How do Arab media write about Assad and Syria?
President Assad remains a sharply divisive figure for mainstream Arabic-language media
In recent years, President Bashar al Assad has rarely been able to count on much support form western media, which portray him as a brutal, oppressive dictator.
Even when Islamist militants swelled the ranks of his opponents and began a campaign of violence against religious minorities and western journalists, few in Europe or America were prepared to express sympathy or support for Assad's position.
Meanwhile, western attention has largely been diverted away from the Syrian regime and towards what seems like the more pressing threat: Islamic State.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
But in Arab and Middle Eastern publications, Assad's grip on power remains an urgent and divisive issue.
Here is an overview of what the mainstream Arabic-language media has to say on the subject:
American policy under attack
The predominant view of media outlets owned and funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar is that the US no longer seeks the removal of President Assad.
Bashir Abdul Fattah, writing for Qatar-based Al Jazeera Arabic, says the Syrian president is the big winner to emerge from US-led strikes against Islamic State militants – militants which, he says, emerged as a result of the Syrian regime's brutality towards millions of its own people.
Writing for Al Hayat, a Saudi-funded newspaper based in London, George Samaan said that in the battle against IS, Barack Obama does not want to discuss the fate and future of Assad. "Iraq is the prime field for this war", he says, not Syria.
Tariq Alhamaid of Al Sharq Al-Awsat, another Saudi newspaper, agrees. The US must "recognise its own failure in Syria" he says, and start properly arming the Free Syrian Army. Otherwise everything the US is doing in Syria will serve the regime without eliminating the threat of IS.
Divisions among Assad's opponents
Most Saudi and Qatari media say that any settlement in Syria should exclude Assad. But mainstream media in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates argue that the major threat in the region comes from Islamist movements and organisations – not necessarily the Syrian regime.
Akhbar Alarab, based in the UAE, reminds its readers of Assad's warning before the civil war broke out that any conflict in his country would inevitably drag in its neighbours. Turkey's support for Islamist anti-Assad movements in Syria has become a source of trouble in the region, it says, particularly among the Kurds, who have been infuriated by Turkey's lukewarm support for the battle against IS in Kobane.
Emad Al Din Adib, writing for the Egyptian Al Watan newspaper, says that Turkey's new leaders want to revive an old Ottoman glory by appointing themselves as the leaders of the whole region. In so doing, he says, they stoked up the chaos in Syria by claiming Turkey was "the only country able to topple the Assad regime."
Assad's allies on the front foot
For Beirut-based media close to the Syrian regime and its allies in Iran, Assad's army is still the best hope of pushing back IS and other Islamist militants.
Al Mayadeen TV, which is growing in popularity in the Arabic-speaking world, regularly carries reports of Assad's victories against the rebels. One recent dispatch said his army is destroying armoured vehicles, killing many armed rebels and reasserting control of Syria's southern border with Jordan.
The Beirut newspaper Al Safir says Assad is now in control of northern and western Aleppo, and is pushing towards gaining full control of the city.
The paper suggests that Assad's regime is therefore in a strong position to negotiate with the UN special envoy to Syria, Steffan de Mistura, about proposed "non-conflict zones" in the country.
Syria, the paper says, is refusing to accept the UN plan, claiming it is "impractical" to create conflict-free zones and insisting that any peace settlement should give "priority to fighting [Islamist] terrorism".
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
North Carolina Supreme Court risks undermining its legitimacy
Under the radar A contentious legal battle over whether to seat one of its own members threatens not only the future of the court's ideological balance, but its role in the public sphere
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Crossword: January 14, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published
-
Sudoku medium: January 14, 2025
The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
By The Week Staff Published
-
Kremlin seeks to quell Assad divorce reports
Speed Read Media reports suggest that British citizen Asma al-Assad wants to leave the deposed Syrian dictator and return to London as a British citizen
By Hollie Clemence, The Week UK Published
-
Inside the house of Assad
The Explainer Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez, ruled Syria for more than half a century but how did one family achieve and maintain power?
By The Week UK Published
-
Is it safe for refugees to return to Syria?
Talking Point European countries rapidly froze asylum claims after Assad's fall but Syrian refugees may have reason not to rush home
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
Assad's fall upends the Captagon drug empire
Multi-billion-dollar drug network sustained former Syrian regime
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
Why Assad fell so fast
The Explainer The newly liberated Syria is in an incredibly precarious position, but it's too soon to succumb to defeatist gloom
By The Week UK Published
-
New Syria government takes charge, urging 'stability'
Speed Read The rebel forces that ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad announced an interim government
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
How should the West respond to Syria's new leadership?
Today's Big Question The weight of historical interventions and non-interventions in the region hangs heavy on Western leaders' minds
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Romania's election rerun
The Explainer Shock result of presidential election has been annulled following allegations of Russian interference
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published