What is the Shabiha?

This is not a joke, but rather a question put forth by the al-Assad regime to the Arab League. During its negotiations over the signing of a protocol to send observers to Syria, the al-Assad regime asked the Arab League: What is meant by “Shabiha”? This question, albeit amusing at face value, is part of a method used by the al-Assad regime over the years in its negotiations, whereby it accepts whatever is proposed, whether domestically, on the Arab level, regionally or even internationally, and then empties the agreement of its contents. The al-Assad regime did this when responding to the demands of the Damascus Spring, when Bashar al-Assad came to power in Syria as the successor to his father. The al-Assad regime also did this in Lebanon, under the so-called “Saudi Syrian initiative” [alleged proposal to resolve the deadlock surrounding the UN tribunal investigating Rafik Hariri’s assassination]. The most notorious manifestation of Syria’s tactics in Lebanon is Nabih Berri, known for his crafty pleading in his official cables, the most recent of which was sent to the King of Saudi Arabia, urging him to resolve the Syrian issue! The Syrian regime has also acted this way – namely to approve a proposal offered to it and then empty the agreement of its contents – with Turkey, France and the West in general. It excelled in this respect with the Iraq issue, specifically with the Americans, and today it is doing so with the Syrians, the Arabs and the West. The al-Assad regime’s skills lie in making promises, holding conventions, and then emptying agreements of their contents without adhering to them. Its game is constant and continuous, and it is the game of buying time. Today, the regime is trying to repeat this. In his press conference yesterday, Walid al-Moallem said: “We in Syria do not consider that the [Arab League] deadline is the important issue. The content is the important issue, and to reach an agreement with the Arab League is what counts”. This is as if Moallem had said “the situation cannot be rushed, neither can our reaction, rather it needs rational, careful study”. What Moallem wants, quite simply, is more time. This is so that the regime – which kills more than 20 Syrians per day with its Shabiha forces – can eliminate the revolution and suppress the citizens. Moallem wants to buy as much time as possible for his president in the hope of outlasting the revolution, through open negotiations with the Arab League without any specified deadlines, i.e. an exercise in wasting time. As if to confirm this, al-Assad himself told the British Sunday Times newspaper that the Arab League deadline aims to: “show that there's a problem between the Arabs, thus providing western countries with a pretext to conduct a military intervention against Syria”! Of course, the al-Assad regime has always survived the consequences of its actions in the past, whether in Lebanon or Iraq or otherwise, but the situation today is different, and not because of the Arab and international insistence, but because of the rejection of the al-Assad regime on the part of the Syrians themselves, a regime that has long tried to outwit everyone. As was once said: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time”! Thus, after recent comments coming from the al-Assad regime, I do not think anyone needs define the Shabiha to the regime, whether its elements are found in the security forces, the media, or even amongst politicians!