Bashar Assad finally spoke his first words on the israeli-Hezbollah conflict after spending the last nine days missing in action. Assad, whose party started issuing foreign-policy statements in his absence last week at the outset of the hostilities, demanded a UN-brokered cease fire:

Syrian President Bashar Assad spoke out on Wednesday for the first time since the outbreak of the war in the North and said a cease-fire was necessary in order to stop the Israeli attacks on Lebanon. The president made the statement in a telephone conversation with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

CNN Turk reported that Assad called on Erdogan to put pressure on Israel to stop its offensive in Lebanon. According to the report, Erdogan answered him that Turkey was trying to bring about a cease-fire and would continue to do so.

Meanwhile, a UN envoy who visited Israel and Lebanon this week and met with Spain's foreign minister Wednesday called for a quick decision on whether to deploy a new international force to stop the escalating Mideast fighting.

"We're in a hurry. It has to happen fast," said Terje Roed-Larsen, adviser on Lebanon-Syria issues to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. "There is serious work to be done in order to reach conclusions, which will be presented to the parties. The parties then have to agree with the presence of the force, what kind of force before it can go in."

The absence of Baby Assad in the high-powered diplomatic moves has been puzzling, to say the least. First the Ba'ath Party council starts issuing statements of support for Hezbollah without any input from the putative head of state, and then a division of the Syrian Army gets mobilized and heads to the border without so much as a sighting of the eye doctor. Nine days later, Assad finally finds his tongue -- and all he can do is parrot calls for a cease-fire.

It looks like Syria has lost its nerve. In those first hours, the Ba'athists attempted to scare the world into thinking that it would jump back into Lebanon. They certainly expected Israel to strike against their mobilized division, and perhaps even hoped Ehud Olmert would take the opportunity to do so. The Arab League's refusal to endorse Hezbollah's war must have taken Damascus aback, and when Israel failed to attack them, it made their words appear very hollow. Even Iran had taken care to specify that they would come to Syria's aid "if attacked".

I think they counted on an Arab effort against Israel, and wanted an Israeli attack to foment a pan-Islam coalition of nations to attack Israel. Olmert turned out to be craftier than the Ba'athists, and this call for a cease fire proves that they know they lost the bet.

Did Assad oppose this provocation? It seems passingly strange that he has not spoken publicly at all since the war began. Now his sudden reappearance to demand a cease-fire gives some suspicion that he may not have been in charge when Hezbollah decided to take action. Did Assad become the victim of an aborted coup?

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» Captain Gives No Quarter in Mid-East Coverage from Sneakeasy's Joint
While most bloggers, like myself, have to be content with tossing their 2 cents in ( Debating a Moonbat in the process ), on the fracas between Israel and Hezbollah, only on occasion, others are marshalling their talents, and resources, [Read More]

Tracked on July 26, 2006 2:28 AM

» Captain Gives No Quarter in Mid-East Coverage from Sneakeasy's Joint
While most bloggers, like myself, have to be content with tossing their 2 cents in ( Debating a Moonbat in the process ), on the fracas between Israel and Hezbollah, only on occasion, others are marshalling their talents, and resources, [Read More]

Tracked on July 28, 2006 12:43 PM

» Captain Gives No Quarter in Mid-East Coverage from Sneakeasy's Joint
While most bloggers, like myself, have to be content with tossing their 2 cents in ( Debating a Moonbat in the process ), on the fracas between Israel and Hezbollah, only on occasion, others are marshalling their talents, and resources, [Read More]

Tracked on July 28, 2006 12:51 PM

» Syriana from Hard Starboard
Calling for a cease-fire is quite a climb-down from "The Jews deserve what they get from the Hezbos, and if they don't like it, let 'em come after us, and we'll clean their yamulkes." I rather doubt that Assad, Jr. held that view from the beginning a... [Read More]

Tracked on July 30, 2006 1:25 AM