INDEPTH: SYRIA
Next target after Iraq?
CBC News Online | February 17, 2005
Is the U.S. setting its sights on Syria?
As quickly as Saddam Hussein was removed from power in Iraq, the United States seemed to turn its attention to Syria. Members of George Bush's cabinet have loudly demanded that Syria stop sponsoring terrorism and developing weapons of mass destruction. Other nations in the region have demanded the U.S. stop threatening Syria. But the question remains: Is Syria the U.S.'s next target?
In Washington, they're starting to refer to the new age of muscular diplomacy. Having toppled the Afghan and Iraqi regimes in rapid order, the Bush administration is unapologetically tough-minded and its sights now focus on Syria.
Shortly after the suicide bomb attack in Beirut that killed former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, the U.S. recalled its ambassador to Syria. Margaret Scobey expressed Washington's "deep concern and profound outrage" over Hariri's murder.
The U.S. State Department also demanded that Syria comply with a United Nations resolution calling for the country to withdraw its troops from Lebanon.
"We believe Lebanese citizens must be allowed to choose their democratic representatives free of intimidation and violence," the State Department said.
Even before the Beirut attack, the Bush administration was focusing on Syria and its possible links to Iraq.
In 2004, President Bush told reporters, "The Syrian government needs to co-operate with the United States and our coalition partners and not harbour any Baathists, any military officials."
It's a well co-ordinated verbal bombardment, from one official after another.
U.S. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld said Syria has been on the U.S. terrorist list for years.
"Bush wants Syrian leaders to get the message that they need to re-examine themselves. They need to examine their ties to terrorists, their harbouring of terrorists, their harbouring of Iraqi leaders and their harbouring of weapons of mass destruction," said Rumsfeld.
The key objective is to scare Syria into major reforms and diplomatic concessions. Its young leader for three years, Bashar al-Assad, who took power after the death of his father, longtime strongman Hafez al-Assad, has disappointed Americans who believed he'd be both reformer and future friend.
Instead, he's proven incapable of seriously changing Syria's old hardline Baathist regime. He even improved relations with Saddam Hussein and strongly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, declaring it illegal. What most surprised Washington was a series of veiled threats made by Assad against U.S. plans, little covered in the West but given wide play in Arab media.
"The president [Assad] has made some very inflammatory remarks in an interview with a Lebanese newspaper, essentially saying that if the United States occupied Iraq, then the Arabs would have to come and root us out the way that the Israelis were kicked out of Lebanon," says Middle East expert Geoffrey Kemp.
Kemp said there's also speculation about a close relationships between Syria and Iraq.
"There may well have been co-operation on weapons. There may well have been co-operation on money-laundering and right now the issue is the flow of people escaping Iraq and perhaps guerrillas going into Iraq from Syria," he said.
For decades, Syria was hostile to Iraq and relatively cordial towards Washington. Bashar's father even sided with the U.S. in the 1991 Gulf War. Now Assad's sudden switch has led both the U.S. and Israel to suspect he's fallen under control of hardline elements and is potentially dangerous.
There are other issues, however, to suggest a showdown is almost inevitable. Syria continues to occupy Lebanon, which it entered in the 1980s, and here it strongly supports extremist anti-Israeli guerrilla groups, including Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad. As long as attacks by these groups continue against Israel, the Bush administration believes it cannot move towards peace for the whole region, hence the urgency of Washington's warnings to Syria.
Syria has been shaken by the allegations. It denies everything and counter charges that the suspicious timing suggests it's a smokescreen to hide America's embarrassment in Iraq.
Ahmad Annous, Syria's ambassador in Ottawa, said Syria is crucial to Washington's strategy against terrorism.
"Now I think what you're going to see happen is that with Saddam gone, the Bush administration will become more energized to try to start the peace process up again, but that requires that you have calm, and that means terrorism has to stop, and that means Syria and Iran, who backed terrorism against Israel, have to be persuaded to stop it," said Annous.
"The Americans started to raise this accusation after they didn't find anything during their military operation in Iraq. They say they are going to disarm Iraq from weapons of mass destruction, but what did it find? So far they didn't find anything," said Annous.
It is striking what a solo effort this is. Coalition allies, like the British, have quickly distanced themselves from the characterization of Syria as a terrorist nation and want no part of any talk of sanctions or future use of force. It seems the U.S. administration has not even tried to enlist allies in this showdown. As for Arab reaction, predictably hostile to this further flexing of muscle, much of the administration doesn't seem to even care about it any more. It's this new indifference that is most intriguing here.
"They already know that the Arab world has a largely negative view of us," says foreign policy analyst Charles Pena of the Cato Institute. "I don't think they're concerned about trying to change that view as much as they are about trying to change the world. So instead of focusing on getting the Arab world to see us in a different light, they're going to use a much more heavy-handed approach and simply change the Arab world, whether the Arab world wants to be changed or not. I think that's the prescription."
Any military action against Syria seems unlikely, at least for some time. The U.S. has its hands full just dealing with Iraq. But even here, the U.S. has caused Syria to lose revenue in the hundreds of millions of dollars. On April 15, 2004, troops closed down a lucrative oil pipeline running from Iraq through Syria, saying it contravened UN sanctions. And this action was taken just as Arab nations were appealing to Washington to stop threatening Syria.
^TOP
|
|
 |
 MENU |
|
|
| QUICK FACTS: |
Population: 17,155,814 (Jul 2002 est.)
Area: 185,180 sq km
Borders: Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey
Languages: Arabic is the official language, while Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic and Circassian are widely used. French and English are used to a lesser extent.
Religion: 74 per cent Sunni Muslim, 16 per cent Alawite, Druze and other Muslim sects. 10 per cent Christian.
Government: Republic under military regime.
Source: CIA World Factbook 2002 – Syria
|
|
| EXTERNAL LINKS: |
|
|
| MORE: |
|
|
|
CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites. Links will open in new window.
