Syria Today | Back in Business

Back in Business

Words John Dagge and Waseem Abdo

Next month French president Nicolas Sarkozy will visit Syria. While Damascus has hosted a number of international delegates including EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana and US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the past 18 months, Sarkozy’s visit will be the high mark of a rapid transformation in the country’s regional and international standing. In little more than a month Syria has been feted in Paris, announced indirect peace talks with Israel, visited India, been called on to discuss the nuclear issue with Iran, committed itself to establishing an embassy in Lebanon and received economic pledges which have significantly weakened a US-led trade embargo against the country.

The moves follow the brokering of the Doha Accord on May 21, which ended Lebanon’s 18-month political deadlock via the election of Michel Suleiman to the presidency. The agreement also called for a new electoral law in advance of next year’s parliamentary elections and the formation of a national unity government, with 11 cabinet seats – known as the blocking or “guaranteeing” third veto – apportioned to the Hezbollah-led opposition.

Syria’s active role in brokering the accord won it international recognition and kick-started a series of events which has significantly ended its political isolation of recent years.

Among others, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad took phone calls from Sarkozy and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon thanking him for his role in facilitating the breakthrough in Doha. News that Syria and Israel are engaged in indirect peace talks aiming to end the formal state of war which has existed between the two countries since 1948 broke in the hours following the agreement on Lebanon. A visit by Assad to India came next, the first Syrian state visit in three decades.

The most high-profile pay-off came with Assad’s trip to Paris to attend a conference on a French-proposed Mediterranean Union on July 12, during which Assad was warmly welcomed by Sarkozy in front of the world’s press.

“Since Doha there is a recognition that you have to talk to Syria about the region’s problems,” Rime Allaf, associate fellow at Chatham House, said. “Just the fact that Doha happened is recognition that Syria is part of the game.”

A new Middle East

Other Middle East watchers say the new embrace of Syria, along with moves by Israel to unilaterally engage in indirect peace talks with Damascus and negotiate with Hezbollah, is evidence of a new post-Bush Middle East. In this Middle East, Syria is seen as a key contributor to regional solutions.

“Qatar’s role in bringing about a resolution, alongside that of Turkey in mediating Syrian-Israeli talks, signals a return to pragmatism in Middle East relations,” Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center, wrote following Assad’s visit to Paris. “It also indicates the dead end to which the ideological politics of the US, Iran, and Saudi Arabia has led.”

A new relationship with Lebanon is also emerging in the wake of the Doha Accord, with Assad saying Syria is happy to open an embassy in its smaller neighbour at a press conference in Paris. His comments were echoed during a visit to Lebanon by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mu’allem on July 21.

More than just handshakes and high-profile photo opportunities, Assad returned from Paris with a number of major carrots. On July 23, energy company Kharafi Cham, an affiliate of Cham Holding, signed an agreement with the Ministry of Electricity to build the country’s first private power plant in more than four decades. Significantly, the plant will use French-made equipment. Last year, following a summer of numerous power outages, Syrian Prime Minister Muhammad Naji al-Otri complained US and French pressure was preventing some of the world’s largest power companies like the American-based General Electric and the French-owned Alstom from bidding on the construction contracts for two new power plants.

Damascus has also brokered a deal with the French-based Airbus Industries group to restock the country’s national carrier. Syria’s aviation industry has been one of the hardest hit sectors by US sanctions, unable to replace an ageing fleet of aircraft carriers or even source spare parts. In an interview with Syria Today, Syria’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Abdullah al-Dardari confirmed Syria will lease 50 Airbus airplanes from France over the next 18 years.

France’s newfound economic interest in Syria also includes two new cement factories worth SYP 55bn (USD 1.2bn) to be built with French funds. French oil giant Total is expected to renew a contract for oil extraction in the near future as well. Dardari also conducted trade and economic talks in Spain last month in which he received support for the passing of the long-delayed EU Association Agreement.

All of which puts a significant dent in American attempts to economically isolate Syria. “We have a lot of European support for our economic reform process and this is evidence that Syria’s foreign policy has proven itself,” Dardari said. “We had to bear pressure for some time, but we remained steadfast. People now respect us because of our position.”

Not everyone happy

Not that Damascus has buried the hatchet with all the region’s players. Ties remain tense with Saudi Arabia and Egypt, although the barrage of verbal salvos fired through the media has slowed considerably.

Syria’s relations with the United States also remain strained. Most analysts and media commentators believe Damascus is happy to sit out Bush, just as it sat out former French President Jacques Chirac. “It’s wrong to think that automatically getting back to good relations with the Europeans will lead to good relations with the US, or that talking with Israel will do the same,” Allaf said.

Signs of joint Syrian-US life are, however, appearing. A private delegation of high-profile Syrian political analysts and academics visited the US last month and spoke at the Washington-based think tank, the Brookings Institution. While a proposed visit with the State Department was cancelled, the fact that it was scheduled in the first place is evidence that a thaw – however slight – is underway. The State Department meeting was cancelled after Riad Daoudi, the Foreign Ministry’s chief legal advisor and Syrian representative in indirect peace talks with Israel, pulled out of the trip. The delegation, led by the head of the Orient Center for International Studies Samir Altaqi who also serves as an advisor to the Syrian Prime Minister, did meet with US senator and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

During the trip, Altaqi told the Washington Times a peace deal with Israel “could be signed by the end of this year, but that requires Bush administration involvement that has not been forthcoming.”

While Damascus may be happy to wait for a new tenant in the White House, Allaf cautions the next American president may not have the revolutionary effect on the region many are hoping for. “To date, the Democrats aren’t trying to do anything the Republicans are not,” she said. “If that was the case, Barack Obama would have come to Syria during his recent trip. He didn’t. He went to the politically safe countries like Egypt and Jordan instead.”