Daily Alert Archives

Confronting Damascus: U.S. Policy toward Syria

(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Andrew J. Tabler - The best way the U.S. has of ensuring that President Assad steps aside and expediting a more democratic government in Syria is to implement "Plan B" - a coordinated effort to pressure the regime from the ground up. The U.S. should work to forge and lead a coalition of countries to more directly support the opposition within Syria. Gulf countries have already indicated a willingness to help arm the opposition. Turkey, which had to deal recently with live fire from Assad's forces in the Oncupinar Syrian refugee camp, is now considering methods to funnel support to the opposition and has reportedly developed a contingency plan to create border safe havens for refugees within Syrian territory. In the short term, the U.S. should share limited intelligence with the opposition inside Syria concerning the deployment and movement of regime forces, especially as they approach population centers for an assault. Second, the U.S. should assess ways to support popular self-defense alongside civil resistance as two sides of the opposition coin. Third, Washington should immediately expand contingency planning about possible direct U.S. military support as part of actions to head off massacres or a humanitarian disaster. This includes supporting the creation, with allies such as Turkey, of safe havens inside Syria. Greater U.S. involvement would increase the chances that the new Syria is much more democratic and closer to American interests than Bashar al-Assad's regime. The writer, a fellow in The Washington Institute's Program on Arab Politics, testified before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee on April 25, 2012.
2012-04-30 00:00:00
Full Article