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User Shadowwarrior8, who seems to consistently makes edits painting Assad & the Syrian Ba'ath Party in the worst possible light, believes that blunting & trimming down his WP:UNDUE, POV-pushing, and at times WP:OR/WP:SYNTH edits is somehow vandalism. Given that Shadowwarrior8 also completely reverted the Iran section that I revamped back to its objectively inferior state (a single uncited sentence), it is difficult to assume good faith here.
Skornezy (talk | contribs)
379 edits
→‎United States: WP:OR/WP:SYNTH: The article cited does not mention Assad's statements.
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Assad met with U.S. scientists and policy leaders during a science diplomacy visit in 2009, and he expressed interest in building research universities and using science and technology to promote innovation and economic growth.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Turekian |first1=Vaughan |date=22 September 2014 |title=Beginnings |url=http://www.sciencediplomacy.org/editorial/2014/beginnings |journal=Science & Diplomacy |volume=3 |issue=3}}</ref>
Assad met with U.S. scientists and policy leaders during a science diplomacy visit in 2009, and he expressed interest in building research universities and using science and technology to promote innovation and economic growth.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Turekian |first1=Vaughan |date=22 September 2014 |title=Beginnings |url=http://www.sciencediplomacy.org/editorial/2014/beginnings |journal=Science & Diplomacy |volume=3 |issue=3}}</ref>


In response to [[Executive Order 13769]] which mandated refugees from Syria be indefinitely suspended from being able to resettle in the U.S., Assad appeared to defend the measure, stating "It's against the terrorists that would infiltrate some of the immigrants to the West... I think the aim of Trump is to prevent those people from coming," adding that it was "not against the Syrian people".<ref>{{cite news |author=Angus McDowall |date=16 February 2017 |title=Assad says Trump travel ban targets terrorists, not Syria's people |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-assad-usa-idUSKBN15V0N2}}</ref> This reaction was in contrast to other leaders of countries affected by the Executive Order who condemned it.<ref>{{cite news |author=Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, Martin Chulov and Saeed Kamali Dehghan |date=30 January 2017 |title=Muslim-majority countries show anger at Trump travel ban |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/29/muslim-majority-countries-anger-at-trump-travel-ban}}</ref>
In response to [[Executive Order 13769]] which mandated refugees from Syria be indefinitely suspended from being able to resettle in the U.S., Assad appeared to defend the measure, stating "It's against the terrorists that would infiltrate some of the immigrants to the West... I think the aim of Trump is to prevent those people from coming," adding that it was "not against the Syrian people".<ref>{{cite news |author=Angus McDowall |date=16 February 2017 |title=Assad says Trump travel ban targets terrorists, not Syria's people |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-assad-usa-idUSKBN15V0N2}}</ref>


== Arab–Israeli conflict ==
== Arab–Israeli conflict ==

Revision as of 00:47, 18 September 2023

Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad in Russia's Khmeimim Air Base in Latakia, 2017

Syrian foreign policy during the presidency of Bashar al-Assad is based on the continuation of Cold War-era policies of his father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad, who allied Syria closely to the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, adopting an anti-Zionist strategy in the region by strengthening the Syrian military; integrating it with the Ba'ath Party by packing its officers with Ba'athist loyalists of Alawite backgrounds.

Upon his succession in 2000, Assad maintained his father's foreign policies, maintaining close ties with Iran and supporting Lebanon's Hezbollah. Syria is also a prominent ally of Russia and its president Vladimir Putin.

Following its crackdown on protests and riots in 2011, Syria became globally isolated and numerous sanctions were imposed by the European Union, the United States, the Arab League, and others. From the early stages of the conflict in Syria, major Western countries such as the US, France, and the United Kingdom, as well as regional Sunni states allied with the US such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar have provided political, military and logistic support to the opposition and its associated rebel groups in Syria. On the other hand, the Syrian government is politically and militarily supported by Iran, Russia, and Lebanon's Hezbollah. Since 30 September 2015, Russia, the only foreign power that has its military assets openly and legally stationed in Syria, has waged an intensive air campaign against anti-government forces in Syria, on the side of and at the request of the Syrian government. The military activity of the governments of Syria, Iran, and Russia during the war has been criticized by the US and its regional allies.

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Relations with countries

Egypt

Following the election of Muslim Brotherhood politician Mohamed Morsi as the next Egyptian president, relations became extremely strained and Egypt severed all relations with Syria in June 2013.[citation needed] Diplomatic relations were restored and the embassies were reopened after the Morsi government was deposed weeks later by General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. In July 2013, the two countries agreed to reopen the Egyptian consulate in Damascus and the Syrian consulate in Cairo.[1]

In late-November 2016, some Arab media outlets reported Egyptian pilots arrived in mid-November to Syria to help the Syrian government in its fight against the Islamic State and Al Nusra front.[2] However, the Egyptian government would deny that it has a military presence in Syria.[3]

Although Egypt has not been vocal in support for any sides of Syria's ongoing civil war, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said in 2016 that his nation's priority is "supporting national armies", which he said included the Syrian Armed Forces.[4] He also said regarding Egypt's stance in the conflict: "Our stance in Egypt is to respect the will of the Syrian people, and that a political solution to the Syrian crisis is the most suitable way, and to seriously deal with terrorist groups and disarm them".[4] Egypt's support for a political solution was reaffirmed in February 2017. Egypt's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Ahmed Abu Zeid, said that Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry, "during his meeting with UN Special Envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, on Saturday confirmed Egypt's rejection of any military intervention that would violate Syrian sovereignty and undermine opportunities of the standing political solutions."[5]

Egypt has also expressed great interest in rebuilding postwar Syria, with many Egyptian companies and businessmen discussing investment opportunities in Syria as well as participation in the reconstruction effort. Tarik al-Nabrawi, president of Egypt's Engineers Syndicate said that 2018 will witness a "boom and influential role for Egyptian construction companies in Syria and to open the door for other companies—in the electricity, building material, steel, aluminum, ceramics and sanitary material fields among others—to work in the Syrian market and participate in rebuilding cities and facilities that the war has destroyed."[6] On 25 February 2018, Syrian state news reported that an Egyptian delegation composed of "members of the Islamic and Arab Assembly for supporting Resistance and Future Pioneers movement as well as a number of figures", including Jamal Zahran and Farouk Hassan, visited the Syrian consulate in Cairo to express solidarity with the Syrian government.[7][better source needed]

Iran

Main article: Iran–Syria relations

Syria and Iran are historic and strategic allies, with Syria being regarded as Iran's "closest ally".[8] The relationship between the Iranian and Syrian governments has sometimes been described as an axis of resistance.[9] Historically, the two countries shared a common animosity towards the Iraqi Ba'ath Party and Saddam Hussein, with Syria providing military aid to Iran during the Iran–Iraq War. Since the outbreak of war in 2011, Iran has politcally and militarily aided the Syrian government. The Guardian reported in May 2011 that the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) increased its "level of technical support and personnel support" to strengthen Syria's "ability to deal with protesters".[10] During the conflict in Syria, Iran has provided training, technical support, and combat troops to the Syrian government.[11][12] Estimates of the number of Iranian personnel in Syria range from hundreds to tens of thousands.[13][14][15] Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, backed by Iran's government, have taken direct combat roles since 2012.[13][16] From the summer of 2013, Iran and Hezbollah provided important battlefield support to Syria, allowing it to make advances against the rebels.[17] As of 2023, Iran maintains 55 military bases in Syria and 515 other military points, the majority in Aleppo and Deir Ezzor governorates and the Damascus suburbs; these are 70% of the foreign military sites in the country.[18]

Iraq

Main article: Iraq–Syria relations

Syria was a prominent adversary of Ba'athist Iraq during the Cold War. Syria supported Iran in the Iran–Iraq War and joined the American-led coalition against Iraq during the Gulf War.[19] However, by 1997, Syrian president Hafez al-Assad began reestablishing relations with Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.[20] The ascendance of Bashar in 2000 boosted this process.[21] Under Bashar, Syria ignored the sanctions against Iraq and helped Iraq to illegally import oil.[22]

Bashar strongly opposed the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.[21] He sheltered Iraqi Ba'athists and allowed volunteers through Syria to fight the Americans.[22] Syrian pressure for reviewing the de-Ba'athification policy and support for insurgents was despised by the new Iraqi government.[23] As a result, the American-installed government in Iraq suspended oil supplies to Syria.[20] In 2004, The U.S. commander of the coalition forces in Iraq, George W. Casey Jr., accused Syria of hosting Iraqi insurgent leaders who were co-ordinating the anti-American insurgency from their bases in Syria.[24]

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, former Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council of Ba'athist Iraq, had close relations with Ba'athist Syria. Despite the historical differences between the two Ba'ath factions, al-Douri had reportedly urged Saddam to open oil pipelines with Syria, building a financial relationship with the Assad family. After the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, al-Douri reportedly fled to Damascus, from where he organized anti-American militant groups and co-ordinated major combat operations during the Iraqi insurgency.[25][26] In 2009, General David Petraeus, who was at the time heading the U.S. Central Command, stated that al-Douri was residing in Syria.[27]

In 2006, Syria recognized the post-invasion Iraqi government and resumed ties.[23] However relations still remained poor until 2011, when American troops withdrew from Iraq and the Syrian revolution erupted, during which hundreds of thousands of protestors took to the streets; demanding the overthrowal of Assad regime.[28] Both governments alongside Iran formed a tripartite regional alliance as both Iran and Maliki government in Iraq were critical of the potential rise of Saudi influence in Syria, a Sunni-majority country.[29] Unlike most of the Arab League countries, Iraq rejected calls for al-Assad to step down.[29]

Lebanon

See also: Syrian occupation of Lebanon, Killing of Rafic Hariri, and Cedar Revolution
Protesters take to the streets during Lebanon's "Independence Intifada", also known as the Cedar Revolution, following the killing of Rafic Hariri

During his early years, Assad attempted to deepen Syria's control over Lebanese politics by various means. In 2004, he sought the extension of the Presidency of his ally Emile Lahoud, triggering a political crisis. Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri who opposed Assad's plans was assassinated on 14 March 2005, triggering international backlash. Syrian intelligence was widely blamed for orchestrating the killing of Hariri.[30]

On 5 March 2005, Assad announced that Syrian forces would begin its withdrawal from Lebanon in his address to the Syrian parliament.[31] Syria completed its full withdrawal from Lebanon on 30 April 2005.[32] Assad argued that Syria's gradual withdrawal of troops from Lebanon was a result of the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.[33] According to testimony submitted to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, when talking to Rafic Hariri at the Presidential Palace in Damascus in August 2004, Assad allegedly said to him, "I will break Lebanon over your [Hariri's] head and over Walid Jumblatt's head" if Émile Lahoud was not allowed to remain in office despite Hariri's objections; that incident was thought to be linked to Hariri's subsequent assassination.[34] In early 2015, journalist and ad hoc Lebanese-Syrian intermediary Ali Hamade stated before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that Rafic Hariri's attempts to reduce tensions with Syria were considered a "mockery" by Assad.[35]

Assad's position was considered by some to have been weakened by the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon following the Cedar Revolution in 2005. There has also been pressure from the U.S. concerning claims that Syria is linked to terrorist networks, exacerbated by Syrian condemnation of the assassination of Hezbollah military leader, Imad Mughniyah, in Damascus in 2008. Interior Minister Bassam Abdul-Majeed stated that "Syria, which condemns this cowardly terrorist act, expresses condolences to the martyr family and to the Lebanese people."[36]

In May 2015, Lebanese politician Michel Samaha was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for his role in a terrorist bomb plot that he claimed Assad was aware of.[37]

North Korea

See also: North Korea–Syria relations and Syrian nuclear programme

North Korea is alleged to have aided Syria in developing and enhancing a ballistic missiles programme.[38][39] They also reportedly helped Syria develop a suspected nuclear reactor in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate. U.S. officials claimed the reactor was probably "not intended for peaceful purposes", but American senior intelligence officials doubted it was meant for the production of nuclear weapons.[40] The supposed nuclear reactor was destroyed by the Israeli Air Force in 2007 during Operation Orchard.[41] Following the airstrike, Syria wrote a letter to Secretary-General of the UN Ban Ki-moon calling the incursion a "breach of airspace of the Syrian Arab Republic" and "not the first time Israel has violated" Syrian airspace.[42]

While hosting an 8 March 2015 delegation from North Korea led by North Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Sin Hong Chol, Assad stated that Syria and North Korea were being "targeted" because they are "among those few countries which enjoy real independence".[43]

According to Syrian opposition sources, North Korea has sent army units to fight on behalf of Assad in the Syrian civil war.[44]

In 2018, the UN exposed North Korea for their facilitation of Syria's development of chemical weapons. According to a report by UN investigators, North Korea provided the Syrian government with acid-resistant tiles, valves, and thermometers. Additionally, DPRK missile technicians had been seen inside various Syrian chemical weapons facilities. This series of about 40 unreported shipments between North Korea and Syria, on which were the chemical weapons materials as well as prohibited ballistic missile parts, is said to have occurred throughout 2012–2017.

Russia

Syria also revived its alliance with Soviet Union's successor state Russia, with firm backing from Vladimir Putin, who regularly provides cover for Assad in the Security Council.[45][46] Bashar al-Assad further solidified his regime's alliance with Vladimir Putin by granting Russia permanent access to its Soviet-era naval base in Tartus, the only major Russian naval base in the Mediterranean.[45][46]

United States

Assad meets with U.S. Senator Ted Kaufman in 2009

Assad met with U.S. scientists and policy leaders during a science diplomacy visit in 2009, and he expressed interest in building research universities and using science and technology to promote innovation and economic growth.[47]

In response to Executive Order 13769 which mandated refugees from Syria be indefinitely suspended from being able to resettle in the U.S., Assad appeared to defend the measure, stating "It's against the terrorists that would infiltrate some of the immigrants to the West... I think the aim of Trump is to prevent those people from coming," adding that it was "not against the Syrian people".[48]

Arab–Israeli conflict

See also: Status of the Golan Heights, Golan Heights, and Quneitra Governorate
Golan Heights has been occupied and administered as part of Israel since 1967.

The U.S., the EU, the March 14 Alliance, and France accuse Assad of providing support to militant groups active against Israel and opposition political groups. The latter category would include most political parties other than Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine.[49]

In a speech about the 2006 Lebanon War in August 2006, Assad said that Hezbollah had "hoisted the banner of victory", hailing its actions as a "successful resistance."[50]

File:Assad Pictures (48687896) (2).jpg
Portraits of Bashar al-Assad and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah outside an icecream parlour in Damascus, 2005

In April 2008, Assad told a Qatari newspaper that Syria and Israel had been discussing a peace treaty for a year. This was confirmed in May 2008, by a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. As well as the treaty, the future of the Golan Heights was being discussed. Assad was quoted in The Guardian as telling the Qatari paper:

... there would be no direct negotiations with Israel until a new U.S. president takes office. The U.S. was the only party qualified to sponsor any direct talks, [Assad] told the paper, but added that the Bush administration "does not have the vision or will for the peace process. It does not have anything."[51]

According to leaked American cables, Assad called Hamas an "uninvited guest" and said "If you want me to be effective and active, I have to have a relationship with all parties. Hamas is Muslim Brotherhood, but we have to deal with the reality of their presence," comparing Hamas to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood which was crushed by his father, Hafez al-Assad. He also said Hamas would disappear if peace was brought to the Middle East.[52][53][54]

In his interviews, Assad has indicated that the peace treaty that he envisions may not be the same as Camp David Accords, where there is a legal border crossing and open trade. In a 2006 interview with Charlie Rose, Assad said: "There is a big difference between talking about a peace treaty and peace. A peace treaty is like a permanent ceasefire. There's no war, maybe you have an embassy, but you actually won't have trade, you won't have normal relations because people will not be sympathetic to this relation as long as they are sympathetic with the Palestinians: half a million who live in Syria and half a million in Lebanon and another few millions in other Arab countries."[33] During the visit of Pope John Paul II to Syria in 2001, Assad requested an apology to Muslims for the Crusades and criticised Israeli treatment of Palestinians, stating that "territories in Lebanon, the Golan and Palestine have been occupied by those who killed the principle of equality when they claimed that God created a people distinguished above all other peoples".[55] He also compared the suffering of Palestinians at the hands of the Israelis to the suffering endured by Jesus in Judea, and said that "they tried to kill the principles of all religions with the same mentality in which they betrayed Jesus Christ and the same way they tried to betray and kill the Prophet Muhammad".[56][57][58][59] Responding to accusations that his comment was antisemitic, Assad said that "We in Syria reject the term antisemitism. ... Semites are a race and [Syrians] not only belong to this race, but are its core. Judaism, on the other hand, is a religion which can be attributed to all races."[60] He also stated that "I was talking about Israelis, not Jews. ... When I say Israel carries out killings, it's the reality: Israel tortures Palestinians. I didn't speak about Jews," and criticised Western media outlets for misinterpreting his comments.[61]

Outlining his objectives in a 2009 interview to Al-Khaleej newspaper, Bashar al-Assad stated that "peace agreement” is simply "a piece of paper you sign. This does not mean trade and normal relations, or borders, or otherwise."[62] Furthermore, he asserted that returning Golan Heights to Syria was a pre-condition to entering any peace deal. In an interview given to Italian newspaper La Repubblica in May 2010, Assad described the proposed "peace treaty" as a "truce", rather than a comprehensive peace, so long as the Palestinian crisis remained unsettled.[63][64] In February 2011, Assad backed an initiative to restore ten synagogues in Syria, which had a Jewish community numbering 30,000 in 1947, but only 200 Jews by 2011.[65]

Alleged state-sponsorship of terrorism

Assad greeting Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei

The US government has designation Syria as a "State Sponsor of Terrorism" since 1979, Syria remains the only government that has been continuously sanctioned under the list.[45]

According to journalist Peter R. Neumann, during the Iraq War, "in the years that preceded the uprising, Assad and his intelligence services took the view that jihad could be nurtured and manipulated to serve the Syrian government's aims".[66] Iraqi leaders such as former national security advisor Mowaffak al-Rubaie and former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have accused Assad of harbouring and supporting jihadist insurgents.[67][68] US Army General David Petraeus would claim: "Bashar al-Asad was well aware that his brother-in-law 'Asif Shawqat, Director of Syrian Military Intelligence, had detailed knowledge of the activities of [al-Qaeda in Iraq] facilitator Abu Ghadiya, who was using Syrian territory to bring foreign fighters and suicide bombers into Iraq", with later cables adding that Petraeus thought that "in time, these fighters will turn on their Syrian hosts and begin conducting attacks against Bashar al-Assad's regime itself".[69] Allegations of Syrian government support to Iraqi insurgents have been denied by Assad,[68][70] former Syrian Vice President and opposition activist Abdul Halim Khaddam,[71] and human rights activist Razan Zaitouneh.[72]

Military situation in the Syrian civil war in July 2015

The Syrian opposition have accused Assad of strategically releasing ISIS prisoners during the start of the Syrian crisis in 2011,[73] having intelligence operatives within the ranks of ISIS,[74] and even directing ISIS attacks.[75] According to "Western intelligence agencies, rebels and al-Qaeda defectors", the Syrian government paid "al-Nusra to protect oil and gas pipelines under al-Nusra’s control in the north and east of the country, and is also allowing the transport of oil to regime-held areas".[76] A businessman operating in both government and ISIL-controlled territory has claimed that "out of necessity" the Assad government has "had dealings with ISIS."[77] At its height, ISIS was making $40 million a month from the sale of oil, with the majority of the oil, according to the US Treasury Department, being sold to the Syrian government.[78] On 1 June 2015, the US claimed that the Assad government was "making air-strikes in support" of an ISIS advance on Syrian rebel positions north of Aleppo.[79] According to a Jane's Defence Weekly analysis, only a small percentage of the Syrian government's attacks were targeted at ISIS in 2014.[80]

Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi has disputed such assertions, arguing that "ISIS has a record of fighting the regime on multiple fronts", many rebel factions have engaged in oil sales to the Syrian regime because it is "now largely dependent on Iraqi oil imports via Lebanese and Egyptian third-party intermediaries", and while "the regime is focusing its airstrikes [on areas] where it has some real expectations of advancing" claims that it "has not hit ISIS strongholds" are "untrue". He concluded: "Attempting to prove an ISIS-regime conspiracy without any conclusive evidence is unhelpful, because it draws attention away from the real reasons why ISIS grew and gained such prominence: namely, rebel groups tolerated ISIS."[81] Similarly, Max Abrahms and John Glaser stated in the Los Angeles Times in December 2017 that "The evidence of Assad sponsoring Islamic State... was about as strong as for Saddam Hussein sponsoring Al Qaeda."[82] On the other hand, Mario Abou Zeid of the Carnegie Middle East Center claimed that the recent Hezbollah offensive "has exposed the reality of the ISIL in Qalamoun; that it is operated by the Syrian regime's intelligence", after ISIS in the region engaged in probing attacks against FSA units at the outset of the fighting.[83]

See also

References

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  21. ^ a b Mansour & Thompson 2020, p. 117.
  22. ^ a b Harris 2012, p. 267.
  23. ^ a b Mansour & Thompson 2020, p. 119.
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    These men, from the former governing party of deposed president Saddam Hussein, are "operating out of Syria with impunity and providing direction and financing for the insurgency," said Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the U.S. commander in Iraq. "That needs to stop," Casey said at a Pentagon briefing
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  55. ^ "Assad greets pope in Syria". Deseret News. Associated Press. 6 May 2001. "Territories in Lebanon, the Golan and Palestine have been occupied by those who killed the principle of equality when they claimed that God created a people distinguished above all other peoples," the Syrian leader said.
  56. ^ "Syria and Judaism: The disappearance of the Jews". The Economist. 10 May 2001. Retrieved 1 June 2011. The pope's pilgrimage in the steps of St Paul was widely seen as a success, even if it did not elicit an apology to the Muslim world for the medieval crusades. Syria's president, Bashar Assad, basked in international praise for his religious tolerance. But, notably, this tolerance was not extended to Judaism. Welcoming John Paul, Assad compared the suffering of the Palestinians to that of Jesus Christ. The Jews, he said, "tried to kill the principles of all religions with the same mentality in which they betrayed Jesus Christ and the same way they tried to betray and kill the Prophet Muhammad." The pope was taken on a detour to the town of Quneitra, flattened by the Israelis in their partial withdrawal from the Golan Heights, and called upon to bless the president's vision of a Christian-Islamic alliance to vanquish the common threat of colonising Jews.
  57. ^ "Polish experience shaped Pope's Jewish relations". CBC News. April 2005. Retrieved 7 May 2011. The decision to beatify Pius IX, the pope who kidnapped a Jewish child in Bologna and who put Rome's Jews back in their ghetto, was one question mark. John Paul's silence in 2001 when Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Jews had killed Christ and tried to kill Mohammad was another.
  58. ^ "Pope appeals for Mideast peace". Damascus: CNN. 5 May 2001. Archived from the original on 29 May 2011. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  59. ^ Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 107th Congress, First Session. Government Printing Office. May 2001. p. 7912. ISBN 9780160729669. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  60. ^ "Scharon plant den Krieg" [Sharon is planning the war]. Der Spiegel (in German). 9 July 2001. Retrieved 23 June 2011. Was soll denn das? Wir Araber sind doch selbst Semiten, als Nachfahren von Sem, einem der drei Söhne Noahs. Kein Mensch sollte gegen irgendeine Rasse eingestellt sein, gegen die Menschheit oder Teile von ihr. Wir in Syrien lehnen den Begriff Antisemitismus ab, weil dieser Begriff diskriminierend ist. Semiten sind eine Rasse, wir gehören nicht nur zu dieser Rasse, sondern sind ihr Kern. Das Judentum dagegen ist eine Religion, die allen Rassen zuzuordnen ist.
  61. ^ "Syrian's Assad defends Jewish comment". CNN. 27 June 2001.
  62. ^ Badran, Tony (9 April 2009). "Bashar Assad the peacemaker? Think again". Now Lebanon. Archived from the original on 13 January 2010.
  63. ^ Bonanni, Buren, Andrea, Alix (24 May 2010). "Assad: "I see a new Middle EastSyria ready to negotiate on the Golan"". La Repubblica. Archived from the original on 13 July 2010.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  64. ^ "Syriana". FDD.org. 22 June 2010. Archived from the original on 17 December 2021.
  65. ^ Derhally, Massoud A. (7 February 2011). "Jews in Damascus Restore Synagogues as Syria Tries to Foster Secular Image". Bloomberg. Retrieved 8 May 2011. The project, which began in December, will be completed this month as part of a plan to restore 10 synagogues with the backing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and funding from Syrian Jews.
  66. ^ Neumann, Peter (3 April 2014). "Suspects into Collaborators". London Review of Books. 36 (7). Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  67. ^ "Iraq asked Syria's Assad to stop aiding 'jihadists': Former official". 20 October 2015.
  68. ^ a b "Maliki blames Syria for attacks, Assad denies claim". 4 October 2009.
  69. ^ Joscelyn, Thomas (24 July 2012). "Slain Syrian official supported al Qaeda in Iraq". The Long War Journal. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  70. ^ "Bashar al-Asad, place and date not given entitled "Bashar al-Asad Interview in German news magazine Der Spiegel". 29 August 2009. [Spiegel] The American government accuses you of smoothing the way for the insurgents through Syria to Iraq. [Al-Asad] It also accused Saddam of having weapons of mass destruction. But seriously: if someone asks the Americans whether they are successful in sealing the border with Mexico they say it is very difficult. We say to the Americans in no uncertain terms that it is impossible to completely control the border with Iraq. Yet we also tell them that the basis for the chaos must be sought in the war. It is not fair to make a mistake oneself and then blame others for it.
  71. ^ Dickey, Christopher (5 January 2006). "'Mafia State'". Newsweek. p. 3. Second, as far as the Baath Party was concerned, there were no communications or contacts between the Baath Party of Iraq and the Baath Party in Damascus. There were open relations between the two governments for economic reasons, but not at the political or at the Baath level in any way. The issue of border crossing? Look, I'm outside Syria now. I'm in conflict with the present regime. But I can assure you no insurgent crossed the border from Syria to Iraq by the decision or with the knowledge of any [part of the] Syrian government. There were some border crossings for sure. We have a Syrian law that any Arab passport holder can get into Syria without a visa. Maybe there were some Arab nationals who got into Syria and illegally crossed the border to Iraq. During the war, there were a lot of Syrians who went into Iraq for jihad. Some thousands. But what happened with them? They came back, and they said they were deceived by the very bad treatment they received from the people of Saddam Hussein.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  72. ^ Joe, Pace (14 September 2005). "Razan Zeitouneh Interviewed by Joe Pace: Syria's Preemptive War against Infiltrators into Iraq". Syria Comment. Do you have a sense as to how the regime was supporting the infiltrators in the beginning? I don't have a clear sense. We all knew that whoever wanted to go was welcome and sometimes the authorities would help them. Everyone was talking about it; it was normal. Then after a short period, it suddenly became extremely dangerous. You would hear stories about accidents and forced disappearances, as in people would set out for Iraq and they would never make it, which of course means that they were arrested before they reached the border. Then the campaign of arrests began.
  73. ^ Speakwell Cordall, Simon (21 June 2014). "How Syria's Assad Helped Forge ISIS". Newsweek. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
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  77. ^ Baker, Aryn (26 February 2015). "Why Bashar Assad Won't Fight ISIS". Time. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
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Bibliography

Notes

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