Syria's one true friend - Iran (Asia Times)

Syria's one true friend - Iran
By Sami Moubayed

Jul 12, 2006

DAMASCUS - Since former president Hafez al-Assad came to power in 1970, the Syrian government has managed to rally the street behind its foreign policy. Time has proven the regime correct since all the steps it took in foreign affairs, which seemed questionable to many at the moment, turned out to be wise....

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The history in Syria's friendship with Iran paid off when Syria came under international pressure after the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafiq al-Harriri on February 14, 2005. The world asked Syria to leave Lebanon, but Iran would not make such a move, prompting Syria's Prime Minister Mohammad Naji al-Otari to visit Tehran in the midst of the international crisis over Lebanon and proclaim an alliance between Damascus and Tehran.

Syria and Iran have much in common. They have a mutual friend and ally in Hamas in Palestine and Hizbullah in Lebanon. They have a common enemy in the United States. They are both committed to the Palestinian cause. At a grassroots level in the Arab and Muslim world, the masses are pleased at Iran's success story and support for Damascus. Why should Syria oppose Iran, or not cement its relations with Tehran, if the Iranians are being good and supportive of Syria?

The Syrian street sees the relationship as a natural and much needed response to the US and Israel's offensive against Damascus. After all, here is Ahmadinejad - a man who one year ago was a political nobody - defying and challenging the US, much to the pleasure of the ordinary Syrian. Washington does not really know what to do about him. Nor does Europe. Nor does the United Nations. Ahmadinejad is not playing the victim, like most Arabs have been doing since 1967. He insists that he is the victor in this undeclared war with the US, speaking to Americans in the same defiant language they use when addressing him. The Iranians are showing the world that Syria remains a regional power to be reckoned with, one that cannot be ignored, relative to Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine.

One question arises: if Syria does not ally itself with Iran, what country in the neighborhood is an alternative? The Syrians, at daggers end with the US since 2003, are surrounded by a pro-American regime in Jordan, an anti-Syrian regime in Lebanon, an American regime in Iraq, and Israel. With such a neighborhood, Syria naturally sides with the Iranians. Gone is the Arab nationalist regime in Egypt. Gone is the Soviet Union. With such an anti-Syrian neighborhood, Iran, it is believed, is the only true friend to the Syrians.

Sami Moubayed is a Syrian political analyst.

(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd)

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HG12Ak01.html

Attack on Iran = WWIII and the collapse of the US. This madness must stop.

It is with grave concern that I observe the growing threat of a new U.S. war--this time against the people of Iran.

For a collection of articles and resources on this subject you can visit this link: http://reseaudesign.com/research/iran/iran_summery.html

I'm starting up a petition which I will be sending out to as many members of Congress as possible. I'm asking for help to get this signed by as many people, possible in the next month. Send it to as many people you can.

http://www.petitiononline.com/n0war1rn /


thanks,
J-shmoe

Jul 12, 2006



Syria's one true friend - Iran
By Sami Moubayed

DAMASCUS - Since former president Hafez al-Assad came to power in 1970, the Syrian government has managed to rally the street behind its foreign policy. Time has proven the regime correct since all the steps it took in foreign affairs, which seemed questionable to many at the moment, turned out to be wise.

For example, Syria's military involvement in the Lebanese Civil War in 1976 concerned many Syrians, especially since Damascus was siding with the country's Christians against the Palestinians - the sacred cow of Arab nationalism. This turned out to be wise policy after the conflict ended in 1990 and Syria benefited greatly - economically and in terms of political leverage and Arab prestige, from its presence in Lebanon.

Then came Syria's support for the Iranian revolution in 1979. The secular Ba'athist regime of Syria was allying itself to turbaned clerics who were pledging to export the Islamic Revolution. The public was none-too-pleased, and was even more disappointed when Syria supported Iran in its war against Iraq - a fellow secular, fellow Ba'athist Arab state, in 1980.

The Syrians believed that the Iran-Iraq war was the wrong war with the wrong enemy and that it would play directly into the hands of Israel by weakening both Baghdad and Tehran. The Syrian regime supported Iran but did not send arms and money to Ayatollah al-Khomeini, the way other Arab countries did to support Saddam Hussein. Other examples followed, including the Gulf War of 1991. Again, Syria challenged conventional wisdom. Rather than siding with Iraq, as Jordan's King Hussein and Yasser Arafat did, Syria joined Operation Desert Storm to liberate Kuwait from Saddam Hussein.

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HG12Ak01.html

Jul 15, 2006

Tremors rock Syria
By Dahr Jamail

"...Yakhour, a 60-year-old retired journalist, said political parties in Syria had been calling for a peaceful political process in the Middle East for the past 30 years. "But when people are humiliated, attacked and killed, radical reactions commence, which are deleterious to the political process."

People in Damascus also fear that a regional war may spread to Syria. "The entire region is now involved," said Emad Huria, a 45-year-old literary critic. "All Arabs should raise their voices against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon."

Maher Skandyran, a 37-year-old worker at a watch store in downtown Damascus, said Israeli double standards were making people furious. "I feel angry. Ninety-five percent of the Palestinian prisoners held by Israel are innocent civilians, including women and children. Nobody says a word about this. But when three Israeli armed soldiers are detained, this is such a big crime, and everyone is outraged. Is this justice?"

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the Israeli soldiers had been seized to push Israel to release prisoners...."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HG15Ak03.html

"Syria wants to stay out of the conflict between Israel and Lebanon and is trying to restrain Hizbullah from firing missiles into northern Israel, the country's ambassador to London told the British Broadcasting Corp. on Friday.

"Syria does not wish at all to be involved in the conflict," Ambassador Sami Khiyami said. "It's really seeking to ease down tensions and to reach a settlement that would stop completely the violence.

"The most important thing today is to concentrate on stopping the violence, on negotiating exchange of prisoners and on devising ways and means to bring peace to this poor Middle East."

Khiyami was asked if Syria had told Hizbullah to stop firing missiles at Israel. He replied, "of course" and said that while Hizbullah was a "completely independent" movement, Syria has "good relations" with it."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150886000953&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Israelis cut the route to Iran
Martin Chulov, Middle East correspondent, in Beirut
July 15, 2006

ISRAELI fighter jets have destroyed the main road linking Lebanon to Syria and pounded the Hezbollah heartland in the south of Beirut in a bid to stop militants smuggling two captured soldiers to Iran.

The Lebanese capital is now isolated, with Israeli planes and ships controlling the sky and waterways two days after the soldiers were seized by Hezbollah militants in a cross-border raid that has sparked the most serious violence in Lebanon since the height of its civil war.

Claiming he had "sealed his own fate", Israel yesterday threatened to assassinate Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, who trumpeted the soldiers' kidnappings on Wednesday.

Israeli intelligence chiefs had earlier received information that Hezbollah may try to use the land border with Syria to smuggle their captives into the hands of arch-enemy Iran.... <more>

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19793793-601,00.html

Syria says fully backs Hizbollah
Sat Jul 15, 2006 2:11 AM BST

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria will support Hizbollah and Lebanon against Israel's attacks on the country, the ruling Baath Party said on Friday, defying the Jewish state and its chief ally Washington.

"The Syrian people are ready to extend full support to the Lebanese people and their heroic resistance to remain steadfast and confront the barbaric Israeli aggression and its crimes," said a communique from the party's national command issued after a meeting.

It said Israel and the United States "are trying to wipe out Arab resistance in every land under occupation" and that President Bashar al-Assad was aware of the seriousness of the situation in the region.

The national command is the highest echelon of the Baath Party, which has been in power since 1963. The party considers the issue of Arab rights and regaining land occupied by Israel central to its legitimacy.

Assad, who is shaped by his late father's lifetime of struggle with Israel, was not at the meeting.

He has resisted Israeli and American pressure to abandon support for Hizbollah, whose war of attrition was instrumental in forcing Israel to withdraw from south Lebanon in 2000 after a 22-year occupation....

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-07-15T011125Z_01_L14704958_RTRUKOC_0_UK-MIDEAST-SYRIA-HIZBOLLAH.xml&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage2