By Abu Anas
After the defeat of the Ottoman Caliphate in World War I, and through the Sykes-Picot agree�ment between France and Britain in 1916, the French occu�pied what we know today as Syria. For one to under�stand the extent of US influ�ence in Syria and to map the rela�tion�ship between the Assad regime and the US, one must con�sider the his�tory of mod�ern Syria. The fol�low�ing are 10 key points, in chrono�log�i�cal order, start�ing from the time of West�ern col�o�niza�tion of Syria to the present day, high�light�ing US involve�ment in the country.
- US and CIA orches�trated mil�i�tary coups in Syria since 1949: The US, through its embassy in Dam�as�cus and the CIA, led the first ever mil�i�tary coup in Syria in 1949, as detailed in the book �The Game of Nations� by Miles Copeland. This marked the begin�ning of the inter�na�tional strug�gle over the Mid�dle East between the United States, the new entrant to the world arena, and the Euro�peans (French and British) who held the influ�ence in the region but came out of World War II dev�as�tated. The USembassy and the CIA con�tin�ued to sup�port sev�eral sub�se�quent mil�i�tary coups in Syria through�out the 50s and 60s against their Euro�pean rivals, this was an era of insta�bil�ity that lasted over two decades.
- Hafez�s pull�out out of the 1967 war to secure Israel: Ex-President, Amin al-Hafiz, said in an inter�view on Al-Jazeera on July 2nd, 2001 that Hafez al-Assad, the then Defense Min�is�ter, sent a strict order of with�drawal to the Syr�ian army from the Golan Heights at the begin�ning of the war. This was before any sign of defeat or real con�fronta�tion against the Israeli mil�i�tary which has resulted in the occu�pa�tion of such a strate�gic location.[1] It was through this move, Assad gained the trust of the US in defend�ing Israel�s north�ern bor�der, which he con�tin�ued to do for the next three decades.
- US sup�port�ing Syria through UN Res�o�lu�tion 242 in 1967: UN Res�o�lu�tion 242 which was passed after the 1967 War, com�monly known as the six-day war, with Israel and its occu�pa�tion of the Golan Heights, grants Syria, to this day, the right to regain back its territory.[2] The US sup�ported this agree�ment and Syria�s right to its ter�ri�tory. This is in stark con�trast to the Israeli posi�tion, apart from occa�sional lip ser�vice, of reject�ing any notion of sur�ren�der�ing this geo�graph�i�cally strate�gic territory.
- Strength�ened US-Syrian rela�tions after the 1973 war: After the 1973 sur�prise war with Israel, the US should have slammed Syria with sanc�tions. On the con�trary, in 1974, Pres�i�dent Nixon per�son�ally paid a visit to Dam�as�cus to strengthen rela�tions with the Assad regime.
- US accep�tance of Syr�ian occu�pa�tion of Lebanon since 1976: Syr�ian troops invaded Lebanon at the begin�ning of the civil war. The silence on part of the US against such an occu�pa�tion was a �green light� to Hafez al-Assad to ini�ti�ate and con�tinue this inva�sion until 2005, when a French-mandated res�o�lu�tion pushed the Syr�i�ans out with Amer�i�can reluc�tance. One polit�i�cal ana�lyst described this US role by say�ing: �[The US] seemed tac�itly to acqui�esce to con�tin�ued Syr�ian ascen�dancy in Lebanon.�[3]
- Coop�er�a�tion of Syria and US through the Tai�f Agree�ment in 1989: The Ta�if agree�ment was signed in Saudi Ara�bia between the dif�fer�ent Lebanese fac�tions to put an end to the civil war in 89�. TheUS was the power bro�ker besides France, Saudi Ara�bia, Egypt and Syria that helped form the agree�ment, �prompt�ing inter�na�tional sup�port for Syrian?guardianship over Lebanon.�[4]
- Syria join�ing the US in its cam�paign to invade Iraq in 1991: Syria sup�ported the US in its war cam�paign against Iraq (Oper�a�tion Desert Storm) and sent 14,500 sol�diers and per�son�nel to aid the US in its inva�sion of Iraq.[5]
- US medi�at�ing nego�ti�a�tion between Syria and Israel dur�ing 1990�s: Hafez al-Assad accepted theUS to be a medi�a�tor between Syria and Israel. Army Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Hik�mat al-Shihabi, led the del�e�ga�tion to the US that dis�cussed peace nego�ti�a�tions on the mat�ter. In an inter�view with Rus�sia TodayTV, Syr�ian ex-Minister of Defense and a pil�lar of the Assad regime, Mustafa Tlass, stated unequiv�o�cally that al-Shihabi was a CIA-agent for the US.[6]
- Intel�li�gence coop�er�a�tion between CIA and Syria to tor�ture detainees since 2001: The close coop�er�a�tion between the CIA and the Syr�ian regime was so warm, that even dur�ing times when Syria was called a rogue state, the Syr�ian regime offered its ser�vices to do the dirty work of the CIA. The regime used its world renowned intel�li�gence agen�cies to extract infor�ma�tion from detainees and pris�on�ers of war through tor�ture for the CIA. The famous case of Cana�dian cit�i�zen Maher Arar is one exam�ple that made Inter�na�tional news.[7]
- US sup�port of regime dur�ing the Syr�ian Rev�o�lu�tion of 2011: As has been dis�cussed in detail through our first part of this series on the agency of the Assad regime, the US has stood silent and watched the daily slaugh�ter of Syr�ian civil�ians for 2 years, in addi�tion to deny�ing the rebels the weapons needed to pro�tect them�selves and to oust Assad.
As can clearly be seen, the US tried early on in Syria�s mod�ern his�tory to set its agents in power through mil�i�tary coups. Although the US con�tin�ued its pub�lic rhetoric against Syria, it achieved com�plete hege�mony when its agent, Hafez al-Assad, gained power in 1970. Since al-Assad, Syria has been a covert proxy state for the US serv�ing its inter�ests in the region and pro�tect�ing Israel�s north�ern bor�ders, while out�wardly claim�ing to be the resis�tance leader within the Arab region.
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