Viewing all posts tagged "lebanon"

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.

Posted on 22 February 2010

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Tags: syria, america, lebanon, middle east,

Damascus and Beirut compared: the street market (souq)

Actually, these can’t really be compared. It’d be like comparing apples and diamond encrusted golden apples. High fashion, brand name apples. Apples worth more than your life. As one might expect, one souq is vibrant, colorful, utilitarian and busy with real people, while the other is nearly empty, save the highest of the high class.

Posted on 16 December 2010

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Tags: damascus, syria, beirut, lebanon,

From Beirut to Damascus, Part 1: Crossing back into Syria from Lebanon

The shortage of new blog posts recently has been due to the absolute craziness that was Level 4 Arabic at Damascus University, partly because of the curriculum itself but mostly because of the psycho teacher who I will publicly shame here on this very blog in the near future. Jennifer and I have passed four straight levels at the university and as far as we know, we’re the only ones who even attempted to do this — at least from the group of students who began with Level 1 back in November like us.

The day after our final exam we traveled to Lebanon for a much needed break. Indeed, this past week spent in and around Beirut was just the beginning of a month-long break we’ve decided take from formal Arabic classes, before starting back up with Level 5 in May.

Today is going to be interesting travelling back into Syria from Lebanon. While we have iqama (residency permits) valid for the next 2 months, our multiple-entry visas expired last month. This means we’ll have to try to buy new entry visas at the land border. Our new friends at the Maktab al-Hijrah (Immigration Office) told us on multiple occasions that it will be “no problem” for Jennifer, as a Spaniard, to buy a visa at the border. For me, though, as an American, they said it was ”mumkin (possible)…. probably mumkin.” Oh dear.

Thing is, we have all the necessary documents and evidence showing that we a) are students, b) are not journalists, and c) have both the right and means to live in Syria. Thus while I don’t foresee any problems with either of us getting back into the country, Syria, as I’ve written before, is an inexact country, and nothing ever goes exactly to plan. The internet is full of conflicting accounts of the actual process, and people we’ve spoken to in Syria have different opinions as well. Some say the delay at the border could be as long as 6 hours while we wait for permission from Damascus to grant us the visas. Others say there will be no delay at all, it’ll just be very expensive. Others still say the border guards aren’t allowed to grant entry visas to any foreigners, period — and yet, sometimes they do it anyway, sometimes, maybe. Mumkin.

So here we go! We’re leaving Beirut in about an hour via taxi. No idea how long it will take us at the border but there are 3 possible outcomes:

We make it to Damascus and my next blog post will include an account of what the process and experience was like;
We get turned away and I’ll write next from Beirut, describing what happened and what our plan is; or
We get stuck at the border… this is a very bad, but highly unlikely outcome

Wish us luck.

Posted on 19 April 2011

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Tags: Syria, Lebanon, Beirut, Damascus, an american in syria,

From Beirut to Damascus, Part 2: Syria says “Nope, you can go back to Beirut now”

I need another coffee and some water. And a manaeesh.

I wrote yesterday about the uncertainty Jennifer and I were to face at the Syrian border with Lebanon, because both of our multi-entry visas were expired and we intended to buy new ones at the border. We had been given every assurance from the Immigration Office in Damascus that our situation would not be problematic, that we could simply purchase new single-entry visas at the border and continue on our way from Beirut to Damascus. Not so, it turns out.

In what can only be described as typical experience, not one Syrian official knows what he’s talking about. Or rather, he’s quite sure of what he’s talking about, but ask any other Syrian official the same question and you’ll receive an equally sure, yet totally different answer. Here’s what happened…

At the Syrian border, the muwazzaf (employee or clerk) refused to sell me a visa. After we explained to him what had been previously explained to us, he walked my passport over to his mudeer (manager), who also refused to sell me the visa but suggested to ask the ra’ees al-hudud (president of the border) for a third opinion. We explained the situation to this third man, the highest ranking official at the border, but he also refused. I implored him to call the mudeer of the Immigration Office, which he did — or at least, he picked up his phone, dialed some numbers, talked to somebody — before refusing me again, relaying the Immigration mudeer’s message that nobody in his office would have told us what we claim to have been told. In actual fact, Americans in my situation can only buy entry visas at the Syrian Embassy in Beirut.

So that was that. We got back into the car and had our taxi driver take us directly back to Beirut. Found a hotel in Hamra near the Syrian Embassy and this morning we both applied for new entry visas. The process can take anywhere from 10 to 25 days.

Wish us luck.