God have mercy on the soul of the new Lebanese martyr of the press, Ali Shaaban. Ali was doing his job to transmit the images of the tragedies of Syrians fleeing to Lebanese territory – the killing and oppression by the army of a regime that has taken them hostage. Ali Shaaban was 30 years old and was doing his job with his colleagues in total objectivity, when a car belonging to Al-Jadeed Television, owned by Tahsin Khayyat, was struck by more than 40 bullets by the Syrian Army, firing into Lebanon. It was a new crime for an oppressive regime that does not tolerate the truth, because it is a regime that denies reality on a continuous basis, from the head of state to the foreign minister, who claims, before his Russian colleague, that the regime accepts "objective journalism." The biggest tragedy is not only that the Syrian regime believes its claims, but also that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is providing cover, just as he covers the regime's crimes against its people and against the media, whether its members are Syrian, Lebanese, American or British. How many Ali Shaabans, and Marie Colvins, have fallen as martyrs, to the bullets of a regime that does not permit actual events to be broadcasted? This regime, whose top diplomat denies reality, and claims that he is open to objective journalists and their visits to Syria, argues that the terrorists must stop the killing. The Syrian people are hostages to the crimes of a Syrian regime and army that are backed brazenly by Russia, which is blocking any progress by the international community, thereby moving things toward even more crimes. It would have been much better for a colleague to ask Lavrov, where are the pictures of victims of the terrorists in Syria? What are the tanks, helicopters and armored units of the regime doing to the Syrian people? The people have become hostages to a regime that has already tried brutality and liquidating journalists in Lebanon. The blood of dear martyrs Samir Kassir and Gebran Tueni has yet to be forgotten. The Russian position is certainly shameful. How will President Putin reassume his office, in a few weeks time, while paying the price of murder committed by the Syrian regime against its people, as Russia encourages it with political cover? The international community is looking on at a crime against a people; it only condemns, and holds conferences of friends of a people who are being killed, and the news of their murder is being relinquished to the back pages of western newspapers, busy with the presidential campaigns in the United States and France. What is preventing the US, Britain, France and some western countries from instituting a no-fly zone in Syria, to protect the Syrian people? They say that they do not want military intervention. But a no-fly zone does not mean a war on the ground. As long as influential western countries refrain from using at least this aspect of their aerial might, the Syrian army will remain cohesive, amid the failure of international action. If the great powers' role remains blocked and the shameful encouragement of Russia continues, there will be a gradual retreat in the media's portrayal of the crimes of the regime, because everyone will become Ali Shaaban, Samir Kassir and Gebran Tueni, led by the martyrs of the Syrian people. It is time for international action; enough statements and words. The Syrian people require international protection. For a long time, the Syrian regime has used the diplomacy of denials and lies with other Arab countries, which gave Damascus more than one opportunity to be honest, but this was something alien to the Syrians. Annan's mission is new evidence of this. There is no need to discuss it, since it was a stillborn. It was known that it would not be implemented. It would have been better to ask the Arab and UN masters of negotiation during the Lebanese civil war about the maneuvering and deception of the Syrian regime vis-à-vis its commitments, which it never implemented, before giving it another chance to play for time and engage in more killing.
