Barbara Walters chats with Forward Syria
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Discussing monetary policy with the man in charge
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0 - Issue 40
Syria: The world’s friend
by Sami Moubayed, Photography by Carole Al-Farah
More and more international interest is being directed at Syria, and with the US renewed sanctions against the country around a month ago, Syrian-US relations – while zigzagging – are still moving forward
Back in the 1990s, it was not uncommon for the red carpets of Damascus to welcome delegates from the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran, all in one day. Syrian authorities were keen on showing the world that Syria’s alliances were not limited to one camp, neither during or after the Cold War. That applies today as much as ever; with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev landing in the Syrian capital last May, as Syria continues to build bridges with the US while upholding the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon.
Syrian-US relations, contrary to what the traditionalists and doubters say, are still moving forward. There have been ups and downs since Obama came to power in 2009, but Syria is still giving Obama the benefit of the doubt. When meeting with Arab intellectuals participating at a high profile conference on Arabism in Damascus on May 17, President Bashar al-Assad was very clear: “We don’t bet on people. We base our evaluations on actions and we are waiting to see what Obama has to offer.” He reminded his audience that it is a grave mistake to bet on leaders – either positively or negatively – claiming that Obama has nevertheless said positive things, which yet, need to see light.
Having said that, the Syrians are worried – just like most Arabs – that Obama has failed to realize promises he made in Cairo back in June 2009, when he came just short of telling the Middle East: “Read my lips: No new settlements.” That promise went down the drain when earlier this year, the Israelis threw dust in the eyes of his Vice-President Joseph Biden, saying that they were going to construct 1,600 new houses in the West Bank. More recently the US has stood by with arms folded as the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced that it would deport any Palestinian living in the West Bank with no proper Israeli documents. This paves the way for mass deportations by the IDF, which can jeopardize the livelihood of nearly 75,000 Gazans living in the West Bank.
The Syrians, needless to say, are unhappy with that. In his meeting with Arab intellectuals Assad re-confirmed Syria’s readiness for peace, but noted that his country will not sit by and “wave an olive branch,” if there was no serious US broker and no real peace partner in Israel.
A US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, was named by President Obama in February of this year, to fill in a post that has been vacant since 2005. That nomination still needs to be approved by the Republicans in Congress. More recently, although Obama renewed sanctions on Syria last month, the US nevertheless dropped its objection to Syria being given Observer Status at the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO) given that it had applied for membership in 2001. During this same month, Syrian authorities informed the US that the Damascus Community School (DCS), the official American school in Damascus since 1956, can re-open its doors to students. The school had been closed down by Syria after US soldiers violated Syrian airspace in 2008, killing several Syrian civilians near the border with Iraq, while claiming to be looking for a senior commander from al-Qaeda. The outgoing Bush team had been furious by the school closure – treating it almost as if the US embassy itself had been shut down. US officials never missed an opportunity to demand that the school be re-opened, while Syrians repeated, time and again, that they expected the Americans to restore an ambassador to Damascus, if they wanted serious dialogue with the Syrian government.
Engagement for the sake of engagement, however, is not what the Syrians are after, nor are they interested in photo sessions with the various US diplomats who have shown up in Damascus since early 2009. Although pleased with Obama’s numerous gestures towards Damascus, Syria believes that the US President has failed to do one crucial thing: jumpstart regional peace talks with the aim of restoring the Golan Heights to Syria. So long as no peace process is on the horizon – thanks to a helpless US administration, a troublesome Congress, and a hard-line government in Israel, engagement will lead to nowhere. The Syrians have also made it clear that any talks with the Israelis need, in addition to a US umbrella, committed Turkish mediation, as was the case in April-December 2008. The Turks have expressed a willingness to return to the negotiations, and so have the Syrians but Israel curtly refuses the Turkish role, claiming that Ankara is no longer impartial to the Middle East for having clearly taken sides with Syria, Hamas, and Hizbullah. They have also hinted that after what happened in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009, any peace talks need to be multilateral, including all parties, in something that looks and sounds like a Madrid II. Such a conference, clearly, cannot be done without the US.
Scud missiles saga
Pessimists are pointing to the row over the alleged transfer of Scud missiles from Syria to Hizbullah in Lebanon, claiming that this will spiral Syrian-US relations downward. The State Department in Washington has expressed concern over the Scud missile transfer, which Syria, Hizbullah, and the Lebanese government led by Prime Minister Saad al-Harriri, all categorically deny. Although the Scud affair has raised tension, along with Israeli threats to strike at Lebanon this summer, there is still room for hope in Syrian-US relations. Back in August 2009, the US refused to take sides when relations soured between Damascus and Baghdad, and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki accused the Syrians of harboring Iraqi Baathists responsible for triple attacks in the Iraqi capital that led to the killing of over 100 civilians individually. Had George W. Bush been around he would have milked the affair and used it to further victimize and isolate Damascus. Obama was clearly not interested, saying that Syria and Iraq should solve their differences on their own. Then came the November 2009 Francop affair, a German ship taken hostage by Israel when accused of transferring arms from Syria to Hizbullah. Once again, the US was silent over the ordeal, refusing to immerse itself at a micro-level, in Middle East domestics.
Syria realizes that Obama is more interested in four files that are of direct and vital interest to US national security: Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The Middle East peace process and Lebanon, for example, are important on his agenda but they are no longer a priority. Having that said, in order to get Obama more seriously involved in Middle East peace, the Syrians need to help him in hot spots where he is suffering. One venue would be Iran, where Syria can use its considerable influence to moderate the behavior of its Iranian allies. In 2007 after all it succeeded in releasing 15 British sailors held captive in Iran and then helped release BBC reporter Alan Johnston from captivity by the Hamas-affiliated Islamic Army. More recently the Syrians helped release a French teacher arrested in Iran on charges of spying last July, where she was restored safely to Paris in mid-May. Countries that can destabilize, after all (as US officials have accused Syria of doing for the past 20-years) can also, bring peace and quiet to the region – if the right strings are pulled on the regional agenda by the United States. Syria can also use its considerable influence with all parties in Iraq to bring about law and order. Its influence was strongly felt during the provincial elections of January 2009 and then again, during the parliamentary elections last March when the Iraqis voted in large numbers, even in hotbeds of the once-called Sunni insurgency (like Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit) leading to a defeat for all religiously driven politicians from both the Sunni and Shiite camps. It already did wonders for Prime Minister Maliki, before relations hit rock bottom in the summer of 2009, when it opened an embassy in Baghdad, thereby legitimizing him in the eyes of ordinary Iraqis who saw him either as an Iranian stooge or a creation of the Americans.
The more Syria helps the US in Iraq and Iran, the more likely it can empower Obama to put his full weight behind a real Middle East peace process. Syria is currently asking all parties concerned – the French, the Russians, the EU, the Turks, and the Qataris – to apply needed pressure on Israel for the sake of peace. Only the Americans, however, can deliver on a sustainable peace treaty and everybody in the neighborhood knows that only too well.
