A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Monday, November 7, 2011

I STILL Hate Being Right So Often

Last Thursday, I expressed skepticism about Syria's "full acceptance" of the Arab League peace plan, and only a day later on Friday had to lament that "Sometimes I Hate Being Right So Often."

And here we go again. One of the comments in my original post was:
Unfortunately for the cynics among us, or those of us who remember, say, how many times Yemen's President Salih has "accepted" the GCC plan for him to step down, Arab League peace plans have few teeth. If Syria does not keep its word, what will the League do then? (If
you said, "call another meeting," you probably will be proved right).
 Okay. Now from Al Jazeera English:
The Arab League has called an emergency meeting on Syria's failure to implement its peace plan, as forces reportedly killed at least 15 demonstrators after prayers on one of Islam's holiest days.

The announcement that Arab foreign ministers would hold another gathering came on Sunday, the fourth straight day of deadly violence since Syria agreed to the league's peace blueprint aimed at ending eight months of bloodshed.

The Arab League said a meeting was called for next Saturday because of "the continuation of violence and because the Syrian government did not implement its commitments in the Arab plan to resolve the Syrian crisis".
 Yes. Thursday's peace plan was so violently violated on Friday that we called an emergency meeting on Sunday for . . . next Saturday. Yes, it's a religious holiday.  But it further emphasizes the inability of the Arab League to enforce even the rare decisions it can agree upon,

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