Further to yesterday's Angry Arab post on the tripartite (US/Saudi/Israeli) plot to knobble the Arab uprisings, here's an Israeli perspective on the latest, Syrian intifada. 'Better the devil you know...' seems to be the 'thinking':
"When Hilary Clinton said Sunday that the United States would not intervene in Syria militarily, she cited lack of international consensus.* But Washington, Israel, Turkey and Iran** all have great reasons to want Assad to remain at the helm. The Syrian president has grown closer to the US in recent years, earning his reward in the form of the return of an American ambassador to Damascus after a 6-year hiatus. He is seen as a safety valve against a violent attack by Hezbollah on Israel or against its physical takeover of Lebanon.*** He has also made known his disagreements with Iran following the controversial visit of Ahmadinejad to Lebanon. Assad's fall may open a path for Iran into Lebanon, without it having to consider Syria's position any longer." (Assad's fall could deliver Lebanon to Iran and Hezbollah, Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz, 28/3/11)
[* Funny that! Lack of international consensus is never a problem for the US when it comes to intervening in the UN diplomatically to protect Israel; ** Bar'el here says Iran wants Asad "to remain at the helm," yet goes on to say "Assad's fall may open a path for Iran into Lebanon..." ?; *** See my 1/1/11 post Clean Up Lebanon]
Now here are the Saudis weighing in:
"Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz called Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday to reaffirm his support for the Syrian leadership, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported on Monday. Abdel Aziz said his kingdom supports Syria in confronting 'the conspiracy targeting [the country] and aimed at harming its security and stability', the report said." (Saudi king reaffirms support for Syrian leadership, nowlebanon.com, 28/3/11)
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