[Forward] Ammar Abdulhamid - The Iraq Study Group and others naively insist on linking progress in Iraq to the revival of Syrian-Israeli peace talks. If Israel returns the Golan Heights to Syria, the advocates of this line argue, the Assad regime will become more agreeable to helping the U.S. in Iraq and to reining in Hizballah and Hamas. But Assad may not be in a position to help achieve any of these things once the UN investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri is completed. The regime's real interest lies more in killing the Hariri investigation than in retrieving the Golan. It is also not really clear that Damascus actually can deliver the containment of Hizballah and Hamas, seeing that their real financial backer is Iran. So, unless the Assad regime suddenly becomes willing to turn against Iran, it is unlikely to cause a serious break in the flow of arms and funds to Lebanon and Gaza. The writer, a Syrian blogger and author, is a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy.
2006-12-28 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive