Since taking office, the Obama administration has begun to reengage Syria as part of its comprehensive approach to the region. On June 12, Special Envoy for Middle East Peace George Mitchell met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad following meetings between high-level U.S. and Syrian officials in March and May. On June 24, the State Department announced that the United States would be sending an ambassador to Damascus, a position that has been empty since the U.S. ambassador was withdrawn in 2005 following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Iran: Syria is an ally of Iran, and both are supporters of Hezbollah. Syria serves as a passageway for Iranian weapons to the group. The countries also have cultural ties with more than 500,000 Iranians traveling to Syria every year. In September 2007 Syria and Iran concluded a series of deals to expand Iranian investment in Syria to $10 billion by 2012.
Iraq: The United States has criticized the flow of insurgents and weapons from Syria into Iraq since the start of the war in Iraq and despite improvement, officials recently pressed Syria to do more. A U.S. military-led delegation met with senior Syrian security officials in Damascus on June 12 to discuss opportunities for cooperation in light of the U.S. withdrawal from Iraqi cities on June 30. The United States has also engaged in talks concerning the resettlement of the approximately 1.5 million Iraqi refugees currently living in Syria.
Israeli-Syrian Relations: Syria and Israel have officially been in a state of war since 1948. Unresolved issues include Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights and Syria’s political and material support for Hamas and Hezbollah. Syria and Israel began peace negotiations with U.S. support after the Madrid Conference in October 1991, but talks broke down in March 1996. Negotiations were reinitiated in 2000, but soon collapsed in Geneva, Switzerland, despite President Clinton’s direct involvement. In 2008, indirect talks resumed with Turkish mediation, though both Israel and Syria believed that ultimately their negotiations would require U.S. sponsorship. In December 2008, Syria suspended these talks in protest of the Gaza conflict. Syria is currently seeking official U.S. involvement in future negotiations with Israel, while Israel says that it is willing to restart talks with no preconditions.
Lebanon: The United States supports an independent and sovereign Lebanon free from Syrian interference. In 2005, the United States advocated for Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri after a 29-year occupation. The United States also supports the UN investigation of the Hariri assassination, which previously implicated Syrian officials. In the post-withdrawal period, Syria exercises its influence in Lebanon through its alliance with the Hezbollah-led opposition coalition and through a network of formal and informal socio-economic ties reinforced by bilateral trade agreements and patronage networks. The Obama administration has repeatedly emphasized that any rapprochement between the United States and Syria would not come at the expense of Lebanon’s sovereignty.
Sanctions: The United States first imposed sanctions on Syria in 2004 charging that it was a state sponsor of terrorism and that it was undermining U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq. The sanctions prohibit arms exports to Syria, block Syrian airlines from operating in the United States, and deny Syrians suspected of being associated with terrorist groups access to the U.S. financial system. The Obama administration renewed sanctions on Syria in May after allowing Boeing to repair two Syrianair planes in February.
State Support for Terrorist Organizations: Syria has been on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism since 1979. The Assad government provides political and material support to Hezbollah and several Palestinian militant groups, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. Syria also provides a base for leadership figures of these Palestinian groups, including Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, and has allowed them to convene conferences in Damascus.
Suspected Chemical, Biological and Nuclear Weapons: The United States accuses Syria of developing non-conventional weapons, and claims that the Syrian site bombed by Israel in September 2007 held a secret nuclear reactor. In February, the IAEA declared that it had found traces of uranium and graphite at the site, which Syria says was a conventional military building. Syria is believed to have chemical weapons and may also have biological weapons, although Syria denies these accusations. Syria has signed but not ratified the Biological Weapons Convention, and is a non-signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention.
