Syria’s “Complex Double Game”

If you have been wondering about the mixed messages we’re getting from Syria (smiles between Assad and Hariri, scolds from Wahhab and Jamil el Sayyed), Now Lebanon offers a theory:

Damascus today appears to be supporting Hariri, especially while it tries to tame Hezbollah, and in doing so is keeping its part of the deal struck at the July 30 mini-summit in Beirut with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. However, at the same time it is using local pit-bulls like Sayyed and the pro-Syrian Druze politician Wiam Wahhab to undermine the government’s overall credibility as well as that of the judiciary, and to create an atmosphere of fear around the STL, so that any witnesses who might have considered testifying will now think twice.