The Daily Star Editorial

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi’s mission to end unrest in Syria by promoting modest reform seems destined to fail before it has even begun.
The veteran Egyptian diplomat arrives in Damascus today to deliver an Arab initiative aimed at restoring stability to a nation wracked by protests that have been escalating steadily since January. Media reports have said that the proposal contains timid measures such as the following: that President Bashar Assad voice commitment to reform and promise to hold multi-candidate presidential elections by 2014, that Syrian security forces immediately end their military crackdown on protesters, and that the government begin making “serious political contacts” with leading members of the opposition.

It is hard to imagine that Syrian demonstrators, who continue to take to the streets near daily despite reports that others like them have been slaughtered in their hundreds, will be satisfied with anything short of Assad’s resignation. This is doubly true given that opposition activists have concluded that the government’s reform pledges are empty.

But what is surprising is that the government in Damascus seems to be pouring cold water on the Arab League proposal before the Syrian street has even had a chance to reject it. Official newspapers in the country have denounced the pan-Arab organization as “the political arm of NATO military adventures,” saying that the media is giving “artificial” attention to Arabi’s visit.

The response of the official media is similar to the Syrian government’s angry reaction to an Arab League statement last week calling on it to “end the spilling of blood … before it is too late.” Damascus ignored these substantive calls and instead complained over the semantics of the statement, whose language it said was “unacceptable and biased.”

This knee-jerk reaction to the Arab League’s efforts to restore calm in the country demonstrates that the Syrian government continues to live in a state of denial. Instead of seeking honest and viable solutions to end the spiraling unrest, it has clung hard and fast to its assertion that popular protests are the work of “armed terrorist gangs” who are aided and abettedby “foreign conspiracies.” It has rejected the pleas of even its closest allies to meet popular demands for reform, which have now morphed into calls for something far more radical.

The government in Damascus behaves as though it exists on an island, but nations across the region have a vested interest in Syria’s stability. That is precisely what prompted the Arab League to try to intervene. But judging from Assad’s track record, it is unlikely that these latest efforts of concerned neighbors will bear any fruit.