Opinion | Columnists
Not a new speech
Assad repeated what his father had famously said during the October War of 1973.
- By Sami Moubayed, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 00:00 August 22, 2006
The world has been busy analysing the speech of President Bashar Al Assad, delivered with a vengeance from Damascus on August 15.
It was the first time the Syrian president gave a public address since the Israeli war on Lebanon started on July 12.
The first reaction to the speech was cancelling a visit to Syria by the German minister of foreign affairs. The Germans had been lobbying to re-engage Syria after a year of isolation imposed on Damascus by the US.
They believed that the Syrian president had embarrassed them in the international community with his aggressive tone.
This cancellation was followed by loud criticism of the Syrian president, coming from the Lebanese Druze leader, Walid Junblatt, and the majority leader in the Lebanese parliament, Saad Hariri.
Assad had accused them and the March 14 Coalition in Lebanon of being behind this Israeli war on Lebanon, due to their critical stance of Hezbollah and its secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah.
A closer look at Assad's speech, however, shows that there was nothing new to it. The Germans did not hear it correctly. He spoke with the same tone Syria has been using vis-à-vis the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1948.
His words, however, were both misunderstood and in some cases purposely distorted by the international community.
Actually there were many layers to Assad's speech and three audiences he wanted to address. One was the Syrian street. The other was the West. The third was Lebanon.
The main points of the speech were criticism of the West, the March 14 Coalition in Lebanon, the US and Israel.
As one observer puts it, to the Syrians, Assad was saying: "I am proud of you" for all the outpouring of support Syrian civil society, religious institutions, NGOs and private individuals gave to the Lebanese refugees who came to Syria.
By showering Nasrallah and Hezbollah with praise, Assad wanted to express Syrian gratitude towards the Lebanese resistance, which had stood firmly by Syria's side as the Syrian Army was leaving Lebanon in April 2005.
He wanted to thank Nasrallah for the dramatic support for Syria after the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri in February last year. At the time it was politically incorrect for any Lebanese leader to remain pro-Syria.
Timing
The timing of Assad's speech comes shortly after a rising chorus appeared in Lebanon, blaming Nasrallah for this war on Lebanon and calling for the disarming of Hezbollah.
Nasrallah cannot take a strong stance against this chorus, which is headed by the Hariri bloc, because he needs government support to remain armed.
Assad, however, has the freedom to speak what is on Nasrallah's mind. Effectively, what the Syrian leader did was declare his own coup d'etat against the March 14 Coalition of Lebanon.
One year ago, the coalition had staged a coup against him and ousted the Syrian army from Lebanon. The latest war on Lebanon increased the popularity of his allies in Lebanon who are headed by Hezbollah and created a united front that was very displeased at how the March 14 Coalition had managed affairs in Lebanon over the last 12 months.
All of them were waiting for the moment when the March 14 Coalition begins to lose momentum in the Lebanese Street. This came when this coalition failed to bring a ceasefire.
Their reputations were damaged when they dined and embraced US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who landed in Beirut and refused to call for a ceasefire. The only person not to fall in the stampede was Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
In his speech, Assad repeated what his father had famously said during the October War of 1973, mainly that the Syrians wage war for the sake of peace.
He too was raising an olive branch, saying that he wanted dialogue that answers Syria's numerous woes, among which is ending the Syrian Accountability Act, restoring Syria's standing in the international community and jump starting peace talks on the occupied Golan Heights.
The rhetoric was no different from anything Assad had said since coming to power in 2000 and his loud support for the Palestinian Intifada. Nor was it different from anything any Syrian president had said since 1948.
It was so controversial today because Assad lambasted leaders of the Arab world, without naming them, as "half-men" and because this time his words were not only empty rhetoric as the case since 1948.
They had been accompanied by action Hezbollah's action, that struck a raw nerve in Arab capitals and made moderate Arab regimes look silly before their citizens.
Sami Moubayed is a Syrian political analyst. He is the author "Steel & Silk: Men and Women Who Shaped Syria 1900-2000" (Cune Press, 2006).
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