The scene in the Arab Levant

Nassif Hitti wrote in Asharq Al-Awsat: What does the scene look like in the Arab Levant at the beginning of this year, a year and more after the Israeli war on Gaza and Lebanon? Lebanon, which was thrown into the war under the title of “the strategy of uniting the arenas,” then it was accepted to disengage between the arenas upon reaching the ceasefire agreement, the implementation of which is supposed to be completed on the 27th of this month, and there are great doubts about that. Reconstructing power in Lebanon through the election of a president and the formation of an effective government is a more than necessary, if insufficient, condition for the long-awaited national rescue process. The process that requires a comprehensive reform project, a road map for that, and the state’s restoration of its role, which was robbed and obstructed in the interest of the logic of the statelet and the political sectarianisms controlling power under various titles. This, in short, is the challenge that Lebanon is facing to avoid turning, if things continue as they are, into a “failed state.” As for Syria, which has an influential geostrategic location in the region, it is up to the Authority

The current transition, of course, should work to provide early reassurance to the outside world, especially the Arab world. Reassurance that the future Syria will not be a platform, tool, or party to interfere in the affairs of others in the name of major ideologies or strategies. But what is also required is internal reassurance; Members of the national home with its diversity, and respecting that diversity in practice, on the eve of the launch of the national dialogue process. The dialogue must be comprehensive to rebuild the state and establish a new authority. Authority based on the rule of law, activating institutions, and enhancing the concept of citizenship. Challenges that are not easy to overcome for many different reasons, especially in light of the continuing “conflict over Syria” (the title of Patrick Seale’s famous book). Players change and some of their styles may change, but the game does not. A game of influence struggle that is reinforced by the attractiveness of the location in the political geography of the region.
These three issues will constitute, albeit to different degrees of course, major issues in the “game of nations” in the Middle East. Challenges that require the crystallization of an Arab role based on active involvement in working to achieve the success of the goals required to be achieved in these issues. These goals, if achieved, will contribute significantly to regional stability.