Neck of the woods

“Syrian opposition leaders struck a hard-won deal on Sunday under intense international pressure to form a broad, new coalition to prepare for the fall of President Bashar al-Assad. Delegates, who had struggled for days in the Qatari capital Doha to find the unity their Western and Arab backers have long urged, said the new body would ensure a voice for religious and ethnic minorities and for the rebels fighting on the ground, who have complained of being overlooked by exiled dissident groups. Some details remain outstanding, including who will head the new Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces and the final assent of some leaders not present in Doha. Diplomats and officials from the United States and Qatar, the tiny Gulf emirate whose oil and gas wealth has helped fund the 20-month-old uprising, have particularly been pressing the Syrian National Council (SNC), whose leaders mostly live abroad, to drop fierce objections to joining a wider body. “An initial deal has been signed. A final formulation has been agreed and signed,” Ali Sadreddine al-Bayanouni, a delegate for the Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood, told reporters…..……….”

Western powers, Arab potentates and assorted despots, and Syrian opposition groups are meeting to “save” the Syrian opposition, basically saving it from itself. Which is something that is sorely needed. And where are they meeting? In Doha, Qatar, where not even dog-catchers (as Americans would say) are elected, where not even sheep-herders are elected (as the Mufti should say but won’t). They meet in an absolute unaccountable monarchy, aided and abetted by such great supporters of freedom, self-determination, and democracy as the Al-Saud and Al-Khalifa.
While they are at it, why not discuss repression in nearby places. Like a stone’s throw across the Persian Gulf waters in Bahrain, or just across the border in the Arabian Peninsula where the wild and avaricious and predatory princes roam and plunder?
Cheers
mhg
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