Syrian Paper Praises Government's Gaza Diplomacy

It was diplomatic efforts led by Syria and Qatar that forced Israel to halt its offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to a story published on January 20 in the pro-government newspaper Al-Watan.



The newspaper said that while Syria and Qatar emerged as winners in the eyes of the Arab world, the Egyptians and Saudis lost respect for initially condoning Israeli air strikes.



“Last week’s emergency summit in Doha made Egyptian leaders lose their minds,” the paper claimed, referring to a hastily-called gathering of Arab states which Egypt, Saudi Arabia and others refused to attend. “Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has lost the support of the Arab street, yet he has also lost influence with Israel and America.”



At the competing Arab Economic Summit in Kuwait a few days later, Mubarak criticised countries including Syria that spoke out against his country’s response to the Gaza crisis.



The pro-government website Al-Jamal claimed that the January 18 meeting of world leaders in Sharm-al-Sheikh, Egypt, was designed to prevent Hamas rearming after the ceasefire.



Meanwhile, Asem al-Kuder wrote an opinion article in the state-backed Al-Baath newspaper saying that the ceasefire should be attributed to the heroic actions of Palestinians in Gaza.