In a significant development yesterday, the 22-member Arab League "overwhelmingly approved a series of economic sanctions against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including freezing the assets of senior figures, banning high-level Syrian officials from visiting Arab nations and ending dealings with the country’s central bank."
The decision is the first of its kind by a body that is often perceived as divided and indecisive. Iraq, Lebanon and Algeria did not vote on the sanctions.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Saturday that Iraq had “reservations” about sanctions, and analysts doubt that Iraq, which has a strong trade relationship with Syria, would implement them. And Lebanon, whose government is dominated by groups that support Assad, including the militant political group Hezbollah, also is unlikely to enforce the sanctions.
Turkey, which is not a member of the Arab League but whose foreign minister attended the meeting on Sunday, "agreed to adopt the league’s sanctions ‘as a minimum’ start point for its own measures."
"When civilians are killed in Syria and the Syrian regime increases its cruelty to innocent people, it should not be expected for Turkey and the Arab League to be silent," said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, according to the state Anatolia news agency.
It’s interesting that, for all the claims about Turkey’s supposed turn toward radical Islamism and away from the West, Turkey is playing a major part in the pressure campaign against Syria. It’s hard to overstate how significant this is, given both that Turkey is Syria’s biggest trading partner, and the Turkey-Syria relationship was seen as a central element of Davotoglu’s "zero problems" foreign policy agenda. On the other hand, Syria’s second biggest trading partner, the new, democratic Iraq (the one that was supposed to be a beacon of freedom in the Middle East) abstained from the vote, after having voiced support for Assad’s regime, and is unlikely to enforce the sanctions in any serious way.
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“We knew at the outset that the task would be difficult. We acknowledged that publicly and privately. We knew this would be a road with many bumps— and there have been many bumps—and that continues to this day. But we are not deterred. We are, to the contrary, determined more than ever to proceed to realize the common objective, which we all share, of a Middle East that is at peace with security and prosperity for the people of Israel, for Palestinians, and for all the people in the region. We will continue our efforts in that regard, undeterred and undaunted by the difficulties, the complexities or the bumps in the road.”—George Mitchell, special envoy for Middle East peace, remarks with Prime Minister Netanyahu, September 29, 2010Middle East Analysis
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