Main focus of Thursday, April 28, 2011

Up pressure on Syria

Although the Syrian regime continues its harsh repression of anti-government protesters, the UN Security Council on Wednesday failed to agree on a condemnation of the violence. The international community must now at the very least isolate Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, writes the press, as military intervention involves too many risks.

Jyllands-Posten - Denmark

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad continues to bank on the West viewing him as an indispensable stability factor in the region, writes the liberal-conservative daily Jyllands-Posten: "Assad acts as if he wanted to prove that his departure would necessarily involve a long and bloody civil war. He believes that the West fears this most of all, and that consequently it will look on helplessly from a distance while Assad continues to oppress his people. It is high time that the leaders of the Western world let the Syrian president know he can forget becoming a member of the international community of states if he continues to use violence against demonstrators. Otherwise the West will lose its credibility in that part of the Arab World that firmly believes in democracy." (28/04/2011)

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Wprost Online - Poland

A military strike in Syria carries too many risks, according to the news magazine Wprost: "The cynics would say that there is and will be no intervention because Syria is poor and has no oil. But this explanation is trite, oversimplified and inaccurate. The truth is that the situation in the Middle East is unusually difficult and the West is at a loss as to how to react. With Barack Obama's government you can't rule out an idealist motivation, but even the idealists must pursue the path of the realists and be aware of their own limits. A military intervention would lead to a definitive freeze in relations between the West and Iran which are already not the best. It would also put the security of the allies Israel, Jordan and Lebanon at risk." (28/04/2011)

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To Ethnos - Greece

The US stands to gain from Assad's being weakened politically in his own country without military intervention, writes the left-liberal daily To Ethnos: "The air strikes of the US, France, the UK and Nato against Libya have shown that military intervention is not even enough to topple a regime as weak as Gaddafi's. ... Assad's regime, on the other hand, is very useful to the US. And a war waged by the US and Nato against Syria would very likely lead to a military explosion in many Arab countries. ... On the other hand an Assad weakened by the bloody demonstrations will be much easier for the US to deal with." (27/04/2011)

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Trouw - Netherlands

The attempt by four European states to condemn Syrian violence against demonstrators by means of a UN resolution has failed. In view of Assad's brutal oppression of his people such a resolution would accomplish little anyway, writes the daily Trouw: "Certainly, such a signal would not be unimportant as moral support for the Syrian demonstrators. But it would not bring Assad's regime to its knees. That could only be achieved through military intervention. ... However Syria is not Libya. ... A military strike could spark a civil war in this country on Iraq's border, and would have far-reaching consequences for this region where Lebanon, Turkey and Israel are watching like hawks what happens in Syria. The strongest instrument the international community has at its disposal for countering Assad is the complete isolation of his regime, including by his Arab allies." (28/04/2011)

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