LAST year, King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, gave a piece of advice to President Bashar Al-Assad which could have saved the regime from the devastating problems it is currently facing. However, Al-Assad did not heed the King's counsel. The Arab League also made a proposal, which the Kingdom supported, aimed at solving the Syrian crisis. The proposal, which Al-Assad also spurned, could have saved the Syrian people from the genocide being committed by the Al-Assad regime. The Syrian crisis seems to have reached a point of no return. The Al-Assad regime has not stopped the massacres of the Syrian people while the Free Syrian Army, which is currently leading the Syrian uprising, has vowed to keep on fighting. There seems to be no end in sight to the bloodshed which, according to the United Nations, has already killed more than 9,000 people, most of them innocent civilians. While the rebels are outgunned, their morale is high and the Syrian regime should not gloat over its superior military capabilities. Civil strife is not always won by superior military hardware. History has shown that just wars have always triumphed in the end. The Syrian people are fighting for a just cause and, despite setbacks, have displayed a resilience which may turn the tide sooner or later. Although the efforts of the UN Security Council seeking to put an end to the bloodletting in Syria appear to have been stymied by the intransigence of the Syrian regime and the support of Russia and China for the Al-Assad government, the Security Council has not stopped looking for a solution to the conflict. The Saudi-Gulf-American discussions have also given top priority to the Syrian issue. Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, met with the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques on Friday and on Saturday met with the foreign affairs ministers of Gulf countries to find a solution to the Syrian crisis. News reports said that Clinton is seeking to work out a unified strategy to end the Syrian crisis.These meetings show the Kingdom's keenness to stand by the Syrian people and help them find an end to their suffering at the hands of the repressive Syrian regime. There is always a ray of hope for a just cause. __
