Maps of Middle East

• The ABBREVIATIONFINDER provides most commonly used abbreviations and initials containing the continent name of Middle East.

Syria's foreign policy

Syrian politics has been dominated by foreign policy issues to a greater extent than for most countries. Two main lines - partly coincident and partly contradictory - have formed the basis of foreign policy: pan-Arabism and nationalism. At the same time, relations with two neighboring countries have dominated foreign policy:

Relations with Israel were linked to pan-Arabism and opposition to state formation, and support for the Palestinians' struggle against Israel and for their own state. Then to the demand that Israel have to give up the Syrian Golan Heights occupied during the Six Day War in 1967, and then annexed.

The relationship with Lebanon is linked to Syrian nationalism, which at the same time has a pan-Arab overtone: Lebanon is, in Syrian eyes, a historical part of Syria, and should be part of one nation and one state. Lebanon has been an important part of Syria's modern sphere of interest. At the same time, control of Lebanon has been a way of gaining strategic depth in relations with Israel.

The war in Syria from 2011 has then been a dimension for foreign relations. The war has strengthened relations with Iran and Russia, and worsened relations with Turkey and the United States.

Political overview

Until the uprising in 2011 and the subsequent international war, foreign policy was conducted on three levels:

Bilateral in relation to individual countries, and regionally in the Middle East, especially related to the Middle East conflict and the Palestine issue; county international. As a result of pan-Arab ideology, regional ambition and international orientation, Syria was instrumental in founding the Arab League and the UN in 1945.

Foreign affairs gained a prominent place in Syrian politics especially from the early 1970s, after Hafez al-Assad came to power. For him, foreign policy became a key instrument, and he established Syria as a significant regional player. Assad took advantage of the superpower rivalry during the Cold War, playing on Syria's strategic location in the Middle East. He offered a foothold to the Soviet Union and was helped to realize his strategic ambition: to develop Syrian military equality with Israel.

The most important axis in the fight against Israel was for a long time Syria's alliance with Egypt. It was broken when Egypt signed a separate peace treaty with Israel in 1979. It broke with a basis for Syrian foreign policy, referred to as the Assad doctrine: the Arab states - and the Palestinian liberation movement - should find a comprehensive solution to the Middle East conflict; and in political practice, a Syrian solution. Assad therefore pursued a policy towards the Palestinians based on divide and rule, to gain the most control, and to avoid two-sided agreements that did not serve Syria's interests.

Assad assumed the role of the foremost Pan-Arab leader, but chose to support Persian Iran against Arab Iraq when the two countries went to war in 1980, during the first Gulf War.

Syrian foreign policy was largely fixed from Hafez al-Assad came to power in 1971 and to the uprising in 2011. After his death in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad continued the policy.

Political relations

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, Syria developed relations with the West. A simultaneous change occurred during the Second Gulf War, 1990-1991, when Syria contributed military forces to Operation Desert Storm. Participation in the US-led coalition brought an approach to the West in general and the United States in particular, as well as improved relations with the Gulf states, including financial support.

The Gulf War laid the foundations for the Middle East peace talks that began in Madrid in 1991, and which Syria expressed its willingness to participate in. One condition was that the Golan Heights were included. Thus, Syria could break out of attempts to isolate the country.

The region

Syria has long had regional superpower aspirations, arguing with Egypt and Iraq about a leadership role in the Arab world, and especially in the Middle East. This was one of the reasons why during the first Gulf War (1980–1988) Syria, as the only Arab state, took part for Persian Iran against Arab Iraq.

With a changed regional geopolitical picture after the Second Gulf War (1900-1991), the US-initiated peace process opened for the Middle East in Madrid in the fall of 1991. Syria and other Arab states thus entered into peace talks with Israel.

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