Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak, and Muammar Gaddafi have said it before; and the Yemeni president is still reiterating every day that his ousting from power will result in disasters that will hit the western interests and disintegrate Yemen. People perhaps remember that threat made by Saif al-Islam through the state television a few days after the breaking of the Libyan revolution. He warned against the threats to the West that could ensue from the success of the Libyan revolution and the threats of a “new Afghanistan” in North Africa that will constitute a menace to the security of the entire European coasts… O Europeans, watch out for your actions and for what you are about to experience! Thus, there is nothing new in the threat made by Bashar al-Assad who warned that there will be “dozens of Afghanistans” in the region in the event of the fall of his regime. He also warned that any western interference in his country will lead to torching the entire Middle East. However, the reactions of the western sides and their positions vis-à-vis these threats indicate that these countries opted for standing by the side of the populaces and against the regimes that are facing the disasters. The west is now convinced that these regimes can no longer protect themselves and they can definitely not protect the western interests! In light of the tragic end of the former leaders in the region despite their threats that scared none of the parties who were supposed to be scared both within and outside the country, the last threat resembles the last act from a play, the end of which is already known before the curtain comes down. Despite that, this threat carried meanings that one must ponder in order to assess the developments of the Syrian scene: This threat is directed at the outside world, to the West (through a British newspaper) and to Russia (the friend!). The Syrian regime is trying to use the card of the Russian (and Chinese) interests in order to bully its people. Certainly, everyone knows that the positions of Moscow and Beijing concerning the Syrian crisis have nothing to do with the Syrian interest or with the care for its future as these positions rather consist of political blackmail against the west. The fact that the Syrian regime is addressing the external world indicates how much the regime is disregarding the demands of his people. The president only spoke to the Syrians once (through an interview with the Syrian television) since the beginning of the crisis more than seven months ago. However, he did not hesitate to address them through the western media, the last of which was the British Sunday Telegraph where the Syrians discovered that their president lives in a modest house, that he has neighbors, and that he takes his children to school, and thus he is a popular president! Based on this “popularity,” how can the Syrians make the same demands as the populaces of Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya? In this regard, Al-Assad repeated what he had said on previous occasions on that “Syria is no Libya and no Egypt” and that “any problem in Syria will lead to the burning of the entire region.” As for the Syrian opposition – the Arab League is waiting for Al-Assad's response to the suggestion of holding a dialogue with the opposition – the Syrian president is repeating what Gaddafi had said before: “Who are you?” However, he is doing so in a more “polite” manner by saying: “I don't like to waste my time by talking about them, and I do not know them. And we better investigate whether they really do represent the Syrians.” The positions of President Al-Assad concerning the crisis in his country are based on the fact that this crisis has been fabricated on the outside and funded by money flowing through the borders on a daily basis, according to him. Thus, he is blocking the road for any talk about the aspired-for reforms. He is also stressing once again that the regime will not likely respond to the demands of the opposition, as these demands serve a foreign project that the president deems suspicious!
