Nora Holmes's List: paper: Syria

• egan a new effort on Thursday to break the stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• prevailing borders before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war
• significant shift, in American policy
• Israeli government immediately protested, saying that for Israel to return to its pre-1967 borders would leave it “indefensible.”
• 45-minute address
• framework for the disparate American responses to the Arab Sprin
• blunt critique of Arab governments
• sought to assure protesters that they were squarely aligned with democratic American values
• region where the strategic interests of the United States have routinely trumped its values.
• utting the United States on record as supporting the 1967 borders as the starting point for negotiations over a Palestinian state, Mr. Obama was simply endorsing reality
• one that oversees a resentful occupied population.
• Israel and the Palestinians would have to swap territory on either side of that border to account for large Jewish settlements
• moves the United States a step closer to the position of the Palestinians
• means the Americans implicitly back their view that new Israeli settlement construction will have to be reversed, or compensated for,

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• eceived the political backing of the United Nations, the European Union and Russia

• Five days after the United States imposed sanctions on Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, the
• European Union followed suit on Monday
• overcoming internal divisions on whether to single out the Syrian leader over the bloody crackdown against protesters in his country.
• expanded sanctions against Iran by placing restrictions on more than 100 companies or entities linked to the country’s nuclear program
• weapons embargo against Syria and visa bans and asset freezes on 13 senior Syrian officials, but left Mr. Assad’s name off the list
• new steps were made inevitable by the continued violence in Syria
• 900 people have been killed in more than two months of protests
• most serious challenge yet to Mr. Assad
• the message to the Syrian government was “to stop the violence and respect human rights.”
• 10 other Syrian names had been added to the sanctions list
• “It is for the people to decide the future and the government,”
• symbolic
• Syria has deeper ties with Europe than with the United States, as a place of investment and travel, and some officials had viewed European countries as friendlier
• dismissed the European sanctions
• expansion of sanctions is the latest step to try to increase pressure on the government, which is suspected of trying to develop atomic weapons

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• categorized as a state sponsor of terrorism
• government supports U.S.-listed terrorist groups and allows some of these organizations such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to maintain headquarters in Damascus
• a covert presence in Lebanese politics
• active supporter of Hezbollah
• suspected ties to the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister
• says it regards Hamas, Hezbollah, and other groups on its soil to be legitimate resistance movements
• secular dictatorship accused of committing serious human rights violations
• on the State Department list of countries sponsoring terrorism
• Syria has not been directly involved in terrorist operations since 1986
• bars Syria-based groups from launching attacks from Syria or targeting Westerners
• “passive support.”
• Syria has been involved in numerous past terrorist acts and still supports several terrorist groups
• assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri indicates that Syrian officials were likely involved.
• Lebanese militia Hezbollah political, diplomatic, and organizational aid
• Iranian arms
• let Hezbollah operate in Lebanon and attack Israel,
• , Syria and Iraq ended a twenty-five-year long break in diplomatic relations, entering into a five-year agreement to cooperate on increasing border control and combating terrorism.
• some have accused Syria of not applying stringent border control.
• Syria has also provided training, weapons, safe haven, and logistical support to both leftist and Islamist Palestinian hard-liners.
• allows several regional terrorist organizations
• to have external headquarters in Damascus
• these groups “represent legitimate resistance activity
• • US - SYRIAN RELATIONS
    
    SYRIA's VIEW ON AL QAEDA AND BIN LADEN AND 9/11
• Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
• condemned the September 11 attacks.
• reportedly shared some intelligence with the United States about Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network
• U.S.-Syria diplomatic relations remain at low levels despite a pledge from the Syrian government to offer increased protection to U.S. citizens and property within its borders after a 2006 attack on the U.S. embassy
• secular, Arab nationalist Syrian government is hostile to bin Laden’s Islamist network, which Syria views as a terrorist organization
• differentiates between the Sunni Muslim fundamentalists of al-Qaeda and groups it sees as national liberation movements
• more broadly concerned that Islamists could rally the country’s Sunni majority against the regime
• ruling Baath Party has dealt harshly with domestic Islamists
• Hama uprising
• Syria and Iran work together over issues related to Hezbollah
• marriage of convenience
• 2004, Syria and Iran signed a mutual defense agreement
• Yes—and the ballistic missiles to deliver them
• active chemical weapons program
• biological weapons program
• without substantial foreign help.
• experts speculated that Syria accepted North Korean support
• After twenty-nine years of occupation, Syria was forced out of Lebanon in April 2005 largely due to massive public and international protests.
• e United Nations passed a resolution requiring full cooperation from Damascus into the murder investigation.
• financially and politically support Hezbollah’s opposition to the Lebanese government after the conflict
• indirect actor in the Israel-Hezbollah war in July 2006
• maintains covert intelligence
• t some influence

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• Syrian support of Iran in the Iran-Iraq War and its enmity toward  Iraq was modified in 1986.
• March 1982 economic accord
• Syria's support for Iran was not a  reflection of any ideological affinity between Assad's regime and  Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's Islamic fundamentalism but rather an  instance of pragmatic politics.
• the enemy of my enemy is my friend
• alliance with Iran allowed it to exert control over pro-Iranian  Shia forces in Lebano
• although Syria wanted Iraq weakened and neutralized, it did  not envision the installation in Baghdad of a pro-Iranian fundamentalist  Shia regime.
• Assad stated in October 1986 that Syria could not accept  the occupation of Iraqi land by anyone.
• possibility of restoring relations
• kidnapping
• Syrians had announced their resolute support of Iran until the  downfall of the Iraqi regime and the "liberation of Iraq."

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• Syria had successfully vetoed its neighbors' peace  initiatives
• unilateral military deterrent to  Israe
• accepted  United Nations Security Council Resolution 338
• • research Resolution 242
• mplied acceptance of Resolution 242
• 338 more generally calls for negotiations between the parties
• does not spell out in its text Arab recognition of Israel's  right to exist.
• Syria's  refusal to endorse Resolution 242 without reservation remained a block  to Syrian participation in Middle East peace negotiations. Syria has  indicated that it would accept Resolution 242 only if Israel first  withdrew from occupied Arab territory and guaranteed Palestinian rights.
• • PRIORITY
• Syria perceived the action as a  renunciation of Resolution 242 and the "land for peace"
• n 242 as a virtually obsolete
• dvocated the implementation of the Fez Resolutions
• Syria wants involvement in such diplomatic initiatives, it  has increasingly less faith that a negotiated, peaceful resolution of  the Middle East conflict will fulfill its demands.
• rely more heavily on the hope that its military will  ultimately secure its objectives
• t 1985 and 1986, Syria and Israel engaged in brinkmanship
• November 19, 1985,
• Golan Heights
• December
• , Israel regarded the move as a challenge to a longstanding  tacit understanding
• United States interceded
• February 4, 1986
• Syria viewed the interception as a deliberate  provocation and an act of air piracy
• revealed that Syria had built revetments and entrenched fortifications  in Lebanon that faced Israel
• Syria's increasing belligerence
• Assad departed from  his usually calm demeanor by declaring that Syria would work to put the  Golan Heights "in the middle of Syria and not on its borders."

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• note:    approximately 19,100 Israeli settlers live in the Golan Heights (2008 est.) (July 2011 est.)
• conomic growth remained in the 4-5% range in 2008-10 even though the global economic crisis affected oil prices and the economies of Syria's key export partners and sources of investment
• modest economic reforms
• Bashar al-ASAD, was approved as president by popular referendum in July 2000
• Military branches: 

                           

  Syrian Armed Forces: Syrian Arab Army, Syrian Arab Navy, Syrian Arab Air and Air Defense Forces (includes Air Defense Command) (2008)
• Government type: 

                         

  republic under an authoritarian regime
• Syria placed its military forces on alert but did not intervene directly on behalf of its ally Hizballah.
• Influenced by major uprisings that began elsewhere in the region, antigovernment protests broke out in the southern province of Da'ra in March 2011 and spread to other Syrian cities.
• Golan Heights is Israeli-occupied with the almost 1,000-strong UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) patrolling a buffer zone since 1964
• economy remains highly controlled by the government
• Long-run economic constraints
• repeal of the restrictive Emergency Law
• portions of the Lebanon-Syria boundary are unclear
• legalization of political parties
• conscript service obligation
• Lebanon has claimed Shab'a Farms in the Golan Heights
• removal of corrupt local officials
• mid-April 2011 had not succeeded in quelling protests.
• approximately two million Iraqis have fled the conflict in Iraq with the majority taking refuge in Syria and Jordan
• refugees (country of origin): 1-1.4 million (Iraq); 522,100 (Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA))
• destination and transit country for women and children trafficked
• Legal system: 

                         

  based on a combination of French and Ottoman civil law; Islamic law is used in the family court system; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
• a transit point for opiates
• vulnerable to money laundering
• chief of state: President Bashar al-ASAD (since 17 July 2000) Vice President Farouk al-SHARA (since 11 February 2006) oversees foreign policy; Vice President Najah al-ATTAR (since 23 March 2006) oversees cultural policy
• Natural resources: 

                         

  petroleum, phosphates, chrome and manganese ores, asphalt, iron ore, rock salt, marble, gypsum, hydropower
• Political parties and leaders:
• Geography - note: 

                         

  there are 41 Israeli settlements and civilian land use sites in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights (2010 est.)
• Ethnic groups: 

                         

  Arab 90.3%, Kurds, Armenians, and other 9.7%
• Religions: 

                         

  Sunni Muslim 74%, other Muslim (includes Alawite, Druze) 16%, Christian (various denominations) 10%, Jewish (tiny communities in Damascus, Al Qamishli, and Aleppo)
• Oil - production: 

                         

  400,400 bbl/day (2009 est.)

      country comparison to the world: 33
• Oil - consumption: 

                         

  252,000 bbl/day (2009 est.)

      country comparison to the world: 49
• Oil - exports: 

                         

  155,000 bbl/day (2008 est.)

      country comparison to the world: 56
• Oil - imports: 

                         

  58,710 bbl/day (2007 est.)

      country comparison to the world: 81
• Oil - proved reserves: 

                         

  2.5 billion bbl (1 January 2010 est.)

      country comparison to the world: 33
• Exports - commodities: 

                         

  crude oil, minerals, petroleum products, fruits and vegetables, cotton fiber, textiles, clothing, meat and live animals, wheat
• Exports - partners: 

                         

  Iraq 30.22%, Lebanon 12.21%, Germany 8.89%, Egypt 6.8%, Saudi Arabia 5.04%, Italy 4.55% (2009)

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• 1987 Syria's policy toward the superpowers and its Middle Eastern  neighbo
• affected profoundly by the Arab-Israeli conflict
• continued to be  affected profoundly by the Arab-Israeli conflict
• Syria  perceived itself as the last Arab confrontation state to share a border  with Israel
• Syria  perceived itself as the last Arab confrontation state to share a border  with Israel.
• Arab-Israeli conflict had been  reduced to a bilateral Syrian-Israeli conflict
• bilateral Syrian-Israeli conflict,
• Recovering the Golan Heights from Israel was the specific motive of  Syria's policy,
• , Syria's goal was to prevent Jordan, the Palestine  Liberation Organization (PLO), or Lebanon from formalizing Syria's  isolation by entering into piecemeal settlements with Israel, while  Syria simultaneously undermined Egypt's separate peace with Israel.
• , Syria's goal was to prevent Jordan, the Palestine  Liberation Organization (PLO), or Lebanon from formalizing Syria's  isolation by entering into piecemeal settlements with Israel
• • - we want to stop other countries from making agreements/allying themselves with Israel
    - we also have a holiday / day of mourning on the date Israel was founded (not in here but it's true)

  • WE DO NOT LIKE ISRAEL. AT ALL.
• undermined Egypt's separate peace with Israel
• Syria's central role in the Arab-Israeli conflict,  therefore, is predicated to some extent on the older ideology of Greater  Syria, the notion that Syria should dominate its Arab neighbors.
• Syria's central role in the Arab-Israeli conflict,  therefore, is predicated to some extent on the older ideology of Greater  Syria, the notion that Syria should dominate its Arab neighbors.
• dividing the Arab  world into two camps: the rejectionist front of Syrian allies, and the  capitulationists who advocated concessions to Israel
• Syria's only partners in the "Arab  Steadfastness and Confrontation Front" were
• the United States 

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• • read this part: US "demonizes" Syria
    (US-Syrian relations)

• "It's been mixed,"
• he distorted Islam, that he was the terrorist mastermind.
• some criticism of the U.S. approach.
• another example of U.S. interference."
• death is generally seen as a positive development in the region
• ome accounts "highlighted sentences such as `he was unarmed' to create a notion of (bin Laden's) victimization,"
• ave praised bin Laden's death, with some hailing it as the end of an evil era.
• Saudi Arabia's official news agency, for example, issued a statement by a Saudi official that "Saudi Arabia hopes the killing of the terrorist organization al-Qaida's leader will help the international efforts to combat terrorism, dismantle its cells and root out the deviant ideology that motivates it," according to the Middle East Media Research Institute.
• the pro-Syrian Lebanese daily Al-Akbhar
• decried bin Laden's killing
• "The fact that U.S. President Barack Obama gave permission to kill an unarmed man reveals that he is not a president of a democratic state that respects human rights and abides by the rule of law and a just judiciary, but he is like a man leading a gang that has taken up murder, kidnapping and terrorism,"
• • important re: ME thinking on future US policy
• resent a real opportunity for the American administration to formulate a new strategy "based on mutal respect and shared interests."
• his image declined rapidly in recent years because of al-Qaeda's deadly attacks on civilians in Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia,

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• urprise and suspicion
• "I hope it's true, but even it it is, does it really mean that al-Qaida is finished?" said bank worker Ayman Qhadari. "There will be a million more men like him. There probably already are."
• jihad network built by Bin Laden has significant links in Egypt.
• birthplace of al Qaida's second-in-command
• believe Zawahiri is already acting as the group's military commander
• assertion backed by a 2009 US military assessment which concluded Bin Laden had taken on more of a spiritual role.
• Major General Hussein Kamal, from the intelligence division of Iraq's interior ministry. "I don't expect that the killing of Bin Laden will finish al-Qaida here or in other countries. It will affect their morale, for sure. But it won't end their organisation."
• Things are still fragile in Iraq
• Killing him makes al-Qaida in Iraq weak. But they have their own leadership and organisations these days.
• west-backed Palestinian Authority welcomed Bin Laden's death
• good for the cause of peace worldwide but what counts is to overcome the discourse and the methods - the violent methods - that were created and encouraged by Bin Laden and others in the world
• • conflicting views of various Arab countries on Bin Laden's death \/
• This is not a victory. If they assassinated bin Laden, there will be others stronger than him

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