‘Peace Candidate’ Obama Signals More MiddleEastern Regime Change

‘Peace Candidate’ Obama Signals More Middle Eastern Regime Change

By Rick Dewsbury President Barack Obama hailed Muammar Gaddafi's death as a warning to dictators across the Middle East that iron-fisted rule 'inevitably comes to an end.

Obama said the fall of Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya in revolutions dubbed the Arab Spring proved that the leaders of Syria and Yemen should be fearful of similar endings.

Protests that broke out in Syria in March have so far seen more than 3,000 people killed after the leadership's violent military response.

Washington has demanded that Bashar al-Assad, the country's leader, halt his crackdown on democracy protests and step down. The White House is also pressing Yemen's longtime president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to leave office in the face of political upheaval. Obama has also condemned Iran's human rights record and is seeking further sanctions against Tehran over an alleged foiled plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington.

'For the region, today's events prove once more that the rule of an iron fist inevitably comes to an end,' Obama said.

Obama stressed that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had lost his legitimacy to rule.

The leader said the United States would be a partner to Libya's interim government and urged a

How things can change in a year: Four dictators are pictured together last October smiling and laughing but months later president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali from Tunisia, left, was the first to fall.

To his right is Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is clinging to power. Gaddafi, in shades and golden robes, is now dead. Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak, right, was ousted in February swift transition to democracy but made no specific promises of aid.

The warnings from Washington were backed up by Libyan revolutionaires themselves, who vowed to help their 'brothers and sisters in Syria' fight for freedom.

'This is the fate of a leader who destroyed the lives of his people for decades and opened fire on them before his demise,' said Mohamed Beltagy, senior member of Egypt's influential Muslim Brotherhood. 'Gaddafi's fate should be a lesson for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and Yemen's (Ali Abdullah) Saleh,' he said.

The warnings were welcomed by Syrian dissidents who have continued their struggles.

'If I were a member of the regime, Bashar or [his brother] Maher, I would start to feel rather concerned,' said Amr al-Azm, a Syrian dissident in the United States and member of the opposition, told the Independent.

The presidents of Tunisia and then Egypt were the first to be ousted in the 'Arab Spring' that has brought ordinary people onto the streets to demand political change where many kings and presidents have ruled for decades.

But Tunisia's Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak were driven out by protests with relatively little violence. Gaddafi, whose bloodied body was shown in footage carried by Arabic television channels, was ousted after months of fighting during which he turned the full might of his army against rebels, firing missiles, artillery and other heavy weapons at them.

'Hell awaits Gaddafi. I hate to rejoice in anyone's death, but what he did to his people was atrocious,' said Nancy El Kassab, an Egyptian television executive producer.

'Gaddafi's death will scare Arab dictators like Assad and Saleh, and make other Arab leaders more careful with their people after they recover from the shock of the news,' said Alia Askalany, 27, an Egyptian marketing manager.

In Libya, many could hardly contain their joy.

'Thank God ... With the rebels will this was achieved and we thank everyone who helped us and we are so happy,' said Khaled Al-Asoud, a 35-year-old Libyan fighter.

In Jordan, Abdullah al-Khatib, former UN special envoy to Libya and one-time Jordanian foreign minister, said: 'Other somehow similar systems in the region should draw their conclusions and listen to the voice of the people and should create the conditions whereby people of the region

can freely and openly determine their future and destiny.'

Activists in Syria's central city of Homs told Avaaz, a campaigning rights organisation, that people celebrated Gaddafi's death in the streets. Some held placards saying: 'The rat of Libya has been caught, next is the germ of Syria.'

But some questioned how much of a domino effect Gaddafi's demise might have elsewhere in a region, including Yemen where President Saleh has clung on to power in a nation riven by tribal conflicts even after he was wounded in an attack that prompted him to seek treatment in neighbouring Saudi Arabia. '(Gaddafi) deserves it, he killed a lot of people.

I don't believe this will happen in Yemen because there are a lot of divisions there,' said Omran Ahmed, a Yemeni living in Egypt.

Saleh already has backed down three times from signing a Gulf initiative for a transfer of power, saying he would only hand over power to 'safe hands.'

Lebanon's former prime minister, Saad al-Hariri, said in a statement that Gaddafi's death should be a lesson to leaders who 'have adopted oppression as a method to dominate their people.'

'Any Arab citizen, watching the course of events in Libya, cannot but think of the popular revolutionary movement that is taking place in Syria,' he said.

The balance of power shifted dramatically against Gaddafi in March after his troops swept across rebel-held territory and threatened to launch a devastating attack on the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

A U.N. resolution was passed at the time that prompted NATO to launch air strikes.

Emad Gad from Egypt's Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies said Gaddafi's death could encourage the international community to be more proactive in other places.

He said: 'It will lead to more pressure by the international community to resolve the conflicts in Syria and Yemen.

'It shows that resisting reform will lead to escalating demands from reforms to overthrowing the regime.'

Ahmed Montasser, a construction worker watching the news of Gaddafi's death at a cafĂŠ in downtown Cairo, echoed those sentiments. His former president, Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for 30 years, is now on trial over the killing of protesters.

'This is the end of every tyrant. The message is that ruling people isn't through force ... It would have been better if he was prosecuted but it was out of the rebels' hands as he was shot dead,' Montasser said.

How it all began: Demonstrators throws stones at police during clashes in Tunisia in January as the 'Arab Spring' revolutions started in the Middle East

In the firing lines: Defiant Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, left, and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, right, are being condemned for their violent crackdowns on people protests

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