Russia, China Face Final Test

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah  
This commentary was published in The Arab Times on 11/06/2011 

Moscow and Beijing have failed yet another test by choosing to stand by wrong-doers and supporting the massacre of innocent victims. Instead of repenting for their misdeeds in Libya, they went on to commit another sin in Syria.

They deliberately aborted the decision of the United Nations Security Council when the UN denounced the killing of civilians by the monstrous government forces in Damascus.

This means the sun in Russia and China is setting at a time when people in the region have revolted against their regimes for freedom. This means these two nations have no mercy for the victims, instead they support repressive and murderous governments.

It will be difficult for states like China and Russia to recover after making wrong political calculations. It will also be futile when they try to catch up with the convoy because apologizing for past mistakes will not suffice to bring the dead back to life.

This is exactly what the two countries are trying to do now as they have realized that the Gaddafi’s regime has become ‘a thing of the past’. They are now trying to fraternize with the revolutionaries in Benghazi as a way of expressing regret. Can belated diplomatic efforts undo the destruction caused by supporting injustice?

This question is relevant to positions taken by Russia and China in Syria where the blood of the innocent has been spilled by the slogans of the dishonest bloody government through irrelevant justifications.

The two states have deprived Syrians of mercy of the international community due to their opposition to the proposed resolution presented by France, Britain and Germany in the Security Council.

The resolution was very light but good enough to stop the massacre of citizens in cities and villages - massacre of people who were demanding liberty and seeking reforms.

Russia and China may have realized their mistakes in Libya and the current losses in Syria. This became evident when demonstrators in an expression of anger set alight the flags of these nations because they had taken prejudicial positions.

The situation is dicey since the Syrian protesters are the people in charge of deciding future ties with other countries based on support given to the revolution.

There is no chance for a gamble in Damascus because the citizens are not prone to forgetting soon the stand adopted by Moscow and Beijing. It would be in the interest of both these nations to stand by the Syrians or look elsewhere for another exit window in the Middle East since the Syrian window is closed.

The current relationship linking Russia and China with the region is extremely significant in history, because it is coming after major changes in several Arab nations.

The situation has led to the collapse of former alliances based on principle of the cold war that ended with the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Moscow and Beijing have failed to realize this fact since the time they lost a better part of their influence in many countries across the globe.

Moscow and Beijing probably still have time to catch up with the train by abandoning the Syrian government which continues to lose legitimacy on a daily basis.

They lose it locally due to consistent protests through which the protesters demand for its ouster, regardless of the brutal repression against citizens.

On the international stage, the government has lost its legitimacy because a number of countries have exposed the misdeeds of Damascus.

Will these two nations realize this fact or continue to move along the wrong path and allow posterity to indict them at every point? The future is in a better position to answer this question.

Ahmed Al-Jarallah is the editor-in-chief of The Arab Times and the Kuwaiti daily Assyassah