Arab daily says Israel behind Russian plan for Syria

Moscow’s proposal to separate the Syrian regime from its chemical weapons occupies the top headlines of Arab dailies on Thursday, with a focus on talks between the US and Russia.

“Russian initiative gains ground, but no dates for implementation,” reads the headline of Saudi-owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat, featuring a photo of Americans watching US President Barack Obama speak on Syria on the TV screen of a Washington, DC, restaurant on Tuesday.

According to the paper, the Russian proposal has gained the support of the Arab League and Turkey, but has failed to change the insistence of some Congress members on military action.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are expected to discuss the plan in Geneva on Thursday, and the London-based daily Al-Hayat, in an article titled “Tough marathon negotiations between Kerry and Lavrov,” claims that talks in the coming days are expected to be “difficult,” as members of the Syrian opposition demand that attention be given not only to the issue of chemical weapons but to the crisis as a whole.

In a separate article, Al-Hayat reports on a telephone conversation between Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and Kerry, in which the Lebanese leader condemned an attack by Islamist rebels on the Christian historic city of Maaloula earlier this week.

“The protection of Christian towns in Syria has been an issue of concern for political forces, particularly Christian, during the past few days,” reads the article.

Qatar’s Al-Jazeera claims in a Wednesday TV report that “international diplomacy has never experienced a deadlock as severe as it is experiencing on the Syrian crisis,” presenting an overview of international and Middle Eastern positions on the matter, including that of Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Meanwhile, the lead editorial in the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi claims that the Russian proposal to remove the chemical weapons from Syria, seemingly endorsed by Kerry in “a slip of the tongue,” is in effect an Israeli plan.

“Following the noise made by the chemical attack… Israeli analysts very close to decision makers in Tel Aviv spoke of the need for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons.

“This initiative, which is most likely Israeli but called ‘Russian,’ was concocted in the capital cities of Moscow, Washington and Damascus,” reads the editorial, titled “Obama allows killing, but with conventional weapons.”

But Al-Hayat columnist Zoheir Quseibati claims that while allowing Obama to save face, the Russian plan — he, at least, refuses to deprive Russia of its initiative — will only prolong the civil war and the suffering of the Syrian people.

“The West, thanks to Moscow, will have limited the Syrian suffering to the chemical stockpiles, turning the struggle with the regime and the all-out war against humans to a ‘regular’ internal affair, a boring duel in which the strongest will remain standing.”

Meanwhile, the commander of the Free Syrian Army, Salim Idris, tells Saudi news website Elaph that he has instructed his soldiers to continue fighting and “liberate the land from the criminal gang.”

According to Idris, the Syrian admission to owning chemical weapons amounts to admitting to the crime of using them.

The Syrian general added that he has asked the international community “to try the criminal Assad in the International Criminal Court after having confessed his crime.”

The devil is in the details, claims A-Sharq Al-Awsat columnist Tareq Homayed, calling the Russian plan “a maneuver.”

“Now we face an extremely complex diplomatic battle aimed at placing Assad in a cage and defusing the Russian-Assadi plan, designed to swamp the international community with details.”

But Homayed also finds some good in the Russian procrastination. It will allow Obama to “reorganize himself domestically” and will “liberate” British Prime Minister David Cameron to use the Syrian confession of owning chemical weapons in order to justify an offensive.

“As the saying goes, ‘the devil is in the details, so Arabs must be vigilant and active so that Assad does not take advantage of the Western mistakes once again, supported by the Russians, especially considering that this is our region, our issue and the target is our security and stability.”