Syria: Where Do Arab States Stand?
Updated: 10:05pm UK, Sunday 01 September 2013
By Zein Ja'far, Sky News Producer
As US president Barack Obama takes the question of whether or not to strike Syria to Congress the Middle East awaits anxiously for a decision. But where do Arab powers stand on the issue?
:: For
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and The UAE:
The Gulf states are actively encouraging regime change in Syria and anything that can expedite that process, including potential military strikes, will be welcomed.
The country's foreign minister Saud al Faisal has called on the international community to do all it can to the stop the Syrian Government's "aggression against its own people" and blamed the regime for an alleged chemical attack in Damascus last month.
Saudi Arabia has replaced Qatar as the principle supporter of Syrian opposition forces providing arms and funding to various groups.
The Kingdom's former ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar al-Sultan, is the man believed to have been tasked with gathering international support to topple President Bashar al Assad.
Qatar was, for the first two years of the Syrian conflict, the most vocal and vociferous opponent of the Syrian Government in the region.
The former Emir and foreign minister called for Arab troops to intervene to end the violence and even opened the Syrian opposition's first embassy in the capital Doha.
But both have since stepped down and the country's overt support for the Muslim Brotherhood, a group viewed with deep suspicion by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, has led to a wane in its influence.
The UAE also provides support to the Syrian opposition but is unlikely to involve itself militarily as it did during the Libyan war in 2011.
:: Against
Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan:
Three of the four countries that share a border with Syria are all reluctant to back military intervention.
Lebanon's political parties are inextricably linked to its larger neighbour and the violent fall-out from the crisis in Syria has already claimed dozens of lives this year.
Armed groups in the north of the country, backed by Saudi Arabia, have been fighting alongside the Free Syrian Army while Hezbollah, supporting Syrian government troops, remains Bashar al assad's most active military ally.
More than 700,000 Syrian refugees have fled to Lebanon and the possibility of a military strike is likely see those numbers swell.
Iraq's government is also staunchly against any intervention. Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki is close to Iran and the fear is that a US strike could embolden al Qaeda and affiliated groups based in the country who are crossing into Syria to fight against government forces.
Publicly Jordan has stated it is against military intervention and ruled out any launch of attacks from its own soil. Jordan's Government prefers a diplomatic solution but, as one of President Obama's closest regional allies, will not stand in the way of any strike.
It too faces a refugee crisis with more than half a million displaced Syrians living in the country, often in desperate conditions.
The Zaatari refugee camp, now one of the biggest in the world, is riddled with crime, violence and conditions for children, in particular, are bleak.
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