Member-only story
The Dark Nature of American-Syrian Relations
And how a Nazi war criminal looms over them
American-Syrian relations have always been complicated, to say the least. A failed coup orchestrated by the CIA in the fifties to topple then-president al-Quwatli led to a near-twenty-year rupture of diplomatic ties between the two nations. The rift was furthered in the sixties, following the Israeli victory in the Six-Day War.
In 1966, another coup upheaved the Syrian political order. An airforce officer named Hafez al-Assad ended up Minister of Defence of the newly-formed Jadid government. In 1970, Hafez al-Assad ousted Jadid and subsequently was named President.
He would rule with an iron fist until June 2000 when his son Bashar, the unexpecting eye-doctor, took over and became, in due course, a proper dictator of his own.
Resuming with Henry Kissinger’s visit to Damascus in 1973, relations between the two nations oscillated between anxiety that any misstep would overturn the fragile balance of power in the region and a “grudging respect for Mr Assad,” as the New York Times (NYT) put it in Assad’s obituary.
The main point of discussion until Assad’s death in 2000 was the many peace initiatives for the region, of which all US Presidents hoped Assad would be an important part of. Other than…
