Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Temporary Solutions in Syria Benefit the neighbors حلول مرحلية في سوريا لصالح الجوار







الثلاثاء 18 تموز 2017


حلول مرحلية في سوريا قد تكون لصالح دول الجوار
رياض طبارة 
English summary at end 

مفاوضات جنيف الأخيرة، إذا لم تخُنّي الذاكرة، هي الجولة السادسة لجنيف أربعة، وكانت لتُسمّى جنيف تسعة لولا أنّ ستافان دي مستورا، المبعوث الخاص لأمين عام الأمم المتحدة لسوريا، شعرَ بالحرَج مسبقاً، فقرّر أن يعتبر كلّ ما يجيء من اجتماعات بعد جنيف أربعة «جولات» من ضمن جنيف أربعة، وقد وصَل العدّ إلى ستّ جولات، على أن تُعقد الجولة السابعة، أي ما يعادل جنيف 10، على الأغلب في أيلول المقبل.
إستلم دي مستورا المهمة في تموز سنة 2014 بعد استقالة الأخضر الإبراهيمي.

فبين حزيران 2012 عندما عقِد اجتماع جنيف واحد وحتى استلام دي مستورا المهمة، لم يُعقد سوى اجتماع ثانٍ هو جنيف إثنين. ولكن بعد استلام دي مستورا المهمّة تكثّفَت الاجتماعات إلى أن وصلت خلال السنوات الثلاث الماضية إلى سبع اجتماعات، فشلَت كلّها في إحراز أيّ تقدّم نحو حلّ الأزمة السورية بل، بحسب البعض، أحرزَت تراجعاً بالنسبة لقرارات جنيف 2 ألتي وضعت مبادئ للحل.

هذا الفشل مرَدُّه إلى أنّ دي مستورا يعقد الاجتماعات، الواحد تلوَ الآخر، دون أيّ أمل مسبَق في إحراز تقدّم، حتى فقَد الناسُ الثقة بفعاليتها. لا شكّ في أنّ اللاعبَين الأساسيَين الذين باستطاعتهما إحراز تقدّم في المفاوضات اليوم هما الولايات المتحدة وروسيا، ولذلك لا تقدّم حقيقياً في المفاوضات دون حدّ أدنى من التوافق بينهما.

بدأ التدخّل الروسي العسكري في سوريا في أيلول سنة 2015، بعدما فشلت إيران والميليشيات التابعة لها في حماية النظام. أرادت روسيا موطئ قدمٍ في الشرق الأوسط فجاءت الحرب السورية مفصّلةً على القياس.

لذا سرعان ما أنشأت روسيا قواعد عسكرية، بحرية (بتوسيع قاعدة طرطوس الصغيرة) وبرّية وجوّية وعَقدت اتفاقاً طويل الأمد مع الحكومة السورية يؤمّن لها البقاءَ غير المحدود في البلاد.

لم تحرّك أميركا بقيادة الرئيس باراك أوباما ساكناً، وظلّ الرئيس أوباما ينظّر بأنّ الروس سيغرقون في وحول سوريا حتى سيطروا على معظم ما يسمّى سوريا المفيدة.

سياسة أميركا اليوم في سوريا تختلف تماماً عن سياستها في عهد أوباما. الخطوط العريضة التي ظهرت حتى اليوم هي أنّها تعتبر أنّه ليس من المرغوب فيه أن توكلَ محاربة داعش والقاعدة في سوريا إلى إيران، لأنّ مِثل هذه الحرب ستنتهي بحرب أخرى مذهبية.

ألبديل بالنسبة للأميركيين هو تحالف سنّي في المنطقة تكون رأس الحربة فيه المملكة العربية السعودية، بالتعاون مع دول الخليج الأخرى ومصر ولربّما أيضاً تركيا.

الأهمّية التي تعطيها إدارة ترامب لهذه السياسة وهذا التحالف ظهرَت في أنّ أوّل زيارة للخارج قام بها ترامب كانت للسعودية حيث التقى القيادات السعودية وقيادات الخليج ورؤساء الدول الإسلامية ما عدا إيران.

بالنسبة لإيران سياسة إدارة ترامب، التي يساندها الكونغرس، هي في زيادة الضغوطات الاقتصادية عليها لإجبارها على فتحِ ملفات المنطقة التي تَعتبر أميركا أنّ لإيران يداً سلبية فيها، كالعراق، وسوريا، واليمن ولبنان، ليكون حلّها الشرط الأساسي لعودة إيران الكاملة إلى المجتمع الدولي.

هذا المخطط الأميركي أمامه عقبات كبيرة يجب تذليلها، ليس أقلّها إقناع روسيا بالتخلّي عن إيران، وإقناع إيران بالتالي بفتح الملفات المذكورة وعدم التدخّل في الحروب القائمة في المنطقة. وبصرفِ النظر عمّا إذا كان هذا المخطط سينجَح بالكامل، أو حتى جزئياً، فإنّ العمل على تحقيقه يعني أنّ الحلّ النهائي للمشكلة السورية، الذي يتطلب اتفاقاً أميركياً روسياً، ما زال بعيد المنال.

أقصى ما يستطيع الطرفان تتحقيقَه في هذه الأثناء هو اتفاقات تكتيكية مرحلية تهدف إلى خفضِ التوتر في بعض المناطق وفرضِ وقفٍ للقتال في البعض الآخر، كما بدأ يحصل في جنوب غرب سوريا ومناطق أخرى. مِثلُ هذه الاتفاقات بالنسبة لروسيا تُخفّف من إمكانية الغرَق في الوحول السورية التي لا يَسمح اقتصادها المتردّي به، كما يعطي للولايات المتحدة مجالاً لإيجاد حلّ لا يتطلب خسارات كبيرة لها، مادية أو بشرية.

ولعلّ الرابح الأكبر من هذه الاتّفاقات المرحلية، التي ستؤسّس لأماكن آمنة داخل سوريا، إضافةً إلى السوريين أنفسِهم، ستكون الدول المحيطة التي تعاني من تخمةٍ في أعداد اللاجئين السوريين فيها، وعلى رأسها لبنان. غير أنّ هذا يتطلب مقاربة عقلانية للموضوع والابتعادَ عن الحلول الشعبوية أو العاطفية التي لا تجدي نفعاً. فالعودة يجب أن تكون طوعية وآمنة، بحسب القوانين الدولية.

ولكي تكون كذلك فهناك شروط يجب أن تتوفّر. كي تكون العودة طوعية من الضروري أن يعاد اللاجئ إلى بلدته، أو على الأقلّ إلى مكان آمِن مؤقّت يوفّر له الأمان والطمأنينة. ولكي يكون المكان آمناً فيجب أن تكون هناك ضمانات بأنّ النظام، أو الميليشيات المنتشرة، لن تشكّلَ خطراً على حياة العائدين أو أمانهم.

هذه الضمانات لا تستطيع أن تعطيَها بشكل فعّال سوى الأمم المتحدة، بمشاركة حقيقية ومسؤولة من قبل العملاقين 
الأميركي والروسي. وهذا سيشكّل التحدّي الأكبر للسياسة الخارجية اللبنانية

 Summary:

Temporary Solutions in Syria May be to the Benefit of the Neighboring Coutries

The latest Geneva meeting on Syria should be called Geneva 9 were it not for the decision of Staffan de Mistura to call all meetings after Geneva 4 “rounds” within the latter.

Between 2012 and until July 2014, when de Mistura became the represenstative of the Secretary-General of the UN to Syria, only two Geneva meetings were held. Since then something around eight were held with no breakthroughs of any sort. The problem is that de Mistura holds meeting after another without any expectation of movement. Such a movement requires an understanding between the two superpowers on the ground, Russia and the United States, and this does not seem to have ripened yet.

The military failure of the Syrian regime, even after Iran interfered, offered a golden opportunity for Russia to intervene. Russia had been looking for a foothold in the Middle East since Putin took over. What helped Russia was the paralysis of the American foreign policy during the Obama era. Russia now has a number of military bases in Syria and a long term treaty with the government permitting it to stay virtually forever.

The new American policy, on the other hand, is to push Iran aside. The reasoning behind this is  that, using Shiite Iran to fight Sunni Daesh and al Qaeda, in a majority Sunni country like Syria, would likely end up in a sectarian conflict. Therefore, the U.S. should form a Sunni alliance for this task, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, assisted by the Gulf countries, Egypt and perhaps also Turkey. This American plan explains the visit of Trump to Saudi Arabia to meet there also with the leaders of the Gulf countries and the leaders of Muslim countries minus Iran.

But whether this plan succeeds or not, in the interim period the best the two superpowers could do is to create safe zones to reduce the dangers of falling into the quagmire of Syria.  These safe zones will permit the partial and gradual return of Syrian refugees from the neighboring countries. Lebanon, that has the largest number per capita, will be the first to benefit.

But the Lebanese politicians have to stop approaching the situation in an emotional and populist fashion. The return of refugees has to be safe and that could be done only under the auspices of the United Nations, and the guarantees of the two superpowers. This is where the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs should direct its efforts.


Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Lebanese Women


Jul. 12, 2017

Lebanese women a vulnerable group?


There are obviously a number of issues to be resolved regarding the rights of Lebanese women, such as their right to give their children the Lebanese nationality, their right for a fair representation in the political process, and other such important issues. But this is not what I wish to discuss in this article. What I wish to discuss is, actually, some of the unheralded achievements of Lebanese women in many areas of development, in particular in the areas of education and the work force. These successes remain not widely understood, nor fully appreciated. The reason, I believe, is not the lack of information, statistical or otherwise, but because of a persistent misinterpretation of available information. Here are some examples.

Many writers point out that illiteracy among Lebanese women (around 8 percent) is twice as high as among men, and that this indicates a social bias against women. While the statistics may be correct, their interpretation is misleading. This gender gap in overall illiteracy rates reflects actually an even greater gap in favor of men among older people, but it describes, partly at least, a past situation. It does not apply to the younger population. Among the young (15-24 years), for example, illiteracy is virtually non-existent for both sexes. Therefore, as the older generation is replaced by the new one, illiteracy will naturally disappear among the population as a whole, men and women. This process has been going on for some time. Overall illiteracy rate before the Civil War was 25 percent for women and 10 percent for men.

Not only do young Lebanese girls enjoy a near-complete literacy as Lebanese boys, their enrollment rates at intermediate, secondary and university levels in Lebanon now surpass that of boys. Almost 60 percent of persons graduating from universities in Lebanon in the past couple of years were women.
The same thing is true of the participation of Lebanese women in the work force. It is often claimed that women are not entering the labor force in sufficiently large numbers. The economic activity rate of women in Lebanon increased only from 17 percent in 1990 to 25 percent in 2015, a very modest advance in 15 years. But here again, the statistics are valid but the interpretation is not. The main reason for the slow growth in the participation of Lebanese women in the labor force is that the young among them are entering educational institutions in much greater numbers than before. Indeed, for the 15-19 age group, participation in the labor force has actually diminished, not increased, during this period, because more girls are opting to go to schools and universities at this age than joining the work force. In return, among the post-university age group 25-29 years, participation in the labor force actually jumped from 26 to 44 percent in the same period, a very healthy increase. What this means, is that, as the entry into the school system approaches saturation, the rise in economic participation of women will accelerate substantially and naturally. There are also an increasing number of Lebanese women working abroad, mostly in the Gulf countries, who are not included in these statistics.

We often hear that the average salary of women is, nationally, lower than that of men. This “gender pay gap” exists, of course, in most countries in the world, including the most advanced, and has been presumed by some researchers to reflect a “gender pay bias” and the existence of a “glass ceiling” that confronts women in their career advancement. The “gender pay gap” in Lebanon is significantly wider than it is in Western Europe or North America.
But does this gap really reflect bias against women in the labor market? On the basis of extensive research that has been undertaken on the subject around the world, but meagerly in Lebanon, the answer is: most probably not. First, as in most countries, men’s work is concentrated in fields that have, generally, higher remuneration. To eliminate this structural consideration, let us look at a specific field, say, health. Here too, the difference, while less than in the country as a whole, is still significant. The reason, very succinctly, is that most nurses are women and most doctors are men. When only doctors are considered, the gap narrows again but remains nevertheless. Looking at the situation in one major hospital, it became clear that one of the basic reasons for the gender pay gap among medical doctors was the fact that male doctors had, on average, much more seniority, up to 30 years at times, than female doctors, due to the relatively recent entry of women into the medical profession.

Will the “gender pay gap” disappear completely if all the above factors are taken into account, that is, if women enjoyed the same occupational structure as men and the same seniority? Almost, but not totally, judging from the fact that some gap still exists in the developed countries where this condition is largely satisfied. An article in the New York Times, published last May, entitled “The major cause of the gender pay gap: Motherhood” explains that, on the basis of two recent studies in the United States, motherhood, is the culprit. It causes some women doctors to interrupt their careers because of pregnancy and post-pregnancy period, or forgo job opportunities as they follow their husbands to new places, or even because of employers anticipating these possibilities. At any rate, the remaining gap is relatively small.

In Lebanon studies on the subject are scarce. The two official studies show that the overall “gender pay gap” fell from 27 percent in 1997 to 6 percent in 2007.

The main reason for the narrowing of the “gender pay gap” in Lebanon has been the rush of women into the higher paid labor category officially designated as “specialists,” which includes doctors, pharmacists, engineers, lawyers, university professors and others. Official statistics indicate that, while only 3 percent of working women were classified in this category in 1996, in 2009 some 26 percent of working women had moved into this category and this rate may have actually reached the 30 per cent mark presently, according to credible projections. Actually, the number of women in this category has recently surpassed the number of men, in spite of the fact that the participation of men in the labor force as a whole is some three times that of women.

The judiciary field offers a good example of how Lebanese women are taking charge in some fields traditionally the preserve of men. In 2005 only 30 percent of judges were women. In 2015, 42 percent were women. Considering that more men judges will retire in the near future than women judges because of seniority, and that the number of women in the Institute of Judicial Studies is almost three time the number of men, it is expected that the number of women judges will very soon exceed the number of men.

The United Nations and a number of international institutions often classify women among the vulnerable groups in society, together with children, the elderly and the displaced. Does this apply to Lebanese women? You be the judge.

Riad Tabbarah is the author of the book “Lebanon: Development and Human Problems by the Numbers,” (in Arabic) from which some of the information for this article is taken.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on July 12, 2017, on page 7.

https://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Commentary/2017/Jul-12/412458-lebanese-women-a-vulnerable-group.ashx