The ongoing violence in Syria is the latest, and one of the bloodiest revolutions in the Arab World. The diplomatic strategy of President Obama has sadly backfired as security forces loyal to Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad have launched assaults against peaceful protestors. The estimated death toll is 1,100 in a crackdown that has lasted months. President Obama reached out a hand of friendship to Assad, but as the violence continues, it is likely the two governments will not be able to reach a consensus. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has already urged other Arab countries, China, and Russia to join in protesting against the violence.
For two years, the Obama administration has attempted to befriend Assad and persuade Syria to engage in peace talks over Israel. Assad has promised to reform his country, but his actions differ vastly from his words. The United States has dealt with each individual uprising differently. In Egypt, Obama kindly ushered out former president Hosni Mubarak. In Libya, the United States sent jets and airpower to violently topple Moammar Gadhafi’s stranglehold on power. The Syrian case is oddly peculiar because so far, no one in Obama’s administration has requested that Assad surrender power.
Syria is a country that is very important to United States foreign policy and international relations as a whole. Because Assad expressed interest in breaking Syria’s military alliance with Iran and engage in peace talks with Israel, the Obama administration created a foreign-policy team led by Senator John Kerry with experience dealing with Assad and his late father, Hafez al-Assad. Reasons for the diplomatic approach to Syria might be rooted in the fear that an overthrow could lead to wider sectarian violence in Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Relations between Syria and the United States have fluctuated in the past two years. Assad and Senator John Kerry forged a strong, personal relationship in March 2009 when the two dined together in the ancient heart of Damascus. In May 2009, Obama imposed sanctions on Syria for supporting militant groups. Kerry remedied the situation by arranging a phone call between Hillary Clinton and her Syrian counterpart Walid Moallem. After more diplomatic endeavors, the White House agreed to ease sanctions and Syria promised to protect the Syrian-Iraq border. In this past January, relations between Syria and the western world began to go downhill. American officials and French president Nicolas Sarkozy pressured Assad to help stabilize Lebanon. Instead, Hezbollah and Syria’s other Lebanese allies successfully ousted Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, a close western ally.
No American official could have prepared adequately for the uprising that rocked Syria just a few months ago. America mistakenly believed that Assad had repressed dissent to a level where a large-scale revolution that overthrew Egyptian and Tunisian leaders was not possible in Syria. Kerry and Clinton gave speeches in late March praising Assad, and keeping open the possibility that he might embrace reform. As protests and government crackdowns continue, America’s stance towards Syria has shifted. U.S. officials have acknowledged that the time for peace talks between Assad and Israel has passed. Still, pro-democracy activists have questioned Washington’s position that Assad can still be reformed.
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