The press conference that was carried out two days ago between Hugo Chavez and Bashar Al Assad was very interesting to watch. Apart from what the talkative Hugo Chavez (I understand now why he has his own TV show) one thing caught my attention from what Bashar Al Assad said during that press conference. When answering a reporters question he said something along those lines 'currently there are no leaders or presidents that work for a cause, most leaders are serving their own interests instead of their peoples interest'. It is debatable as to the extent the Syrian regime serves the peoples interests rather than their own (my personal opinion is that they do) however this comment could be said to be directed towards the current members and leaders of the puppet government in Baghdad especially after the deteriorating situation between the two countries after the bombings on what is now known as the 'Black Wednesday' where more than 100 people were killed in bombings that targeted different Iraqi ministries.
When the bombings took place, the Iraqi prime minister Al Maliki was on a two day visit to Syria along with a group of ministers from the puppet Iraqi government signing Strategic agreements between the two countries including the creation of a higher strategic council that would look after the strategic affairs between the two countries. In some Arab news outlets some political analysts viewed the signing of those agreements as part of a large regional alliance between Iran-Turkey-Iraq and Syria. However those analysts, although they are probably right about the attempts by those countries to create a regional alliance, fell short after the bombings in Baghdad.
Al Maliki ended his visit to Syria a day earlier heading back to Baghdad where without any evidence Al Maliki and Hoshyar Zibari (Iraqi foreign minister) placed responsibility of the bombings to two members of the Iraqi Baath party that reside in Syria in a very Bush administration style; providing no evidence and placing the blame hours after the bombings occurred. Feeling deceived by the Iraqi puppet government the Syrian regime strongly denied all the allegations that were directed towards it. The Syrians went on to launch a diplomatic effort to explain to the world its position in this matter while the Iraqi's continued and escalated their tone and accusations to the Baathist members and 'neighboring states'. It is worth noting that some Arab news agencies reported that the head of the Iraqi intelligence services Mohammad Al Shehwani was retired as cheif of the intelligence services after disagreeing with Al-Maliki over who was behind the bombings saying that the Baathist party doesn't not have the capabilities to conduct such bombings. This comes contrary to what has been said by Reuters which claimed that Al Shahwani was released days before the bombing occurred as Al Shahwani reached the retirement age.
The issue of capabilities is probably the main issue that leads to the dissmisal of the Iraqi accusations towards the Baathists in Syria and the Syrian role in the bombings. Do members of the Baath party have the ability to conduct large simultaneous bombings in probably the most guarded areas in Baghdad? Do they have relationships with members of the current government security services that would allow for such bombings to occur?
A recent comment made by a Turkish newspaper "Hareet" stated that 'there is a country in the region that is annoyed by the growing relations between Turkey, Syria and Iraq' saying that 'Syria did not gain anything from those attacks'. It is clear which country might be annoyed with those growing relations between the three countries. Egypt remains the only country in the region that has not improved its relations with the Syrians and there remains to be any sort of high ranked diplomatic exchanges between the two countries other than the visit by Omar Soliman who arrived in Damascus earlier this year to conduct talks with the different Palestinian factions in Damascus. The Egyptians seem to be the most annoyed with the improving relations between the three countries as it was one of the main players in the region that took part in the attempts to isolate the Syrian regime during the Bush era; seeing itself i.e. the Egyptian regime, being slowly isolated from regional affairs and the decreasing influence and role of the Egyptian regime in the region.
The Iraqi's seem to be only interested in increasing the issue by directly blaming the Syrian regime and calling on for an international investigation and tribunal for those responsible for the bombings even though there are attempts by both Turkey and Iran to lower the tensions between the two countries. The Syrian president Bashar Al Assad will be on his way to Ankara soon in an attempt to resolve the issue, there is an expectation members of the Iraqi government will be present in Ankara too, however Iraq has still not confirmed if anyone from its government will be heading to Ankara.
Ramadan is nearly over, and for the first time I have spent it all in Syria. It has been an amazing experience and just knowing that tomorrow is the last day of Ramadan gives me that feeling I get when I am about to leave something precious behind, or the feeling I get when I remember something in the past that has left a mark within me. I leave you with these wonderful photos taken during the first couple of days of the holy month of Ramadan from different parts of the world.