Report: S. Arabia, Qatar Seeking Failure of Brahimi’s Mission in Syria

Qatar, Saudi Arabia and their western allies are making antagonistic efforts to undermine the efforts made by the new UN-Arab League Special Envoy on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, to discourage him from pursuing his peace mission in Syria, sources said.

Palestinian Mannar news website quoted informed sources on Monday that the two Arab states have embarked on bribery, financial fraud, military and arm purchases in a bid to block Brahimi’s measures to eventually make him fail in his mission.

The former UN-Arab League Special Envoy on Syria, Kofi Annan, resigned in August due to the Qatari and Saudi-backed rebel and terrorist groups’ continued massacre of the civilians in Syria. Annan had demanded both the Syrian government and the opposition to put down arms and start national dialogue, but after the Syrian army withdrew from crisis-hit regions, rebel and terrorist groups violated the terms of the peace initiative and refrained from ceasing fire.

Qatari and Saudi rulers want an overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a staunch ally of Iran, and they have taken every measure to this end.

The sources said on the condition of anonymity that Riyadh and Doha are angry at Iran’s involvement in the Contact Group on Syria and want a failure of the quartet grouping due to the same reason.

Saudi foreign minister was absent in the ministerial meeting of the Contact Group held in Cairo last month.

In latest anti-Syria remarks, the Emir of Qatar has called on Arab nations to form a political and military coalition to intervene in Syria, posing a direct challenge to UN efforts to resolve the conflict through negotiations.

In relevant remarks late in August, Syria’s National Reconciliation Minister Ali Heydar blasted Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar for practicing the western and Israeli policies in the region.

“Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar put the policies of the West and Israel into effect in the region,” Heydar told reporters in a press conference here in Tehran at the time, and added, “There is a great difference between those who present a plan against Syria, that is the US and Israel, with those who practice these plans, that is, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.”

He voiced his country’s anger at the three regional states, and said, “We believe as long as the US policy on Syria remains unchanged, these states won’t change their policies either, and this status will continue until after the US presidential election.”

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country.

In October 2011, calm was eventually restored in the Arab state after President Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but Israel, the US and its Arab allies are seeking hard to bring the country into chaos through any possible means. Tel Aviv, Washington and some Arab capitals have been staging various plots in the hope of stirring unrests in Syria once again.

The US and its western and regional allies have long sought to topple Bashar al-Assad and his ruling system. Media reports said that the Syrian rebels and terrorist groups have received significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, a crime paid for by the Persian Gulf Arab states and coordinated by the United States.