Youssef Mouawad

One could almost marvel at the array of torture instruments featured in the repertoire of Syrian prisons! For the various branches of the mukhabarat had not been idle during more than fifty years of prolonged dictatorship. To exercise their perverse talents, extract confessions from their victims, and above all intimidate the population, Baathist torturers could choose between the “doulab,” the “‘abd al-aswad,” and the “bisat al-rih.” It is difficult to rank these ordeals, but the second on the list was so perverse that Amnesty International described it in its 1984 Report in the following terms: “The victim, bound, is seated on a device which, when switched on, inserts a heated metal blade into the anus.”

The march to the slaughter had been filmed: it is not every day that 288 civilians, including 12 children, are massacred. The scene unfolded in the southern suburbs of Damascus, in the district known as Tadamun — and “by the book.” We are in 2013. More than 24 videos captured scenes of chilling horror, including the following: pro-government militiamen lead civilians, blindfolded and with their hands tied behind their backs, to the edge of a trench; they shove them in before opening fire indiscriminately to kill them. The bodies, we are told, were then burned and buried with a bulldozer to erase all traces. As the ultimate abomination, these “exploits” of the Assad dynasty were filmed in detail by the executioners themselves. By a twist of fate, this incriminating footage began circulating widely on social media from 2022 onward and became emblematic of the regime’s brutality. A piece of evidence showing one Amjad Youssef — the main star of this horror film — calmly dispensing death!

A gallows had been erected by protesters in front of the Palace of Justice in Damascus. It was Sunday, April 27th, in the Syrian capital: a large crowd was present at the first hearing of trials intended to determine the fate of criminals from Bashar al-Assad's fallen regime. The protesters were crying for revenge: they would not have hesitated to carry out their own justice! This speaks to the overheated general atmosphere that could cast doubt on the course of future developments. A special tribunal for Syria, modeled on the one established for former Yugoslavia, would have raised fewer concerns.

There were trials in Nuremberg (1945–46) and in Tokyo (1946–48), and even in Istanbul, gallows were erected in July 1919 to execute Young Turks responsible for the Armenian genocide. That said, one could legitimately wonder why the authorities of Ahmed al-Chareh had been so slow to set the judicial machinery in motion. Was he hesitant to punish the abuses committed against an entire people by the Al-Assad dynasty of tyrants and their inner circles? The question was all the more pressing given that more than twenty officials—both top figures and lesser ones, if you’ll pardon the expression—had been arrested and were languishing in prison awaiting trial.

It is a hangover that the Shiite community is experiencing—a real bout of intoxication’s aftermath. The Hezbollah–Amal tandem had elevated it to the height of its power: having penetrated the deep state, this community had entrenched itself there while positioning itself as a regional interlocutor after centuries of marginalization and discrimination. Then, starting in September 2024, the house of cards began to collapse under repeated Israeli blows. And in the end, thousands of families were displaced. Heartbreaking were those lines of cars that, having headed south following the announcement of the April 17 ceasefire, immediately turned back. A human tragedy that has been ongoing for weeks, affecting a confessional group and its members, who are at times stigmatized by their fellow Lebanese citizens.

This country—ours, after all—deserves better than your “resistance”! But what curse hangs over us, in this Orient given over to the whims of warmongers and would-be martyrs? Every time Arab leaders indulged in incendiary rhetoric and were swept into wars, we were headed for disaster. Thus, on the eve of June 1967, the provocations of the Syrian Baath regime in Damascus dragged Egypt and Jordan into a six-day war. On one side, Egypt lost the Sinai, control of the Gaza Strip, and mastery of the Suez Canal; on the other, Syria lost the Golan, while the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was stripped of the West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem (1). To this day, neither Damascus nor Amman has recovered from that misstep; the territories Israel had “taken” from them were never to be regained.

For a resounding victory, it was anything but! Donald Trump, wary of getting drawn into the Persian Gulf, found a way out by scaling back his ambitions. No more talk of changing the regime of wilayat al-faqih, nor of putting a definitive end to Iran’s nuclear program (1). With the Islamabad Agreement of April 7, he will have to settle for a consolation prize: the reopening of communication routes and free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz “in coordination with the Iranian armed forces.” Does that make it a victory for the ayatollahs? Certainly not! Javad Zarif and Foreign Affairs While Iran has shown resilience, its forces are nevertheless exhausted and its country drained. Moreover, its negotiators in Islamabad seem ready to abandon their Lebanese proxy to its fate. Tehran will not formally admit this, but Javad Zarif hinted as much in an article in Foreign Affairs (2). The former Iranian foreign minister used the opportunity of an academic contribution (?) to propose a roadmap to end the raging regional conflict: he advocated reciprocal concessions between the belligerents, de-escalation, and diplomatic normalization.

Our decaying Republic has regained its luster. It only took one of our ministers to show firmness and 'dismiss', in accordance with established rules, the accredited representative of Iran. And it was all the more to Youssef Rajji's credit that he managed to weather the storm sparked by his impertinence. However, it should not be believed that this diplomatic show of force would go so far as to restore the credibility of this government or administration. It would take a hell of a lot more; and purges of Stalinist scale would barely be enough! The Khalij in fire and blood But let's go to the Persian Gulf, since that's what it should be called. Cornered in its last strongholds, Tehran has decided to set the said Khalij ablaze!

“Baytuna al-khataru”, (peril is our dwelling), an expression borrowed from Saïd Akl. Michel Chiha was not fooled by our superficial national unity! Besides, who would have been? This essayist feared, above all, the demons of division and violence that haunted our Lebanese memory. His Lebanon was: “ a country that tradition must defend against force… ” National fragmentation and the historical legacy The confrontation, which has been ongoing before our eyes since October 2023, may appear to be an international or regional confrontation between Israel and Iran, but it is also, as far as we are concerned, the continuation of an ancestral domestic conflict between Lebanese factions.

It is up to the Lebanese Shiites alone to disavow Hezbollah, to put an end to its hegemony and, consequently, to the Pasdaran's grip on our country *! The same scenario applies in Iran: no matter how much combined Israeli-American strikes pulverize Ali Larijani, his close guard and his repressive forces, only a citizen uprising can overthrow the tyranny of wilayat al-faqih . Astute observers will eventually admit it: there will be no resolution to the Persian tragedy, no solution to the Iranian crisis without a confrontation between compatriots, that is to say, without civil conflict. So it is up to the peoples to assert their right to life!