As things starts to unravel in Syria, the international community can with
dismay stand-by and marvel at the death struggle of one of strongest
regimes in the Middle East. The days of the regime seem numbered, yet Syria is an actor of some importance in the Middle East, a buffer between geopolitical
fault lines. And so, a power vacuum rarely exist in this area for a very
long time. But how can this crisis and political transition best be managed ?
1. US-China must work on a new UN Resolution on Syria, acceptable to all parties.
2. Russia must continue working with Assad on the Constitutional process.
3. Turkey is by far the best placed country to handle the humanitarian
crisis both inside Turkey and in the no man‘s land, separating the two countries.
4. As the international community cohere on Yemen, Iran and KSA must
engage in bilateral rounds on issues, salient to the region and their
rivalry: Political Islam, Yemen, Irak,Syria and Gulf security.
5. Israel must curtail any arms delivery into Syria, and Hizbollah must
drop the export of drugs into Northern Israel. UNODRUGS may follow-up in
Lebanon through a beefed-up effort, in return for which Israel might
want to consider an additional effort on inter-agency coordination in
Northern Israel.
These measures combined ought to help stabilise the situation of what is
already a very volatile situation. EU must then adapt its
approach to the Mediterranean, encompassing ENP, the Barcelona-Process,
MED Union, the OSCE Mediterranean Dialogue and provide the greasing
needed through EIB, the Deauville-initiative and the IMF. A policy review of the UNDP-programme on Arab Human Development is sorely needed as well.
