RETURNING HOME

Syria's return to the Arab League is a momentous event. What will be the effects for the entire region?

 

By Ali Al Najafi

The dark clouds of the storm have passed and the sunlight of a new dawn is once again warming the face. That is the feeling that the Arabs felt when they learned of Syria's return to the Arab League summit that took place and culminated last Friday, May 19, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The reception of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad was remarkable and highly promising. The reception at the airport by Prince Badr bin Sultan bin Abdulazi himself, the Saudi authorities and in particular Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was a great sign, and during the course of the summit there were even cordial talks with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, one of Washington's main allies in all that represented the export and financing of jihadists to overthrow Gadafi and the persistent attempts to repeat it with him under the media hoax of the “Arab Spring”.

Al Assad stepped off his plane as a victor, defeating nothing less than the Anglo-American hegemonic power and its ally Israel. His peers gathered in Jeddah knew that their disowned brother had undergone a trial by fire that has tempered him at the head of a Syrian Arab people, unjustly and criminally punished by some of the Arab governments that now salute him and occupy a seat in the League (especially the monarchies) subordinated to foreign agendas that are now in disarray.

What was unthinkable a year ago is now a reality. The nefarious influences of the US State Department seem to have dissipated, although we must never let our guard down. A transcendental step that opens the way to a new era that will seek regional development away from the intrigues and instigations of the West and, most importantly, without forgetting the situation of Palestine subjected to the constant colonialist advances of the State of Israel. It is also a chance for the Ummah to make a deep collective introspection and leave behind the discord and manipulations that the enemy used to penetrate its bosom and sow the tares.

But like all good news for some, it is bad news for others. While the Arab-Islamic world is entering a new dimension in relations between states and re-establishing a common agenda, from the Anglo-Saxon West and especially from Israel this cannot be good news. Even more so. For the Islamophobic sectors that are rampant in the high cenacles of Western power that aligns them ideologically with the Zionists and the state of Israel, it is very bad news.

For decades it has been a continuous and persistent policy to undermine the relations between the Arab Islamic states and these towards the West, with the big corporate media being especially insidious in marking differences between Arabs and Islamists in order to isolate the Islamic Republic of Iran during a good part of the second half of the last century (and seeking purely political objectives).

One of the most damaging agents in all of this deal was Turkey and its pan-Islamist government (at the service of NATO) headed by the now devalued Recep Tiyip Erdogan, who gave cover from his territory to the operation of the intelligence agencies' hoax called “ISIS”.

The cynical leadership of the USA that presented itself as mediator and party (with great Israeli influence) has no place in this new scenario and this was fully confirmed with the resumption of talks between Riyadh and Tehran under the auspices of China. In this regard, it is evident that in addition to the Chinese good offices to seek connections and channels for a conversation, Washington never sought this and on the contrary, when there were possibilities of normalizing relations, incidents and misunderstandings would magically appear, always involving some statement from the State Department.

The tragedies between Iran and Iraq, the civil war in Lebanon and the continuous attempts to reactivate it, the iniquities woven against the Palestinian PLO and, closer in time, the interventions in Iraq, Libya, Syria and the fratricidal war against Yemen are a sample of that sinister influence that ultimately tended to benefit Israel's geopolitical situation.

Despite the goodwill that marks this new beginning, the Arab-Islamic world will have to be vigilant not to fall into new deceptions and instigations by the Anglo-American agencies, always active and ready to foment subversion (through false humanitarian NGOs) in the name of “democracy”.

In this new era, the Arab countries and the entire region should join forces and create formulas for integration and growth in which each state, regardless of their systems of government, contribute their capabilities and wealth to act as a unified economic bloc and also to form a purely Arab-Islamic security and defense alliance, and that means, without Western interference (even when goodwill is invoked).

There is no doubt that each Arab state has its own characteristics and capabilities to contribute on this path. Syria's return to its seat in the Arab League will add much value in terms of experience in fighting terrorist conspiracies and all the dirty resources of a hybrid war supported by the US and some NATO partners. 

The possibilities for development and growth of such a bloc is as vast, if not more so, than the Arab-Islamic world itself, and therefore, apart from any attempt to create discord by the inevitable sectors that will continue to work in the shadows for Washington and Tel Aviv, it is a great prospect for everyone to win without harming anyone.