Ayoon Wa Azan (Where were we then and where are we now?)

I found Queen Rania to be content in Davos. I had seen her on the day after the general election in Jordan. She was satisfied by the turnout, which was about 57 percent despite the boycott. The election also saw no violence or problems, which only began on the following day, as usual at the hands of the losers. The smile disappeared from the queen’s face when she spoke about the ongoing revolution in Syria, and the daily killing. She said that Jordan is doing everything in its power to help the Syrian refugees on its territory, whose numbers are on the rise. In truth, on the day I spoke to her, there was news about thousands more Syrians crossing the border into Jordan. I reminded the Queen of Jordan of our conversation in Davos three years earlier, when she told me about a private visit she made with King Abdullah II to Syria. There, the Syrian president and his wife Asmaa took the guests in their small car for sightseeing and to restaurants in the capital. I told Queen Rania that I saw Dr. Bashar during the celebrations for the millennial anniversary of Saint Maron in Aleppo, where the Syrian president hosted us for lunch. As I bade the president and his wife farewell, I told them about how pleased the king and queen of Jordan were with the visit. Dr. Bashar then said that he and his wife were also very pleased with their guests, and intended to return the visit soon. I left Queen Rania thinking, “Where were we then and where are we now?” Only two years earlier, Bashar al-Assad had no problems in his country to speak of. Now, he has nothing but problems, or tragedies if we want to be accurate. Indeed, the regime had chosen violence as the response to demonstrations that started out peacefully, before becoming an armed rebellion with 60,000 dead so far – and even this number may be below the real figure. The Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, included a session on the future of Syria, attended by Prince Turki al-Faisal, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan Nasser Judeh, Foreign Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu, and Lebanese thinker Ghassan Salameh, as well as the Syrian businessman Ayman Asfari. They all agreed on the need to change the regime, but their views differed on which path must be taken to reach the desired change. Although I heard many valuable opinions, I fear that the crisis may last a long time, and that more innocent Syrians will lose their lives as the price of mutual intransigence. While the president, who is the problem, presents himself as the solution, the opposition refuses to even deal with him. Prince Turki said that stopping the killing is more important than talking about who has won and who has lost. He mocked Bashar al-Assad’s “genius” as he had managed in a matter of weeks to lose the confidence of the whole world. For his part, Ayman Asfari’s face reflected his deep sorrow, as he said that four million Syrians had been displaced, both at home and beyond, and that one million Syrians faced the risk of starvation if aid did not reach them soon. Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu said that Turkey has supported the Syrian people from day one, and stressed that there were no limits to this support, and complained about the states that have not done anything for the Syrian people and yet they criticize Turkey. Brother Nasser Judeh asked whether there will be a power vacuum if the regime fell, and whether Syria will end up witnessing a Sunni revolution against the Alawites. I do not know if the Syrian revolution will end tomorrow or in fifteen years like the civil war in Lebanon. What I know is that the Syrian people are the daily victim, that the Arabs are not helping them, and that the outside world has only words and sentiments to offer them…that are false. A day after my conversation with Queen Rania, I heard King Abdullah II say in the Grand Hall of the Convention Center that there is nothing more dangerous than saying: Let’s wait and see. The king argued that waiting makes a problem worse and more difficult to resolve. The Syrians have been waiting for two years, and we with them. Perhaps after all we were waiting for Godot, as the title of the famous play goes. Nevertheless, I want to conclude on a more positive note. I salute the young Saudi prince who snubbed war criminal Ehud Barak, after the latter tried to greet him. I also salute colleague Rima Maktabi from Al-Arabiya TV, after she moderated a session on the future of Syria in all professionalism and objectivity. Her English was fluent, and she came prepared on the topic, and even knew the length of the road between Damascus and the Jordanian border, and Damascus and Amman. I hope that all youths will be like her, for they are the future of the nation without whom the nation has no future. --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.