| The Middle East can be considered part of the planet
that presents reasons for conflicts, with emphasis on
the differences between Arabs and Jews. This is a fact
that started with the establishment of the State of
Israel, in 1947. In 1988, Palestine and Israel began
their participation in peace agreements. In 1993, for
example, Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli prime minister at the
time, and Yasser Arafat entered into a peace deal.
Such an agreement had an interim character, giving
Palestinians self-government over the occupied
territories, a fact that allowed a ceasefire. However,
this was not enough, as the attacks intensified in the
region, triggered by dissatisfaction on the part of
radical Palestinian and Israeli groups. The problem was
further compounded by the death of Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin, murdered by an orthodox Jewish
student who opposed to the Israeli withdrawal from the
West Bank.
Yitzhak was succeeded by Shimon Peres, who continued
with the peace process started. In 1996, Yasser Arafat
was elected president of the Palestinian Authority with
a high number of votes (88.1%).
The formation of a Palestinian state did not take
place completely, given that military control and
foreign relations were still the responsibility of the
Israelis. At the end of the 1990s, conflicts became
frequent due to the initiative of the Palestinian and
Israeli radical groups, which hampered the process of
forming the State of Palestine.
The conflicts continued until the early 2000s, with a
significant increase in the incidence of cases of armed
attacks and confrontations, mainly of suicide attacks by
the Palestinians. In this way, Israel responded quickly
to the offensives with several attacks on the
Palestinian territory, causing the death of terrorists
and civilians.
Faced with the bleak picture, the UN Security Council
(United Nations Organization) approved and proposed,
through the United States, the creation of a Palestinian
state. Even with these initiatives, the current
geopolitical situation is still very troubled, marked by
a high number of armed conflicts and attacks. It seems
that the disagreements are endless, given that the
Israelis blame Palestinians for not punishing the
extremists contained in the territory of their
activities. The Palestinians blame the Israelis for
making the situation even worse by responding in an
armed manner to the terrorist attacks of their
extremists. In short, it seems that this conflict is
endless, in the face of such intolerance externalized by
both sides.
It is not possible to highlight conflicts in the
Middle East without mentioning the Iraq issue. In 1990,
Iraq invaded Kuwait on the pretext that the latter was
not complying with the OPEC (Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries) rules regarding the volume of oil
production. Offensive interfered by the United States,
with UN approval, U.S. started the Gulf War, which
lasted from 17 January until 28 February 1991, ending
with the defeat of the Iraqis, frustrating the plans of
leader Saddam Hussein. This war left hundreds of
thousands of deaths, mainly of soldiers and citizens of
Iraq. Despite being defeated, the dictator leader was
not removed from office, on the other hand, the United
States introduced an economic embargo, a fact that
intensified social problems in Iraq.
There is another geopolitical problem involving Iraq,
the aspiration of the Kurdish people to obtain their
political and territorial independence. In 1991, the
Kurds tried to seek their independence from Iraq, but
were aggressively prevented by the Iraqi forces that
carried out a real massacre, thousands of Kurds were
killed, in addition, approximately 500 thousand took
refuge in the mountains in the region. This ended only
with the intervention of the UN, which created a
protective barrier in favor of these people.
In 2001, on September 11, the United States suffered
terrorist attacks, so the US President George W. Bush
asked the UN for approval to invade Iraq, a request that
did not get approval from most members of the
organization. Despite this, the United States invaded
Iraq, and in March 2003, a war broke out, killing more
than 100,000 people and surrendering that country. In
addition, the Americans removed Saddam Hussein from the
presidency of Iraq. Despite the end of Saddam's
dictatorial government, the conflicts still ran for
seven years. In August 2010 alone, the United States
army withdrew from Iraqi territory, however, about
50,000 soldiers will remain to conduct training.
There is also, in the Middle East, the struggle for
possession of hydrographic basins and groundwater, which
has motivated the emergence of outbreaks of armed
conflicts, an example of which is the Jordan River
basin, disputed between Israel, Lebanon, Syria and
Jordan. There is also a fierce dispute over the Tigris
and Euphrates basins by Turkey, Syria and Iraq.
Political headlines
Syrian foreign policy has been driven by ideology as
well as real politics. The first dimension, with
panarabism as a guideline, stood strong after World War
II. The other, particularly marked by its relationship
with Israel, gained a central place especially after the
Six Day War in 1967.
Pan-Arabism
Syria early became a center of power for pan-Arabism,
with the Baath party as the driving force. The party
gained a strong position in Iraq as well, but there was
a rivalry between the two, both between the two states
and the heads of state, Hafez al-Assad and Saddam
Hussein.
The other political direction for uniting the Arab
countries and people was rooted in Egypt's President
Gamal Abdel Nasser, who attracted supporters throughout
the Arab world, including Syria. His influence, and
Egypt's war with Israel in 1956, helped the Syrian Baath
party to merge Syria and Egypt into the United Arab
Republic in 1958. An Egyptian-Syrian defense pact was
signed as early as 1955. With the merger, Syria ended as
an independent state, but resurfaced when the Syrians
withdrew in 1961. An attempt to revive the Union in a
federation in 1963, including with Iraq, failed.
Middle East conflict
In establishing Israel in 1948, Syria participated in
the war against the new state. Syria stood on Egypt's
side during the Suez crisis of 1956 and the subsequent
Arab front against Israel.
For Syrian foreign policy, the Six Day War in 1967
and the October War in 1973 were far more crucial. When
Israel attacked Egypt and Syria in June 1967, the Arab
forces were defeated, and Israel occupied the Syrian
Golan Heights. When Egyptian and Syrian forces attacked
Israel in October 1973, Syria's goal was to take back
the Golan, but Israel also emerged victorious from the
war. An agreement between Israel and Syria on the
separation of respective forces on the Golan was signed
in 1974, which led to the deployment of the United
Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).
Syria was a proponent of isolating Egypt after the
peace treaty with Israel in 1979. Syria thereby
strengthened its regional position at the expense of
Egypt.
The Cold War
In addition to being involved in the Middle East
conflict, Syria became a player in the Cold War in the
1970s and 1980s. Syria received civilian and military
aid from the Soviet Union. The country's strategic value
was emphasized by the fact that the Soviet Union built
the naval base Tartus base in Syria, which was continued
by Russia, and gained great importance during the war in
Syria.
Syria also established relations with other countries
in Eastern Europe. These were broken, or weakened, as a
result of the end of the Cold War. |
