In Syria the rebels have won and Bashar al-Assad has been
ousted. The Assads, father Hafez al-Assad and son Bashar, ruled Syria
consecutively for over a half century. Bashar's wife and three children left for Russia earlier and he has joined them.
A
major reason for the rebel victory was the preoccupation of key Assad
allies in their own troubled backyards -- Russia in a hotted-up Ukraine
and Hezbollah in strengthening its home front in Lebanon where Shia
majority areas face greater insecurity under increased religious
tensions.
Iran,
too, diminished its support after its forces in Syria were targeted
repeatedly by Israelis and suffered the loss of many revolutionary guard
fighters and a senior military advisor, Brigadier General Kioumars
Pourhashemi, often called Haji Hashem.
All
of which constituted a perfect storm for Assad, bringing about the end
of his regime. One can only hope the end result is not another
dictator. One interesting fact about Syria attests to its long
history: Damascus the capital is the world's oldest city having been in
continuous habitation since 10,000 BC. For comparison, it is
considerably older than the Egyptian civilization.
In
other news about the Middle East, the British lawyer who is the chief
prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague,
Netherlands, has finally secured arrest warrants for Bibi Netanyahu, Yoav
Gallant, a former Israeli defence minister, and Mohammed Deif of
Hamas. The latter is now reported to have been killed during Israeli
air strikes in Gaza.
The charges laid out in the arrest warrants have to do with fighting a just war and avoiding civilian casualties as much as possible. Netanyahu seems to have paid little heed as he set about bombing Gaza indiscriminately.
Specifically, the charges state that both Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, who was then the defense minister, bear criminal responsibility as co-perpetrators in "the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts". In addition, there are reasonable grounds to believe that they "each bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crimes of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population" of Gaza.
By
the way, Netanyahu did say after the Hamas attack that killed 1200
people that he will kill them all so that it can never happen again.
But perhaps it was an outburst in anger.
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