Arab press: Syria's new Foreign Minister close to Iran, Erdogan evades European sanctions

On Monday, Arab press discussed the Syrian situation, in addition to the relationship between the European Union and Turkey, and the Lebanese crisis.

Al-Miqdad as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Damascus

The beginning of the Syrian issue, and in this context, Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper said: "Official media reported yesterday that Syria has appointed the diplomat, Faisal al-Miqdad, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, to succeed Walid al-Muallem, who passed away last week.

On its Telegram page, the presidency said that President Bashar al-Assad “issued three decrees ... to name Dr. Faisal al-Miqdad as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, and Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. Ambassador Bassam al-Sabbagh transferred to the permanent delegation in New York and accredited him as a permanent representative. To the Syrian Arab Republic at the United Nations in New York », and al-Miqdad (66 years old), who was described by a colleague in the Foreign Ministry, in a statement to the French Press Agency, that "he has excellent relations with the Iranians and the Chinese, "has held the position of deputy foreign minister since 2006.

'Erdogan is maneuvering through the calm with Europe to evade sanctions'

Regarding the relationship between the European Union and Turkey, Al-Arab newspaper said: “Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan returned, on Sunday, to exporting a calm speech to Europe with the approaching discussion of the European Council on the possibility of imposing sanctions on Ankara because of its destabilizing activities in the eastern Mediterranean, a speech that questioned the credibility of the Foreign Minister French Jean-Yves Le Drian, who said that his country was waiting for "actions, not words."

The Turkish president has been maneuvering and offering "cosmetic" concessions to the leaders of the European Union before any summit looking at tightening the screws on his policies, only to return to escalation after that.

This strategy succeeded in avoiding Ankara, last month, from European sanctions that were close to it after it made pledges of calm that it later quickly revoked.

European diplomats confirm that the signs of calm that Turkey started to launch recently are nothing but circumstantial and coupled with the European Council meeting next December, pointing to the necessity of firmness with Turkey, which has proven to be an "unreliable partner."

Observers point out that the Turkish calls for truce are no longer on deaf ears among European leaders, who last October engaged in Turkish pledges to stop escalation in the eastern Mediterranean, and stopped the path of imposing sanctions to allow negotiations, but on Saturday Ankara extended the exploration work of its vessel Oroç in a disputed area with Greece and Cyprus undermines the efforts for a peaceful solution.

The Lebanese are defeating their independence'

Regarding the Lebanese issue, Al-Bayan newspaper said: “In light of the blockage of the governmental horizon in Lebanon and the stalemate controlling the political file locally, an international interest, specifically American, has emerged in the file of demarcating its southern borders, as this file is intended to be the main address from which any development states on the Lebanese scene.

While Washington expresses its utmost interest in the process of demarcating the borders between Lebanon and Israel, the fact that this file is a priority for it, and from it other priorities will branch out, according to what is rumored, it, and behind it, Israel, will not give up the pressures to complete the demarcation process, which means, in the readings to exert more pressure on Lebanon, in front of the Americans and the international community, in order to push it to give up the new maps that it presented through its negotiating envoy, which stipulates the launch of negotiations over the demarcation of the maritime borders from a specific point in the Ras Naqoura border area, that is, the line parallel to the land border Which is rejected by Israel. And if the disagreement continues, the negotiations threaten to break apart.

In the context, it is worth noting a remarkable development that seemed to complement the data that accompanied the recent "Naqoura negotiations" regarding the escalation of the gap between the Lebanese and Israeli negotiating teams over the area belonging to Lebanon, and indicated the rugged path of the demarcation negotiations, as the Israeli side accused Lebanon of changing its position regarding the demarcation of the borders. And he talked about the possibility that the talks would reach a "dead end" and obstruct the projects to explore for fuel at sea, which required a response from the Lebanese presidency, in which it confirmed that Lebanon's position is "fixed" on the issue of maritime demarcation of the southern borders, especially in terms of Lebanon's practice its sovereign right.

On Independence Day, of which only the memory remained, Saad Hariri's mandate rolled over his first month, without forming the government that bears the number "77" in the registry of post-independence governments in Lebanon.

Thus, the politicians "defeated" their independence and received it without a government and with the differences facilitated, and with a closed reality with which the expected "mission government" appears to be stuck between two boundaries: neither the President of the Republic, Gen. Michel Aoun, is about to give Hariri "privileges" at the formation level, nor is the latter in the process of apologizing.

T/S

ANHA