By Ted Belman
The key to solving American troubles in the ME is Syria, not Israel. You may recall that Saudi Arabia demanded that Syria be invited as the price for gaining its attendance and Syria was invited. There is no solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, or should I say the Israel/Arab conflict, until the Arab countries are prepared to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and sign an end of conflict agreement. The former has been rejected and the latter is not even discussed.
America must stop and reverse the growing influence of Iran. The way to do this is to wean Syria away from Iran just as it weaned Egypt away from the USSR after the Yom Kippur War. Syria’s ruling clique, the Alawites, above all, seek to perpetuate its regime. To this end, it manufactured an external enemy, Israel. Peace with Israel would threaten its regime. Better to keep them as an “enemy”. Who cares about the Golan anyway. But Lebanon is another story. The Alawites would dearly love to have its way with Lebanon and the US would have no trouble with this if they entrenched Syria was entrenched in the US camp.
Syria also needed a patron to support it financially and otherwise and turned to Iran. But Iran is no match for the US in this regard and Syria knows it.
Finally there is the natural affinity of the Syrians to the Arab camp and sooner or later Syria will return to that camp.
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