Why so Syria? A new start to relations with America
Rafiq Hariri was the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2000 to 2004. As politician and business tycoon, Hariri was responsible for reconstructing Beirut after the 15-year civil war, but in so doing he created a climate of corruption that crippled the Lebanese economy, with public debt rising 16 times as growth slowed to a halt. He resigned his post as Prime Minister in October 2004.
On 14 February 2005, Hariri was blown up, along with 21 others, when a bomb struck his motorcade as it traveled through Beirut. Fact-finding missions carried out that year implicated both Lebanese and Syrian officials, and while the Syrian government repeatedly claimed it had no knowledge of the bombing, President George W. Bush, as a result of the bombing, called home the American Ambassador from Damascus. The position has been left vacant ever since.
So it was a welcome surprise last week when President Barack Obama announced the nomination of William Ford to fill the job of Ambassador to Damascus, and arranged a meeting between William Burns, a senior US diplomat, and Syrian President al-Assad. Affairs in the Middle East, much like US foreign policy in general, are not always what they seem. So why the (seemingly) sudden change of strategy? Simple Intelligence offers a simple explanation:
A Damascus wooed away from Tehran, party to peace talks with Israel, and supportive of counter-terrorism and anti-Islamist campaigns throughout the Middle East would be a boon to American foreign policy. It could also, provided enough economic results for Syrian citizens, be a welcome infusion of economic and political rewards to Syria as a whole and Assad’s government in particular.
Add to this the fact that a Syria properly allied with the United States would be a Syria much less vulnerable to an Israeli military strike, threats of which have been spewing from Netanyahu government officials in recent weeks. Granted, there are cases where Israel has gone ahead and done whatever it wants without explicit or tacit approval from the United States. But to bomb Damascus at a time when President Obama is trying to normalize relations with the Syrian government would be strategically next to impossible. Much more difficult than, say, strikes against Gaza, which do not seem to bother Washington.
