The Magic Word

We haven’t heard this word for some time. But it’s now making a strange comeback. Could it be?


I was surprised to hear our President’s statement before entering today’s council of Ministers. He said: “we all want peace. Peace is what everybody has been waiting for, because we’re all tired of war, but it has to be an honorable peace”.

Lahhoud’s statement was (naturally) an echo of the Syrian President’s “fair peace deal” statement made a few days ago. The Prince of Qatar, who is visiting Damascus and Beirut also said “Peace is what we have all wanted since the Beirut Arab Summit,” more crucially, he said (my translation): “Now is the best time to be talking peace because the Israelis have discovered that military might is not the answer”

On the other side, the Israeli Foreign Minister is said to be putting together a team to negotiate with Syria. But there are mixed messages: the Israeli Prime Minister announced that no peace talks would be held with Syria as long as it harbors Terrorist groups.

The P word again.

It’s too soon to tell, but it seems the Qatari crown prince is up to something.
The tiny gulf state has always managed to combine populist rhetoric (by sponsoring Aljazeera) with a pragmatic pro-American alliance (Qatar hosts the largest American military bases in the region). Syria might reconsider its alliance with Iran if it gets the Golan and a peace deal with Israel, and it seems Qatar is working as a link between the two (yes Qatar does speak with Israel despite what you might think from watching Aljazeera). Noises are starting to be heard in Damascus about a “Qatar sponsored conspiracy” for a Syria-Israel Peace deal.

What’s more important is that Iran doesn’t seem to be playing ball. On the eve of the deadline for Iran to respond to a western proposal to stop its nuclear program, Iran's supreme leader Ali Kaminei is as defiant as ever. He declared Iran’s intention to “forcefully” proceed with its nuclear program. By extension, here in Lebanon, none of the Hezbollah figures have so far uttered the magic word: Peace

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