Sarkis naoum biography of william

Otherwise Syria may have been similar to heavily overpopulated countries and all the problems of poverty and deprivation. Imad F Abdullah. The staying power of Bashar is far greater than has been claimed by successive U. On April 24,I became the first Syrian citizen to deliver a testimony in the U. In the testimony I try to set the record straight on the deteriorating internal situation in Syria focusing on Assad's weakening grip and signs of growing popular discontent.

The text of the testimony can be found below, and also on the House Foreign Affairs Committee website. Strategic Assessment, Vol. The sudden collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime on Sunday, 8 th Decembermarks one of the most transformative events in the Middle East in decades. After a year civil war that devastated Syria, a lightning offensive by Syrian rebels led to the fall of Damascus without resistance.

Assad, along with his family, fled to Russia, ending 24 years of his rule and a six-decade grip by his family on Syrian power. This dramatic shift not only concludes one of the bloodiest chapters in Syria's history but also reverberates across the region, altering the dynamics of influence for global and regional powers, particularly Iran, Russia, and Turkey.

For decades, the Assad family epitomized autocratic rule in the Arab world, controlling Syria with an iron fist. However, the Arab Spring of ignited a civil war that tore the country apart, pitting Assad's government against a mix of opposition forces, including jihadist groups, Kurdish militias, and other factions. Explaining the Forces which are involve in the Syrian conflict.

Introduction Our understanding of the uprising in the Arab world over the past year has been heavily shaped by the mainstream media, reflecting its powerful role in focusing our attention on the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria, while neglecting the uprisings in Bahrain, Yemen, and parts of Saudi Arabia. The cases that have received coverage from the media have tended to be lumped together and characterized as the uprising of people as a unified social force against monolithic authoritarian regimes.

Sarkis naoum biography of william

This characterization has, firstly, glossed over the differences that exist within the Arab world; secondly, masked the nature of divisions within the opposition; and, finally, depicted the states in the region as unitary actors without any accounts of political struggles over the state. The case of Syria is a clear sarkis naoum biography of william of this particular characterization.

The Syrian uprising, which began almost a year ago on March 15,has been presented through the same lens as the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The Syrian regime has been depicted as a dictatorship backed only by the minority Alawite clan and the opposition has been depicted as a unified group who are all in agreement in terms of their demands.

Consequently, the current conflict in Syria is presented by the media and Western policymakers as a legitimate case for humanitarian intervention which has been blocked by Russia and China for the moment. Syria's experience of the Arab Spring is similar to Tunisia and Egypt in some ways; however, it is also similar to Libya in other ways. What began as a genuine protest of workers, peasants, intellectuals, and students against the socioeconomic problems and absence of political freedoms was subverted and manipulated by external forces, both Syrian and non-Syrian.

In this talk, I intend to historically contextualize the uprising in Syria. First, I examine Bashar al-Assad's policies over the past decade and establish the relationship between the initial uprising and his policies. Next, I discuss the nature of the opposition in Syria in order to distinguish the opposition that existed inside Syria from the one that the Western world has come to know over the past year.

Finally, I discuss the role of Western and regional powers in exploiting the uprising, and their attempts to determine the outcome of the uprising in their own interests. Bashar al-Assad's Reforms By the time Bashar al-Assad took power inthe Syrian economy was faced with a number of challenges, which included a high level of unemployment, a decline in oil revenues, and increasing pressure to liberalize the economy.

During the first three years of his rule, administrative and economic reforms topped his agenda. Adopting a neoliberal economic. Log in with Facebook Log in with Google. Remember me on this computer. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. Need an account? Click here to sign up. Related papers The End of a Unified Syria carl wege.

Syria: Time for Maturity Serge Trifkovic. Syrian President Bashar Assad: Will he fight or flee? Sarkis Naoum is a senior columnist, political editor, and analyst on Syrian affairs, Lebanon, and the Levant at An Nahar. The event was small, intimate, and short; for most of the event Aaron David Miller asked Naoum questions followed by a few questions from the audience at the very end.

If we woke up tomorrow and learned that Assad had been either killed or fled what impact would that make? Assad will never flee Syria, but if the situation becomes too bad he might retreat to the Alawi enclaves in the coastal mountains. Before the protests began in the Syrian people didn t know about sectarian issues but that Syrians now feel that they re in a sectarian war.

The Alawites are convinced that they will be massacred if the rebels win but Naoum does not think that the jihadis will win. Is Bashar making the decisions? The Russians view Assad as the wrong man, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Assad does make decisions but he is not the only decisionmaker. The military has its own leaders and Naoum is certain that Assad will not give in.

The revolution will succeed in the end, but that s a long ways away. Could there be a transition to Alawi enclaves? The CSIS Middle East Program launched the Gulf Roundtable in April to examine the strategic importance of a broad range of social, political, and economic trends in the Gulf region and to identify opportunities for constructive U.

The roundtable convenes monthly, assembling a diverse group of regional experts, policymakers, academics, and business leaders seeking to build a greater understanding of the complexities of the region. Topics for discussion include the role of Islamist movements in politics, the war on terror, democratization and the limits of civil society, the strategic importance of Gulf energy, media trends, trade liberalization, and prospects for greater regional integration.

Naoum projected that the Assad regime will fall in time, but he characterized it as a partial fall—the regime will maintain power in certain regions while being forced to relinquish it in others. For this reason, Assad and his allies could sustain the conflict indefinitely. Naoum also assessed the regional and international dynamics shaping the Syrian conflict.

He argued that American, Turkish, and Arab hesitation to support the rebels has, in turn, empowered the Assad regime. Thus, he implored major powers in the region and in the international community to form a consensus and work with the Syrian opposition to form a united Free Syrian Army. He cautioned against direct Western military intervention, however, which he argued would enflame a region that is already experiencing rising rates of Islamism and widespread discontent with American and European policies.

Iran has traditionally maintained four lines of defense in the region, allying itself with the Shiites in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Assad in Syria, and the Palestinians. Thus, Iran will not easily abandon its ally in Syria. In order to ensure a peaceful transition, Naoum concluded that the international community, and in particular the Americans and Russians, must convince Iran that it is in its interest to cooperate with the Syrian opposition because the threat of Sunni extremism is a threat to their security as well.

If the Iranians and Russians get involved in the negotiating process, the Assad regime could take more substantive steps toward transition and, more importantly, reconciliation. Read more.