United Nations Peace Envoy, Kofi Annan, has decided to hold an international conference regarding the ever-growing war in Syria, which has left several killed and severely injured. The meeting will take place in Geneva this coming Saturday, but cause for concern is arising, as the United States is having mixed emotions about being a part of the conference.

Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has confirmed that despite the United State’s lukewarm feelings about the conference, it will be in attendance, in addition to representatives from various countries including Russia, China, Britain, France, Turkey, and others from European Union, as well as the Arab League.

According to Annan, the purpose of the meeting, “is to forge a consensus on the terms for a political solution among international players with stakes and influence in the Syrian conflict over terms for a political solution. The U.N. envoy believes that the best hope of pressing the combatants on the ground to observe his peace plan to which they signed up in April but have not implemented, is for the foreign powers on whose support they variously depend to agree on terms.”

And the main problem that needs to be addressed this coming Saturday, is the conflict in different approaches and decisions that Russia and the United States both want to make. One of the countries that has yet to announce its appearance is Iran, which is a key factor in resolving conflict. “I have made it quite clear that I believe Iran should be part of the solution,” Annan said in Geneva last Friday. “If we continue the way we are going and competing with each other, it could lead to destructive competition and everyone will pay the price.”

The reason for both Iran and Saudia Arabia being excluded from the conference is based on the Obama Administration not wanting them there. According to Tony Karan, reporter for Time World, “The Obama Administration cited Iran’s role in backing up Syria’s bloody crackdown to declare Tehran’s involvement a “red line” for participating in the Geneva talks, and Annan presumably left out Saudi Arabia as a compensatory gesture to Russia which insists that those countries arming and funding Syria’s rebels share major responsibility for escalating the conflict.

A state department official told reporters last week that “If Kofi Annan can get the proposed participants to agree on such a plan for political transition then there will be a meeting, but that’s what we need to find out before we go to any meeting. There’s no point in going just for the sake of it.”

Image Courtesy of  United Nations

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Rome, Italy - “It is cause for great satisfaction that the date for the election of the National Assembly of the new Libya has been set for 7 July,” said Minister Giulio Terzi, according to whom “despite the many difficulties that any transition carries with it, by holding free elections, Libya is about to take a fundamental step toward building a democratic State fully integrated into the International community.

Recalling the “primary importance in this phase of the role of the United Nations Support Mission”, Terzi underscored that “the new government named by the Assembly will have the task of relaying the foundations of a Libyan State apparatus, based first and foremost on respect for human rights and, at the same time, of offering new opportunities for economic and social advancement to all the components of the Libyan society.”

“Italy is watching with confidence,” Terzi concluded, “as Libya follows the path to adopting a new constitution and will continue to steadfastly support the construction of a new, prosperous, free and democratic Libya, in the conviction that that nation’s progress and the gradual reduction of distance from the European Union are elements essential to regional stability.”

Minister Terzi is the Foreign Minister of Italy and has been working closely with many leaders of the Arab nation, including those in Libya. He received the diplomats from Syria and members of the Arab League in May to discuss the revolutions of Arab Spring and the future of the Arab world.

Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata has been Italy’s Foreign Minister since November of 2011. Prior to his position as the Minister of Foreign Affairs he was the Permanent Representative of Italy at the United Nations in New York and was also the head of the Italy delegation in the Security Council of the United Nations.

Image Courtsey of the  Italian Embassy

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David Cameron recently visited Saudi Arabia for the first time as Prime Minister to strengthen the UK-Saudi partnership. Saudi Arabia is UK’s largest Middle Eastern partner with an annual trade value of £15 per year according to BBC News. Mr. Cameron met King Abdullah and Crown Prince Nayef after arriving in Riyadh last week. Downing Street reported:

Building a strong relationship with Saudi Arabia is vital to advancing the United Kingdom’s priorities in the region: increasing exports and investment; boosting energy security and creating jobs; co-operating on security, counter-proliferation and counter-terrorism; and promoting stability through political reform and human rights.

Currently, the kingdom is the second largest purchaser of UK arms. It has been rumored that the UK is planning on going forward with an order of 72 Eurofighter Typhoon and 48 Eurofighter jets. However, until now, nothing is confirmed. Even though the UK sees Saudi Arabia as a major sale market of military equipment, the British Prime Minister did not visit the Saudi King just to discuss business, it has been reported that one of the main goals of his visit was to establish a personal relationship with the King.

According to CNN News, the two leaders are most likely to discuss security, world economy, and Middle Eastern issues, such as the current protests occurring in the region. Moreover, Mr. Cameron also met with the Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud Al Faisal and talked about this year’s UN General Assembly; both leaders agreed to strengthen the co-operation between their countries.

BBC News reported that, in an interview with the Al Arabiya news, the Prime Minister said:

The UK is prepared to table a new resolution at the UN Security Council over the appalling bloodshed carried out by the Syrian regime. The whole Arab League has to come together; others need to listen to that and act on that at the UN. Britain stands ready to do that.

Mehdi Hasan, the senior politics editor at the New Statesman magazine, believes that Britain has no “moral authority” to advocate democracy to Syria and Iran, he told RT News, “It’s a bit rich for the British prime minister to stand in Saudi Arabia and condemn the dictator in Syria without looking around him – all the dictators were surrounding him in Riyadh.”

The UK and Saudi Arabia have always been close allies, with more than 150 business joint ventures between the two countries. Currently, around 30,000 Britons live and work in the kingdom.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickatkins/ 

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The Arab league has voted to suspend Syria from its meetings on November 16th if the regime in Damascus fails to implement a deal to put an end to the brutal crackdown against anti-government protesters. The Arab League decided last week to suspend Syria, but the decision was adopted at a meeting in Morocco on November 16th.

The league also decided to impose severe political and economic sanctions against Syria; making Syria more isolated from both economic and political orbit. Recently, the 22-member body agreed that it would withdraw its army and security forces, open dialogue with the opposition and invite press within two weeks.

Nevertheless, Syria reneged and lingered irreverently, killing more than 100 people. This stronger-than-expected move came amid worsening humanitarian conditions in Syria over the last eight months. Meanwhile, Jordan’s King Abdullah has become the first Arab Leader to explicitly call for President Basher-Al –Assad’s resignation.

Prince Turki al Faisal, former chief of Saudi intelligence, has also echoed his sentiments by saying that it is inevitable that he will have to step down one way or the other. The Arab League intervention in Syrian political unrest opens in a big way the possibilities of repairing the damaged system, especially in Syria and other Arab countries devastated by greed for authoritative power.

The United States hoped that the League would use meetings to send a clear and hard signal to Assad that he needs to allow for democratic change and end violence against its people. The year 2011 brought unrivaled changes at the political podium in the Arab world, ending decades of human oppression at the hands of both economic and political discourse.

Anti-government protest first abruptly erupted in Tunisia, paving a way forward as a mark of encouragement. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya; the three African nations witnessed a change that was overlooked as impossible a few years back.

In the Middle East, Yemen and Syria are still poised with reluctance to hear calls for installation of democracy, good governance and economic reforms that are inversely in the interest of their countries. Arab League General Nabil Araby suggested that the body had run out of patience with Assad. “The Arab League started exerting pressure on Syria to put an end to deathly battle with the protestors and to come to dialogue from the last four months, but Assad didn’t budge”

The Arab League intervened in the crisis and called for urgent measures to safeguard the Syrian people from violent and despotic repression by Assad’s regime, that during the last nine months killed nearly 3500 people.

Syria’s Baathist regime which has been in power for the last five decadesand even so doesn’t seem to soften its stance against its own people, shows that greed for power perhaps diminishes the substance to subsistence!

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/96884693@N00/

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Unconfirmed reports from activist in the eight-month-old uprising of the people of Syria say that 50 people were killed in a violent ambush Monday, making it “the highest death toll on a single day in months,” according to a journalist from the New York Times.

Similar reports have been coming in from around the country this month and the United Nations estimate that more than 3.500 people have been killed by the regime so far. The clash on Monday happened in the southern province of Daraa where security forces were confronted by armed insurgence.

Human rights groups have warned that the regime is covering up its violent crackdown on dissidents and have failed to comply with the agreed peace plan. The situation is extremely pressing for President Bashar Assad as his long-time allies are turning their backs to the regime’s continuous crackdown on protesters.

Turkey and Iran have used firm rhetoric, advising Mr. Assad to step down. During talks at the weekends, the Arab League decided to suspend Syria’s membership in response to the regime’s inability to solve the political uprising.

This is a massive blow to the Syrian position in the Middle East but an interesting overall development to the sanction imposed on Syria by western communities — the European Union imposed more sanctions on individuals suspected of aiding the oppression of protesters, according to VoAnews.com.

On Tuesday, Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that his country has lost confidence in the Syrian regime and warned that the brutal crackdown will put Assad on the “list of leaders who ‘feed on blood’.”

A harsher remark came from King Abdullah, the monarch of Jordan, who has faced Arab Spring-fueled protests in his country as well. In an interview with the BBC, King Abdullah said: “If Bashar has the interest of the country, he would step down, but he would also create an ability to reach out and start a new phase of Syrian political life.”

Syria has responded to the Arab League step by denouncing it as a “dangerous step,” says VoAnews.com. Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem has also accused the country’s Arab opponents of “conspiring with the United States.”

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/byammar/

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What does one do with a broken, seemingly useless regional organization like the Arab League when it fails to be relevant anymore? Allow corrupt and wealthy member states to pour more money into it to keep it afloat. At least that has traditionally been the case with the Arab League.

By any measure, the Arab League has been a sad and utter failure since its inception. Far from achieving Arab unity – even though many of its member states can hardly be defined as Arab to begin with – the league has simply weathered the 60 or so years of its existence by accepting money from its oil rich member states to stay functional, but at what price? How can we expect an organization as weak as the Arab League to rise up to the challenges of our time and to help fix the challenges currently besetting the Middle East? We can’t, which is why it needs to be completely disbanded. Not reformed and tinkered with, but rather completely built anew from the ground up.

The Arab League was originally designed to achieve two main objectives. The first was to create a platform for political and economic cooperation between Arab states. The second was to represent a unified stance against Israel. It has failed on both counts. The Arab League has been fractious mainly because it denies itself to dream up a better vision of its world.  Instead of rallying around ideals such as democracy and freedom, it has accommodated the worst of regime leaders, Omar Bashir of course being no exception.

Without the ability to agree on a single set of principles, no matter how general, the hopes of the Arab League ever achieving meaningful change in the region are nil. As the age old saying in Middle East goes, Arabs can only agree to disagree. Couple that with the Israel component of its founding charter and you have an organization that has been propped up to fail from the day it was created.

Instead of facilitating the corrupt status quo, countries like Tunisia and Egypt should lead the region by dropping out from the Arab League and jointly creating a newer version of the organization.

In both those countries the ideals of freedom and democracy brought down their corrupt leaders and presumably the whole system that kept them in power. With their reformed political structures in place, both countries could start drafting a new charter for a new Arab League that agrees with them in principle as well as vision.

By having a clear set of guidelines put forth as a pre-requisite for membership, the new Arab League can maintain its integrity and that of its members. After all, membership that is hard to attain and honorable to have is better than one that is raffled off to whatever country is interested in expanding its political portfolio. Therefore, respect for human rights, rule of law and democratic institutions should become the new norm in any draft charter agreement. Anything that falls short of that is really not worth fighting for, let alone paying hard earned money for.

The citizens of Egypt and Tunisia should start by demanding that their future governments review their financial assistance to the Arab League. They should also ask their new governments the tough question of whether it is appropriate for their countries to be contributing members of an organization that shields the same kind of despotic behavior that they fought, bled and died to get rid of in their own countries. Finally, they should consider if their honorable dreams of freedom could be expanded upon regionally and whether the newly minted characters of their nations need to be represented as such in forums such as the Arab League and beyond.

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