Syria’s struggle

THE inability of the international community to halt the mounting bloodshed in Syria can be traced back 10 years to the Iraq war and the West’s failure to build alliances following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

This explains the lingering antipathy towards America and Britain and why Foreign Secretary William Hague had to use all his persuasive powers before the EU lifted its arms embargo.

The Richmond MP believes any move that has the potential to empower opponents of the Syrian regime is more likely to bring the dictator to the negotiating table, even though Bashar-al-Assad 
has shown no inclination to do so.

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Yet this strategy is not without its risks. There is no guarantee that any weaponry shipped into Syria will be used for the intended purpose; namely the destabilising of the Assad autocracy. There is a significant likelihood that such firepower could fall into the hands of groups with links to al-Qaida or its acolytes and then be used against Western targets.

That said, Mr Hague is in an invidious position after the death of a British doctor who was helping to treat injured civilians. He concedes that “thousands of lives are at stake in Syria” and it would be remiss of the Foreign Secretary to wash his hands of a civil war that should have been foreseen by global institutions.

Yet his efforts might – just – be strengthened if the United States was fully committed to resuming the wider Middle East peace process rather than simply retreating from the troubled region. The worry is that President Barack Obama appears to have little commitment to such diplomacy, even though he has nothing to lose – and everything to gain – following his re-election last November. Perhaps Mr Hague’s next call needs to the White House.