The Situation in Syria.

In an effort to see where they stand post-Libya Britain and France are today (8/6/11) tabling a resolution at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) condemning Syria. As with Libya the allegation is that the Syrian government are violently suppressing peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations. Also like in Libya the Syrian government are arguing that they are in fact putting down a foreign backed, armed insurgency that is threatening both their territorial integrity and national sovereignty. Although like all middle-eastern governments the Syrian government don't have the best record on this occasion they are telling the truth.

For about a year there has been a growing movement within the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to recognise Palestine as a sovereign state. One way or another this matter is set to be resolved in September 2011. Personally I think they whole thing's more trouble then it's worth and the Israelis especially are livid about it. Granting Palestine statehood is obviously an important step in the two state solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict and in the short term it will immediately allow Palestine to speak for itself at the UN on issues such as the Gaza blockade and the Goldstone report into Operation Cast Lead. Although they claim to support the two state solution Israel is, in reality, violently opposed to anything that might actually make it happen. This is why they distributed how to riot manuals in Egypt in order to bring forward and kill off the Egyptian uprising in order to make sure that Egypt continued to be run by a compliant Mubarak who would have opposed Palestinian statehood.

Even before the Egyptian uprising came to an unexpectedly successful conclusion these manuals were up on the Internet and being circulated in various middle-eastern countries especially Syria. Then from mid-February onwards there were various reports of weapons and foreigners being smuggled into Syria from Iraq, Israel and Turkish Kurdistan. These reports have been borne out by the way unrest in Syria in spread. It began in the south-western towns like Dera which are close to the Israeli border. Then after NATO's operation against Libya fanned the flames the unrest spread south from towns like Jisr al-Shughour on the Turkish border to towns like Hamah.

Wherever it has taken place the unrest in Syria has been defined by two things. Firstly it is backed by a very slick Internet marketing campaign that is seemingly capable of bringing high quality footage of protests/alleged atrocities to the eyes of the international community almost as it happens. This is something that is beyond the capability of protesters in Tunisia, Egypt and even Britain. The second is the level of violence used against the security services. Since the start of the unrest some 700 Syrian police/soldiers have been killed in organised attacks where firearms have been used. The most dramatic of these came on Monday (6/6/11) when armed men staged a commando style raid on a military base in Jisr al-Shughour. They killed around 120 soldiers and reportedly stole up to ten tonnes of high explosives. This incident prompted residents of Jisr al-Shughour to call on the Syrian government to send the army into the town where the violence is said to be out of control.

So what is happening in Syria is clearly not peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations. Therefore the only resolution the UNSC can pass is one condemning the insurgency and calling on the international community to provide support to the Syrian government to help them bring the unrest to a swift conclusion before any more innocent Syrians are killed needlessly in yet another of Israel's geo-political rampages.