Syria ends long isolation, back in the Arab fold

The US is clearly disturbed by the rapid pace of reconciliation following the March 10th China-mediated agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran to reopen embassies closed since 2016. This has been followed by Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s visits to the UAE and Oman and the visit of Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan to Damascus. Yesterday Arab League foreign ministers meeting in an emergency session voted to lift Syria’s 12-year suspension, thereby enabling Damascus to attend the May 19th Arab summit in Riyadh and resume membership.

During an interview in Damascus with Gulf Today, presidential political and media adviser Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban said she was optimistic about normalisation. She stated, “Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Algeria, and Iraq are determined” to secure Syria’s reinstatement. Morocco, which opposed Syria’s return, has “changed.” But Qatar and Kuwait remained opposed because of the “US presence” in these countries.

 To secure Syria’s return “a consensus [was] not needed,” she stated. “When they suspended Syria, they did not have consensus, so they could readmit Syria without consensus.” Syria’s supporters were determined” to lift Syria’s suspension. While Syria’s return to the League would be a political development, the renewal of Syria’s bilateral relations with the Arabs are “more important.”

Dr. Shaaban was highly critical of US and European sanctions. “Economic warfare is worse” than fighting. Sanctions have compelled Syrians to rely on UN aid. “We do not want to live on food baskets. We eat what we produce, and we wear what we make.”

The visit of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi ahead of the Arab summit was meant to solidify his country’s ties to Syria which remains Iran’s sole Arab ally despite Tehran’s reconciliation with Riyadh. Iran does not wish to be left on the sidelines as Syria returns to the Arab fold. During his two-day stay in Damascus, he and Syrian President signed a strategic cooperation agreement covering energy, telecommunications, railways, agriculture, and reconstruction.

For Syria, the most important item is reconstruction. While heavily sanctioned Iran is certain to find it difficult to finance Syrian reconstruction, Iranian firms could provide building materials, fuel, and other items for rebuilding Syria’s war damage. Here, heavily sanctioned Iran enjoys an advantage over Arab Gulf states and business interests which would attract US sanctions and penalties if they participate in rebuilding Syria. If Arab governments which are eager to take part in reconstruction join forces to challenge sanctions on the humanitarian ground that Syria must be rebuilt to allow six million refugees to return home, the US would be unable to impose sanctions and the sanctions regime could be undermined and ultimately ousted.

The Biden administration seems to have belatedly understood that major changes are taking place in this region. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are leading efforts to restore Arab-Arab relations, improve Arab-Iran ties, and cultivate connections with China and Russia rather than relying mainly on the US. Washington has proven to be a destabilising rather than a stabilising power in this region and elsewhere. Since the Obama administration (2012-2016) the US has pivoted east and focused on China, this vital region has been neglected.

In a bid to promote US political interests, the Biden administration appears to have decided to open a backchannel to the Syrian government via Oman, according to Beirut’s L’Orient-Le Jour, citing two Arab diplomats. Delegations from the two countries met several times in Muscat. The main issue under discussion was the release of US citizens held in Syria, notably Austin Tice who went missing in August 2012. He was a freelance journalist reporting from the Damascus suburb of Daraya for The Washington Post, McClatchy, and others when he was abducted.

In September 2012, a short video of a bound and blindfolded Tice was released by his captors but there has been nothing since. In 2018 his parents held a news conference in Beirut saying they had been informed he was still alive called for talks between Damascus and Washington to secure his release. On the tenth anniversary of his abduction, US President Joe Biden said he knew “with certainty” that he was being held by the Syrian government. There has, however, been no proof he is alive or being detained by the Syrian government which has always denied it had been holding Tice.

Tice was not a career reporter. He had served as an officer in the US marines and was deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. He graduated from the Edmund A. Walsh Foreign Service School at Georgetown University. It appears he, like some, went to Syria without a visa from the government. Others, including this correspondent, did not enter the country illegally and applied for and received visas. There were many journalists, including television teams, covering the war on the government side at that time. I know, as I did.

Madj Kamalmaz, a grandfather and humanitarian activist, is the only other US citizen who is said to be held in Syria, He was born in Syria and emigrated to the US as a child. He disappeared in 2017. The US has made little fuss over his disappearance. L’Orient-Le Jour reported that other topics under discussion between Washington and Damascus were Iran’s presence in Syria, freeing political prisoners, political and constitutional reforms, and suppressing smuggling of Captagon pills, a widely popular stimulant.

Syria has responded to US pressures by insisting on the withdrawal of the 900 US troops based in northeast and eastern Syria where they have occupied the oil fields which, before the war, provided 80 per cent of Syria’s petrol and fuel oil needs as well as quantities for export.

It is significant that the Biden administration appeared to have shifted to direct talks with the Syrian government after indirect negotiations brokered by Lebanon’s security chief Abbas Ibrahim failed and key Arab actors — the UAE, in particular — had begun to push for Arab reconciliation with the Syrian government despite US opposition. The US was unpleasantly surprised by the Saudi-Iran deal which has given momentum to reconciliation on the regional as well as the Arab level. This agreement could lead to an end to the US-mandated ostracism of Iran as well as Syria’s isolation. Punitive politics should have no place in strategic West Asia.