Syria's Cross-Border Violence May Be No Accident
BORZOU DARAGAHI, The Financial Times: Well, the Turks are outraged. They've summoned the Syrian charge d'affaires. They have warned of unspecified consequences if anything like this happens again. Lebanon is in quite a bit of a tougher situation. It is led by a pro-Syrian government, which has to play a very delicate balancing act. However, it's been under tremendous pressure. The prime minister was flooded with Twitter demands that he act and do something after this journalist was killed.
What's interesting to consider is whether this was just a coincidence or whether it was somewhat planned perhaps by the Syrian regime. The Syrian regime has threatened in the past to bring the whole regime -- bring the whole region down with it if it were to suffer. And this could very well be a couple of warning signs to both Turkey and Lebanon, which is near and dear to many Western governments, that if this situation continues, if it continues to feel the heat, it will lash out in ways that will destabilize other countries.
JEFFREY BROWN: And is there -- is that being heard and taken seriously? Is there a fear, more fear after today's events of this all spreading?
BORZOU DARAGAHI: Oh, absolutely.
I mean, this fear has been palpable in the diplomatic community in the region, for the whole past year. People have been worried about what Syria would do, what it was capable of. Syria has assets all over the region. It has allies, including Iran, Hezbollah, various Palestinian factions. It is known for being able to interfere in other countries' affairs, for example, Lebanon, all throughout the '70s and '80s and '90s and even more recently. And, also, if people recall, Syria was accused by the U.S. of sending arms and fighters into Iraq during the U.S. occupation there. So there is a real worry about what Syria could do.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/jan-june12/syria2_04-09.html
My opinion - conspiracy theories on both sides are wrong. This was just a result of fighting on the border near a refugee camp to where people were fleeing from Syria, to Turkey. As for Lebanon, I think it is has been general policy by Assad's forces for an entire year to target journalists.
The reason there is no interference is because Assad is a loose canon supported by Russia, China and Iran - and it could become an ugly mess, and the UN is really trying to find a peaceful solution.
Anyway, zero hour is now, and all fighting should stop.
