As Israel attempts to stop Hezbollah with a campaign of air strikes in Southern Lebanon, world leaders seeking to stem the violence must squeeze Syria—a leading sponsor of Hezbollah along with Iran—to help end the fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border.
In yesterday’s New York Times, Thomas Friedman wrote:
To me, the big strategic chess move is to try to split Syria off from Iran, and bring Damascus back into the Sunni Arab fold. That is the game-changer. What would be the Syrian price? I don't know, but I sure think it would be worth finding out. After all, Syria hosts Hamas's leadership in Damascus. It is the land bridge between Hezbollah and Iran, without which Hezbollah can't survive. And it is the safe haven for the Baathist insurgents in Iraq.
Our Human Events editorial on Tuesday said:
Hezbollah, created by Iran and nurtured and supplied by both Iran and Syria, is used as a weapon by these two anti-American, anti-Israeli regimes. Without the support of Syria and Iran, Hezbollah is out of business.
Moreover, Syria and Iran are responsible for Hezbollah’s recent attacks on Israel because—at a minimum—they supplied the weaponry for the attacks and then cheered the attacks on when they happened.
If President Bush and the international community fail to convince Syria to stop Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel, further violence is likely to spread throughout the region—including into Syria. The Wall Street Journal on Monday noted that “some observers ... worry Israel may decide that the only way to rein in Hezbollah is to attack Syria and possibly Iran,” and quoted Israel security cabinet member Isaac Herzog saying, “We place full responsibility for this crisis on Syria and Iran.”
If the Middle East is to avoid all-out war, Syria must take action on two fronts.
First, Syria must stop its support of Hezbollah.
It is no secret that Syria provides not only financial support to Hezbollah, but also material support, and allows Iran to support the terror group through Syria. According to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report titled “Syria: U.S. Relations and Bilateral Issues” dated June 22, 2006:
Syria continued to permit Iranian resupply via Damascus of the Lebanese Shi’ite Muslim militia Hizballah in Lebanon. Syria admits its support for Palestinians pursuing armed struggle in Israeli occupied territories and for Hizballah raids against Israeli forces on the Lebanese border, but insists that these actions represent legitimate resistance activity as distinguished from terrorism.
Among the many problems Israel faces in its fight against Hezbollah is the lack of control at the Lebanon-Syria border. According to the The Wall Street Journal:
That area, which includes the vast Bekaa Valley, has long been one of Hezbollah’s main conduits for bringing its missiles into Lebanon. Large stretches of it remain unguarded and open to smugglers, suggesting Hezbollah may find a way to replenish its missile stocks.
Hezbollah should have no problem getting missiles from one of its lead sponsors. The CRS report, summarizing Syria’s WMD programs, notes:
Syria has one of the largest missile inventories in the Middle East, consisting of several hundred short-to-medium range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.
In a lunch conversation Monday with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bush noted the need to get Syria involved in ending Hezbollah’s aggression: “What they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this s--- and then it’s over.”
But without the force of the international community, Syria is not likely to give up its support of Hezbollah. Since the start of this most recent crisis in the Middle East, Syria has strongly defended the actions of Hezbollah and blamed Israel for the problems, even though other Arab governments have criticized the terrorist organization’s actions, specifically the kidnapping of Israeli troops.
The Associated Press reported that at a meeting last weekend of the Arab League Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal “called [Hezbollah’s] actions ‘unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible,’ telling his counterparts: ‘These acts will pull the whole region back to years ago, and we cannot simply accept them.’”
Second, Syria must release its hold on the Lebanese government.
In 1976, Syria sent forces into Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war. According to the CRS report, though Syria’s troop levels in Lebanon have dropped from nearly 40,000 in the late 1970s to approximately 14,000 by early 2005, Syria still exercised a “controlling influence over Lebanon’s domestic politics and regional policies.”
Under apparent pressure from Syria, Lebanon’s parliament, on Sept. 3, 2004, extended pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emile Lahoud’s six-year term by three more years. The day before the vote, as noted in the CRS report, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1559, which called for “a free and fair electoral process in Lebanon’s upcoming presidential election ... without foreign influence” and called for “all remaining foreign forces to withdraw from Lebanon.” Syria’s UN ambassador disagreed with the resolution, claiming that Syria was in Lebanon at the request of the Lebanese government.
Protesting the extension of Lahoud’s term, the CRS report reveals, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri resigned his post and joined an opposition group demanding the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. Hiriri was assassinated in a car bomb explosion in Beirut on Feb. 14, 2005. The next day, though Syria and the pro-Syrian Lebanese government denied involvement, the U.S. ambassador to Syria was recalled by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. On February 23, President Bush insisted that Syria pull both its military and intelligence personnel out of Lebanon.
Syrian President Bashir Assad, under growing pressure from the international community, began withdrawing Syrian forces. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan reported on May 23 that the UN had confirmed Syria’s withdrawal of military forces, but could not confirm that all Syrian intelligence personnel were removed.
In October of last year, Annan, according to the CRS report, “noted that other requirements of Resolution 1559 remained to be implemented, particularly disbanding and disarming Lebanese and non-Lebanese militia (notably Hizballah and several Palestinian groups) and extension of Lebanese government control throughout all of the country” (emphasis added).
The CRS report continues:
Although Syrian forces had departed Lebanon before the Lebanese parliamentary elections in late May and June, 2005, some observers think Syrian officials may be trying to circumvent the effect of the withdrawal by maintaining their influence through contacts they have acquired over the year in the Lebanese bureaucracy and security services. While anti-Syrian candidates secured a comfortable majority (72 out of 128) in the new parliament, the strong showing by a largely Shi’ite Muslim bloc in southern Lebanon resulted in the reelection of a pro-Syrian parliamentary spearker (a Shi’ite post under Lebanon’s unique system), while the pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud remains in office.
The question now is how does the international community pressure Syria to take end its support of Hezbollah and release its grasp on the Lebanese government.
On May 17, 2006, following the suggestion of U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton to “highlight the areas of deficiency in Syria’s performance under [UN Resolution] 1559,” the Security Council passed Resolution 1680. From the CRS report:
The resolution calls on Syria to prevent movement of arms into Lebanon, ‘strongly encourages’ Syria to respond positively to the request by Lebanon to delineate their common border and establish full diplomatic relations, and calls for disbanding all militias inside Lebanon.
The United States has already imposed sanctions on Syria, including prohibitions on aid and restrictions on bilateral trade, because of its status as a state sponsor of terrorism, as determined by the U.S. State Department. But many U.S. allies continue to enjoy trade with Syria and decline to stand up to Syria.
President Bush must continue to hold a hard line with Syria by using every legislative and executive provisions at his disposal, including the Syria Accountability Act he signed on Dec. 12, 2003, which imposes sanctions against Syria unless it stops supporting terrorism, withdraws from Lebanon, ends its development of WMD, and stops backing terrorist activity in Iraq. He also needs to continue to lead the international community in the recognition that Syria continues to yield influence over Lebanon and supports anti-Israel terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, and in convincing President Assad that the best interests of his country are vested in Middle East peace.
