The situations are changing, the positions are shifting, and most of the signs are confirming the occurrence of alterations at the level of the international positions towards the Syrian crisis and the fact that the failure and shame which characterized the action of the international community will end in the few coming days. This would take place through a new and "hard" mechanism going in line with the Syrian regime's ongoing killings, displacements and destructions, with the support of Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah on the field, and Russia on the political level. The first clear signs were seen in the active Saudi diplomatic action during the last few days, with the visits conducted by Prince Saud al-Faisal and Prince Bandar Bin Sultan to several capitals and the interruption of King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz's private vacation in Morocco to return to the country, in light of the repercussions of the events in the region and the developments of the Syrian crisis as per the official announcement. In the West, there was American President Barack Obama's reviewing of his calculations in regard to the Syrian revolution and the announcement of his administration's approval of the opposition's arming, after this administration remained reluctant and confused, expressing reservations over the provision of weapons to the Free Army. This took place after Washington, Paris and London announced that the regime in Damascus had used chemical weapons against the Syrian people. In addition, the White House revealed that Obama, Cameron, French President Hollande, German Chancellor Merkel, and Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta discussed the Syrian issue through videoconference for an hour last Friday, including the regime's use of chemical weapons against its people and the ways to support an urgent political transition to end this conflict. On the regional level, there was the Jordanian government's recognition of its request to Washington to keep some of the weapons used in the Eager Lion drills on Jordanian soil, including Patriot missiles and F-16 aircrafts. Moreover, the General Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council raised the ceiling of its statements and strongly condemned Hezbollah's blatant intervention in the Syrian crisis, pledging to impose sanctions on its members in the GCC states, whether at the level of their residency or their transactions. There are several other important signs, such as the calls made by the Arab populations for the boycotting of Iranian goods, products and interests, namely in Kuwait, and the swift action undertaken by Western capitals following a statement issued by the Conference of Islamic Scholars held in Cairo, during which the convened summoned Jihad in all its forms to support their brothers in Syria with their lives, money, and weapons, while considering what is being committed by the Iranian regime and Hezbollah against the Syrians as an open war targeting Muslims and Islam. This pushed Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi (who was late to adopt a position) to completely sever his country's relations with Syria, close the Syrian embassy in Egypt, and withdraw the Egyptian chargé d'affaires from Damascus. In addition, he addressed a direct warning to Hezbollah, saying: "Stay away from Syria. You have no place in it." There is no doubt that Morsi's regime has adopted numerous positions, was very tardy and undertook numerous maneuvers, but it was forced to adopt the recent decisions under the pressures of the street in order to earn its support, in light of youth and opposition partisan calls for demonstrations at the end of the month to demand anticipated presidential elections. There is no doubt that Morsi's decisions will have limited impact on the regime in Damascus and are actually aimed at feeding the media, especially since he is adopting them more than two years into the Al-Assad regime's perpetration of massacres and slaughters against the Syrians and the killing of 100,000 among them. In the meantime, Morsi's regime kept ignoring the predicament of the Syrian people and seeking the establishment of strong relations with Tehran, the primary direct supporter of Bashar's regime. He should have announced the freezing of the ties with Tehran before which he opened Egypt's doors and windows. Egypt's position under Morsi is not up to him, while his regime exercises blatant political dissimulation. This is considering that the Muslim Brotherhood group only adopted these decisions after it became certain that Riyadh was able to lead an international mobilization to carry out an intervention in Syria and arm the Free Army under international cover! In his last speech, Hassan Nasrallah appeared confused, justifying the participation of his party's elements at times, and putting forward fake challenges at others, in a way similar to Sahhaf in Iraq. He also indicated that his party will continue to take part in the ongoing war in Syria alongside the troops of Bashar al-Assad's regime, and that what happens after Qusair will be identical to what happened before it. The Russian position showed signs of flexibility, seen in Putin's last statements when he assured that if Al-Assad's regime had introduced reforms, it would have solved the problem, calling for the deployment of further efforts and contacts with the concerned Syrian sides to solve the crisis politically. The circle is narrowing around the regime, and dissent is mounting in the ranks of the army officers. The last episode at this level was the fleeing of 71 Syrian officers to Turkey in the largest collective dissent conducted by senior officers within months, including six generals and twenty colonels, in addition to 30 soldiers from the Presidential Guard near Damascus. Naturally, all the current developments point to the fact that the rules of the game towards the Syrian crisis are changing and that the concerned states will not head to Geneva 2 as they did to Geneva 1. In addition, there are signs saying that the international military intervention to protect the Syrian people is starting to flock over Damascus in search of Al-Assad's head. jameel@alhayat.com twitter | @JameelTheyabi
