A New Kind of Assistance

With news that Syria has accepted Kofi Annan's peace plan, it appears the conflict may have an end in sight. The peace plan details 6 main points to cease hostilities and increase humanitarian aid, and has been supported by both Russia and China, two holdouts in any international action on Syria.  However, due to an obvious lack of foresight, it neglects to address the impacts of international footballers, Lionel Messi in particular.


In case you missed it, Syrian national television took a break from the hostilities taking place to watch la Liga matches this weekend, and in a moment of pure paranoia enlightenment, realized that the rebel forces are being aided by the most duplicitous non-state actors: FC Barcelona.

As can be seen if you squint really hard quite obviously from the video above, the passes and routes followed by Messi, Iniesta and Pedro, when super-imposed on a map of Syria, show the easiest way to transport arms to the rebels.  According to the Independent, the commentary is as follows: 

“Here we see the first stage where arms are loaded from Lebanon. Then they pass through Homs and are delivered to another terrorist. We also see how they warn that they will face some obstacles until they reach Dayr Al Zawr." As Pedro completes the move for Barcelona, whose have a shirt sponsorship deal with the Qatar Foundation, the voice-over says: “Then they are transported by bus to the final destination, located in Al Magadin.”

Of course, this could all be an elaborate hoax, designed to highlight the paranoia present in the current regime, which given the current acceptance of the peace plan is more likely than not.  Even so, its hard, nigh impossible, to watch any sports match now (especially one with the import of the UL-UK match) without watching for potential double meaning. So happy watching, folks!