Syrian Dailies Criticise Nonaligned Movement

Syrian newspapers criticised the Non-Aligned Movement for its “ineffective role” in the region, justifying the absence of the Syrian president from the summit of nonaligned countries that was held last week in Sharm El-Sheikh.



A July 16 opinion article in the pro-government newspaper Al-Watan lambasted the summit’s host country, Egypt, for attempting to sideline the movement’s founding principles.



The author’s article, Issa al-Ayoubi, accused Egypt of serving the interests of powerful nations marred by the international financial crisis without taking into consideration the needs of third world countries.



He also implied that Egypt was responsible for nonaligned nations turning a blind eye to what he described as Israeli crimes and judging resistance movements in the region critically.



The author said that the absence of the Syrian and Iranian presidents, Bashar al-Assad and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was noteworthy.



Ayoubi stressed that it was crucial for nonaligned nations to recover their effective role for the sake of world stability.



An editorial earlier in the official Al-Thawra newspaper also accused nonaligned states of being biased towards Israel, which it accused of committing daily crimes in the Gaza Strip.



Asaad Aboud, the daily’s editor-in-chief, said that states must demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinians.



He implicitly urged Egypt to stop the siege of Gaza and open its borders with the Palestinian territory rather than just uttering hollow statements.



Aboud accused nonaligned countries of failing to solve any of the region’s critical issues of the past few years, from the occupation of Iraq to Israeli aggression against Lebanon and the instabilities in Somalia, Sudan and Afghanistan.