Truths and Lies over Syria

Umberto Mazzei

30/01/2014

Opinión

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Thomas E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) on Arabs, in 1916: If properly handled they would remain in a state of political mosaic, a tissue of small jealous principalities incapable of cohesion.

Background

For centuries the Arabs lived in peace under the Ottoman Empire without religious conflicts in semi-autonomous communities called Vilayets. That peace guaranteed transport between the Mediterranean and India, so Great Britain then supported Ottoman integrity against Russian attempts to erode the Northern part of the vast Empire. In 1869, the new Suez Canal changed the strategic interest, which moved South, to Egypt specifically.

The Khedive of Egypt, Ismail Pasha, bankrupted Egypt with projects funded by British bankers, and in 1875 sold his controlling shares on the Suez Canal Company to Britain, with the Rothschild Bank acting as intermediary, during the government of Benjamin Disraeli (1874 -1880). Shortly afterwards, the British intervened Egyptian rents and Egypt became a British vassal state.

In 1916, during World War I, Britain and France negotiated the Sykes-Picot Agreement, to distribute between them the Arabs of the Ottoman Empire. The agreement was like other Franco- British agreements in Africa, which divided peoples with artificial lines, while putting together others who had little in common. The drafter of the final borders was Sir Mark Sykes, without Georges Picot, because only British troops occupied the region.

After the war, France received her Syrian part, but amputated from Mosul, Jordan, Njed and Palestine, because the British invented three kingdoms for their Arab allies against the Turks. The Kingdoms of Jordan, of Iraq, with the vilayets of Basra (Shiite), Baghdad (Sunni) and Mosul (Kurdish), and of Arabia. Jordan went to Sharif Hussein, Iraq to Hussein’s son Faisal and Arabia to Ibn Saud. It is remarkable that when it was proposed to give Iraq to Ibn Saud, Winston Churchill, Secretary for the Colonies, objected: "Ibn Saud would plunge the entire region into a religious pandemonium”. He said so because Ibn Saud came from Nejd, where Mohamad ibn al Wahhab, in the eighteenth century, founded a primitive intolerant sect, Wahabbism, whose members are called Salafis. It is now the official religion in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain.

Palestine remained as a British Mandate, in order to fulfil the promises made by Britain in the Balfour Declaration (1917), which is a letter from Foreign Secretary Lord Arthur Balfour, to Lord Lionel Rothschild, President of the British Zionist Federation.

In the 60’s the Wahabbite Arab absolute monarchies regarded in dread, as kings imposed by the British lost their thrones: Farouk in Egypt, Idris in Libya, Faisal II in Iraq. In their place there were secular republics, which gave a very bad example by distributing their income. All that caused by a Pan-Arab Ba'ath (Renaissance) Party, with nationalistic and socialist ideas.

Beginning the XXI century, Arab countries were divided into secular republics, theocratic monarchies and pro-American/British/Israeli dictatorships. Secular and modern Arab countries were an ideological threat, which led the West to promote riots and pretexts to destroy them.

Peace Conference on Syria – Geneva II

After all the lies to justify NATO’s attacks on Iraq and Libya, now the same partners are looking for a pretext to attack Syria. It is well-known that NATO countries, Israel and Gulf monarchies are supporting the groups that try to overthrow through military means and terrorist attacks the Syrian Government; the legitimate government recognised by international organisations. It is quite a clear intervention in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation, prohibited by the UN Charter and by modern International Law. It is a proxy aggression with foreign mercenaries, paid and armed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United States, Great Britain and France, who were helped by Turkey and Jordan to penetrate Syrian borders.

The US Government said that if the Syrian Army used chemical weapons to fight them it would cross the “Red Line” for a US - led direct military intervention. Washington has a long history of false flag operations to justify its wars before its credulous citizens - so we knew that gas attacks against civilians would be fabricated and attributed to the Syrian Government. We also knew that the case would be brought before the UN Security Council requesting authorization to attack, mentioning nonexistent “strong evidence”. Only that this time, the majority of the Security Council, including veto-wielding permanent members Russia and China, were against the attack. Then, the British Parliament prohibited any action against Syria by the British Government and it seemed that the US Congress would deny its permission for an attack, that this time had been previously requested. There where also eleven Russian and two Chinese warships guarding the Syrian coast against an attack in violation of the Security Council decision and the UN Charter.

That is the context in which Washington relinquished war on exchange for Syria surrendering its chemical weapons, which in any case were intended only as a deterrent against Israeli atomic weapons. That is how the US accepted to bring all sides to a peace conference instead. The usual Anglo-Saxon strategy for international conferences is to invite many vassal states – Mexico but not Iran - to have a majority of voices on their side while the press spreads lies to convince the general public. The idea is to intimidate and obtain concessions. It will be applied to Syria, even if the Syrian Government is consolidating its hold with recent military and diplomatic victories. The Syrians know it well, as is obvious in the speech by their Foreign Minister, Walid al-Moellem.

The Truth seen from the Syrian side

I will quote parts of the Minister’s speech in Montreux, on January 22, asking to stop support to foreign terrorism that destroys his people and his country. “It is regrettable, Ladies and Gentlemen, that seated amongst us today in this room, are representatives of countries that have the blood of Syrians on their hands… Countries that gave themselves the authority to grant and deny legitimacy to others as they saw fit, never looking at their own archaic glasshouses... Countries that shamelessly lecture us on democracy, on development and on progress, whilst drowning in their own ignorance and medieval norms. Countries that have become used to being entirely owned by kings and princes who have the sole right to distribute their national wealth granting their associates whilst denying those who fall out of favour.

“They used their petrodollars to buy weapons, recruit mercenaries and saturate airtime covering up their mindless brutality with lies under the guise of the so-called Syrian revolution that will fulfill the aspirations of the Syrian people.…Ladies and Gentlemen, How can a Chechen, Afghani, Saudi, Turkish or even French and English terrorists deliver on the aspirations of the Syrian people, and with what? An Islamic state that knows nothing of Islam except perverse Wahhabism? Who declared anyway that the Syrian people aspire to live thousands of years in the past?

“In the name of the revolution, children are killed in their schools and students in their universities, women are extorted in the name of jihad al-nikah and other forms, mosques are shelled whilst worshipers kneel at prayer, heads are severed and hung in the streets, people are burned alive in a true holocaust … This is what their masters ordered them to do, these countries that spearheaded the war against Syria, trying to increase their influence in the region with bribes and money, exporting human monsters fully soaked in abhorrent Wahabi ideology, all at the expense of Syrian blood. From this stage, loud and clear, you know as well as I do that they will not stop in Syria, even if some sitting in this room refuse to acknowledge or consider themselves immune.

“Some neighbours started fires within Syria whilst others recruited terrorists from around the globe – and here we are confronted with shockingly farcical double standards: 83 nationalities are fighting in Syria - nobody denounces this, nobody condemns it, nobody reconsiders their position - and they impertinently continue to call it a glorious SYRIAN Revolution! While when a few scores of young resistant fighters supported the Syrian Army in a few places, all hell broke loose and it suddenly became foreign intervention!

“Here I affirm, Syria - the sovereign and independent state, will continue to do whatever it takes to defend herself with whatever means it deems necessary, without paying the least bit of attention to any uproar, denunciations, statements or positions expressed by others. These have been and always will be Syria’s sovereign decisions… They imposed sanctions on our food, our bread and our children’s milk. When all of this failed, America threatened to strike Syria, fabricating with her allies, Western and Arab, the story about the use of chemical weapons, which failed to convince even their own public, let alone ours. Countries that celebrate democracy, freedom and human rights regrettably only choose to speak the language of blood, war, colonialism and hegemony. Democracy is imposed with fire, freedom with warplanes and human rights by human killing.

“We are here as representatives of the Syrian people and the state; but let it be clear to all, – and experience is the best proof – that nobody has the authority to grant or withdraw legitimacy from a president, a government, a constitution, a law or anything else in Syria except Syrians themselves; this is their constitutional right and duty.”

The lies of the “Friends of Syria” and their press

Doubts begin with the report by an English law firm paid by Qatar, a country which sends money and weapons to the rebels in Syria. There are pictures of alleged victims of the Syrian government. The report comes to light just a day before the Geneva conference II on Syria. Sources are nebulous and it would be odd for a government to record torture, but Mr. Kerry is already horrified and the press lying when presenting the document as indisputable evidence.

Another lie concerns the resignation of President Assad as agreed before the talks. The Syrian government agreed to form a transition government to end the war and then call elections. The text says: "[a transition government] could include members of the present [Syrian] government and the opposition and other groups and shall be formed on the basis of mutual consent.” Nowhere does it say that Assad should leave power first, as the press is stating.

Another lie is that the United States supports only moderate militias. There is no such thing. The press narrative speaks of good press Rebels - Islamic Front - fighting with evil Al -Qaeda and Syrian Army. Words from the head of the Arahr the Sham, the strongest Front group, we know that their goal is to impose Sharia Law, enclose women in their homes, slaughter heretics and expel Christians. Ahrar al Sham claims to be the authentic representative of Al- Qaeda in Syria. None of that is reported by North American or European press.

Conclusion: It is impossible for Western governments to ignore the truth. They know the experience in Libya. It is likely that the objective is to destroy strong Arab countries to surround Israel with a "tissue of small jealous principalities incapable of cohesion."

- Umberto Mazzei has as doctorate in political science from the University of Florence. He is Director of the Institute for International Economic Relations in Geneva.

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