Epstein Secrets

lims in Syria and throughout the region feel that Assad's Syria has unduly favored the Alawites, a sect o

tary effort that was galvanized internationally — the United Nations Security Council authorized "all necessary measures" to protect ci

A government spokeswoman has hinted that coming reforms will include greater freedom for the press and the right to form political parties. President Bashar al-Assad is due to address the country in the next 48 hours. His speech is eagerly awaited, but it remains to be seen whether it will be enough to defuse the

llenged the fundamentals of Syria's security state, a harsh system of controls over every aspect of society, put in place by the late Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, who ruled for 30 years from 1970 to his death in 2000. By all accounts, the debate HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_030032 --- PAGE BREAK --- 4 about how

es been far from neutral, favoring one community over another in cynical power plays. Many Sunni Muslims in Syria and throughout the region feel that Assad's Syria has unduly favored the Alawites, a sect of Shiite Islam, who constitute some 12 percent of the population but control a vastly greater percen

tion!" And I say: Don't bet on it. Look at Syria. Assad has massacred 200,000 of his own people - with ta

US to veto hostile initiatives against Israel in the United Nations Security Council. Or to soften the conclusions of the Goldstone Co

something really grave happens (Iran for example) - the US will not stand by. The world will take action!" And I say: Don't bet on it. Look at Syria. Assad has massacred 200,000 of his own people - with tanks, artillery, fighter jets, even chemical weapons - and the world did not lift a finger. HOUSE _OV

tion!" And I say: Don't bet on it. Look at Syria. Assad has massacred 200,000 of his own people - with ta

US to veto hostile initiatives against Israel in the United Nations Security Council. Or to soften the conclusions of the Goldstone Co

something really grave happens (Iran for example) - the US will not stand by. The world will take action!" And I say: Don't bet on it. Look at Syria. Assad has massacred 200,000 of his own people - with tanks, artillery, fighter jets, even chemical weapons - and the world did not lift a finger. And the o

e moral bankruptcy of its foreign policy, has reaped a harvest of consistency and single-mindedness. It has entirely and unwaveringly supported the Bashar Al-Assad regime, used its status as a permanent United Nations Security Council member to veto any opposing resolution, and has provided superior weaponry t

onal feebleness in response to the Iranian nuclear program. But the takeaway message on Syria is that in all of the circumstances, awful though the Assads were and disreputable and unacceptably motivated though their Iranian and Russian sponsors are, it is not clear that an objectively preferable alte

harvest of consistency and single-mindedness. It has entirely and unwaveringly supported the Bashar Al-Assad regime, used its status as a permanent United Nations Security Council member to veto any opposing resolution, and has provided superior weaponry to the Syrian EFTA00684005 government in its war against the atomized

cent of the Golan Heights, it still fell short of Assad’s demand for a return to the 4 June 1967 lines, a

sembly UNIFIL United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon UNRWA __ United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East UNSC United Nations Security Council UNSCO United Nations Special Coordinator UNSCOP United Nations Special Committee on Palestine UNSG United Nations Secretary-General UNTSO United N

Resolu- tions 425 and 426. 18 June 2000 The UN Security Council confirms Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in a Presidential Statement. 10 July 2000 Bashar al-Assad is elected President of Syria in a nationwide referendum. 11-25 July 2000 Camp David II negotiations between Ehud Barak and Yasir Arafat. 25 July 2

cal life and for that of the regime put in place in 1970 by his father, the late President Hafez al-Assad. Forty-one years in power The rule of the Assads, father and son, has now lasted 41 years, a score comparable to that of other long-lasting Arab autocrats, each apparently determined to be a préside

Arab autocrats, each apparently determined to be a président-a-vie. In no other part of the world have so many rulers clung so assiduously to power. Bashar appears genuinely to have believed that the Arab nationalist ideology he inherited, his opposition to Israel and his support for resistance movements

tly financed a London-based network of Bashar’s opponents to the tune of $12m between 2005 and 2010. A continuous whole It is probably fair to view Bashar al-Assad’s term of office and that of his father as a single continuous whole. Not only did Hafez al-Assad decide that Bashar should succeed him, but he also be

she was in the Oval Office conferring with President Obama. The night before, as her plane was en route from Tunis, they had agreed that the vote of the United Nations Security Council to impose a no-fly zone on Libya meant that it was now decision time on launching a third American war in the Middle East, though no one in the U.S.