Hotels are releasing staff, restaurants are closing, as 11 million tourists stay away because of the troubles
THE PLANE is packed with Syrians returning home after a week’s holiday and Cypriot weekend shoppers looking for bargain household linens and children’s clothing in the souks of Damascus. Immigration is speedy and the hotel taxi waiting at the exit.
Sprinklers throw great arcs of water over the grass on the verge of the broad highway; traffic thickens at the entrance to the sprawling city. Mr Ali, the hotel’s elderly owner, greets me with a saucer of jasmine flowers to perfume my modest room.
Agatha Christie stayed here in March 1966 in room 107, en route to excavations in the north with her archaeologist husband. The skeleton of the old British embassy, two empty gothic arches symbolising past imperial grandeur, stands across the street and the monumental, empty Hijaz railway station is just around the corner, an old steam engine parked in front.
The proprietor of the shop selling sim cards for mobile phones is gloomy about the political situation. Business, once booming, is slow. Eleven million tourists expected this season have stayed away due to the troubles, hotels are releasing staff, restaurants are closing.
Foreign credit cards no longer work due to sanctions imposed because of the government’s crackdown on protests.
At Bab al-Sharki (the Eastern Gate) to the old city, the heart of the tourist area, shops are crammed with dark olive oil soaps, silk scarves, antiques, Iranian pottery, delicate glass bowls and jugs in emerald green and deep blue, and elegant silver jewellery. There are no customers. Bargains abound. An old gentleman sitting in a narrow alley offers yesterday's Le Mondeand International Herald Tribune; a gallery owner urges us to view paintings by Syrian and Iraqi artists.
From the entrance of the covered souk emanates the aromas of cardamom and coffee, cumin and saffron. The cobble stones underfoot are worn smooth from hundreds of years of shoes, boots, sandals and cart tyres.
Householders come here to buy cheap foodstuffs, washing powder, plates and pots. Glittering malls in the suburbs are for the wealthy. Our short-cut takes us past blocks of crumbling pollution-stained buildings, through packed parking lots, and across hazardous intersections where pedestrians form groups to force traffic to pause and allow them to cross.
Dr Muhammad Habash is a progressive Muslim cleric, member of parliament and television star. He speaks frankly about the deepening crisis Syria faces.
“The situation is complicated, [growing] more difficult.” The regime believes there is a “foreign agenda” behind the protests and “is still using the security solution . . . to destroy the opposition . . . The opposition has only one target, to destroy the regime.
“There are two kinds of opposition [groups]: external who want international intervention and internal who want no intervention.
“Twenty-five per cent of the people are with the regime, 15 per cent with the Syrian National Council [the opposition group favoured by Western powers] and 60 per cent are in the silent majority. They pray to God to stop the violence.” He observes: “Europe can play a positive role if it avoids any kind of armed intervention. We need [its] help to support democracy, help refugees and [mediate] between the government and civil society.” He says sanctions harm the people more than targeted individuals.
Former legislator and academic George Jabbour accuses the Arab League of bad faith, the government of failing to meet current challenges and the opposition of factionalism. The league, he says, did not send a mission to Syria to oversee implementation of its November 2nd peace plan, the government did not present a road map for carrying out its obligations, and “some opposition groups accepted, others did not”.
Dr Jabbour believes Arab human rights organisations and trusted individuals, like former Lebanese premier Selim al-Hoss, could forge a peace deal.
On the way back to the hotel, we meet thousands of youngsters bearing Syrian flags and posters of President Bashar al-Assad chanting “We want the regime to stay”, an adaptation of the “We want the end of the regime” slogan of the Egyptian uprising.
“Down with the Arab League!” they shout. Angry men have stoned the embassies of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the prime mover of the league’s effort, as well as the Turkish and French consulates in the port city of Latakia.