Israel is 45km from Damascus and it is that inescapable fact that shapes Syria's outlook, writes MICHAEL JANSENin Damascus
IN PURSUIT of his open door policy, President Bashar al-Assad is beginning a tour of Latin America to expand Syria’s circle of friends in the West.
He is set to visit Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil, Havana for old time’s sake and others to cultivate ties with countries hosting important expatriate Syrian communities.
This tour is part and parcel of Damascus’s effort to make new friends while maintaining 30-year old ties with Iran as well as connections to Hamas, Hizbullah and Iraqi dissidents. In the region, Syria has, so far, built strong economic and trade ties with Turkey, put its relationship with Lebanon on an even keel, and restored relations with Saudi Arabia. Syria dispatched an ambassador to Baghdad but withdrew him after a bomb exploded near the embassy. Jordan’s King Abdullah, a US ally, took the road to Damascus on Thursday to lunch with Dr Assad.
To the east, Syria has retained close ties with India and cultivated relations with Russia, Malaysia and China. Damascus has also reached out to Europe and, since the Syrian economy is in the process of transformation, has proposed amendments to the EU association agreement.
Damascus’s most problematic relationship is with the US which, without offering anything concrete in return, seeks to disengage Syria from Iran and end its support for Hizbullah and dissident Palestinians and Iraqis. But Syria holds firm to its friends and allies and hopes for rapprochement, on acceptable terms, with the US.
Along with the rest of the Arabs, Syrians welcomed President Barack Obama’s call for reconciliation with the Muslim world, which is estranged by Washington’s support for Israel and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Although Obama is accused by the Arabs of failing to deliver on a promise made a year ago in Cairo to address Arab and Muslim grievances, Syria, as an analyst put it, “remains optimistic about Obama. He wants to make changes, but he can’t.” He did not persuade Congress to accept the appointment of Robert Ford as ambassador to Damascus or lift sanctions on some items on the US embargo list. Washington’s decision to drop its objection to Syrian observer status at the World Trade Organisation is seen as a positive gesture although Damascus had applied for membership in 2001.
To demonstrate Damascus has useful influence with allies, the source observed that Syria helped free 15 British sailors captured by Iran in 2007 and BBC journalist Alan Johnston seized by Hamas-affiliates in Gaza in 2008. He said Syria has encouraged Hamas’s Damascus-based politburo chief Khaled Mishaal to accept the idea of a Palestinian government not led by Hamas, go along with the 2002 Arab land-for-peace plan, and agree to a Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
For Syria, finding a solution to the Palestinian/Arab-Israeli conflict is a matter of survival. Suleiman Haddad, head of Syria’s foreign relations committee, said: “Syrians want, real comprehensive peace”, rather than separate deals between each Arab country and Israel. “We expect more from Obama. The Americans must know that there will be no peace in the world if there is no peace in the Middle East.” Once there is a solution to the Arab-Israel conflict, “violence will go down in Afghanistan and Iraq”. The deal must include “an independent Palestinian state . . . There must be a solution to the refugee problem and Israeli withdrawal from the Syrian Golan to the line of June 4th, 1967. If Israel gives these things, there will be no problem between the Arabs and Israel. But if this does not happen, the majority of the Arab people will take an extreme line and move close to al-Qaeda. We don’t want to reach this point.”
He added: “We are a rich country, we have oil, agriculture, tourism, and an ancient culture but we must spend a large percentage of our budget on defence. Israel is 45km from Damascus.” This fact shapes Syria’s outlook, its policies and actions on the regional and international scene.