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Opinion: A Time to Say "No"

August 16, 2006

Because of the Syrian president's belligerent rhetoric, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had no choice but to cancel his visit to Syria, says DW's Peter Philipp.

https://p.dw.com/p/8yBv

At some point, one should be able to say "no." This happens all too rarely in international diplomacy, because it is simply characteristic of diplomats to stay non-committal even when they disagree and continue as if nothing had happened. That's a false understanding of international communication, because diplomacy increasingly appears as a business without backbone or conscience.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier's decision to cancel his visit to the Syrian capital Damascus on short notice is a positive deviation from the above scenario. In his speech before Steinmeier's arrival, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made it clear that there was no longer a reason for this visit.

Not because he described Israel as the "enemy." Israel is that, as long as the two states are officially at war with each other. But Assad went further than that: He rejected the peace efforts in the Middle East. Although the Syrian president spoke about his country's readiness for peace, he added that this would not apply to Israel. Who does Assad want to make peace with, if not with the enemy of today? One could almost conclude that he doesn't want peace at all. And that that is why he is disqualifying himself as a constructive partner in the permanent Middle East settlement.

Frustrated expectations

That's also what he is doing with his call to a pan-Arabic support of Hezbollah -- and, with it, struggle against Israel. Assad came into office as a hopeful young man, who was expected fundamentally to change Syrian politics. Those expectations have been disappointed across the board: Initially, one suspected the influence of the die-hard reactionaries from the reign of his father, Hafez al-Assad; in the meantime, it is more and more apparent that what Bashar does and say is homemade.

Such a realization must be painful to the German foreign minister, because Frank-Walter Steinmeier was one of the voices in the wilderness asking for Syria to be held more accountable in the Lebanese question -- not only with the goal of depriving Hezbollah of power, but also for the sake of stabilizing Lebanon and giving a new impulse to the peace process.

Justified interests

Syria has its justified interests in Lebanon; it has its claims vis-à-vis Israel and it could have served both and it could have had international support for it. Damascus could have at the same time dispelled its reputation as a bully, which Israel and the US gladly attribute to it. Instead, Assad decided to reinforce this reputation.

He shouldn't be surprised if his country remains isolated and if he has to start looking for friends the way the Iranian president does, with whom nobody can do business. With this kind of policy, he is doing harm to his own country, he is harming the region and all those who are working towards peace. It would have been wrong to stick one's head in the sand and to ignore Assad's speech. But if what he said were taken seriously, then there was only one consequence left: Steinmeier had to cancel his visit.

Middle East expert Peter Philipp is Deutsche Welle's chief correspondent (tt).