with Mubarak no longer in power, Elaraby left his mark on Egyptian foreign policy. He suggested tense ties with Iran should be mended and pointed to a softer approach toward Mubarak’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.
