The 3 Times that Baathist Syria Refused to Betray the Resistance

Mohammad Hussein Wazarati, Orinoco Tribune, January 9, 2025 —

“One must avoid being negligent about the enemy, one must not underestimate the enemy, and one must not trust the enemy’s smile. Sometimes the enemy speaks to a person with a pleasant tone and with a smile, but carries a dagger behind his back, waiting for the right opportunity.“—Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, December 11, 2024

The first time

On May 4, 2003, just three days after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime and the US occupation of Iraq, Colin Powell, then US secretary of State, traveled to Syria on George W Bush’s orders. Regarding his meeting with Bashar al-Assad, then president of Syria, Powell said:

If Syria continues to serve as the transit point for equipment and military equipment and weapons and armaments that might be heading to Hezbollah in Lebanon, then we will have continuing difficulty with Syria. And Syria will not find that it is on the path to a better relationship with the United States, and it would not be in their interest in—as a result of that. And we also made that clear to President Bashar Assad.

The clear message to President Bashar Assad was that there is a new situation in the region with the end of the Hussein regime, and with a commitment on the part of the United States and President Bush to go forward with the Middle East peace plan and to table a roadmap, and he can be a part of positive developments in the region if he chooses to do so.

So this isn’t a question of accepting his assurances, or accepting statements that he makes. This is a question of laying out an agenda for him, things we would like to see movement on, and we will measure whether or not he moves on them or not, and that will be an indication of whether he wants a better relationship or not.

During this meeting, Powell explained to Assad Washington’s plan for West Asia and threatened him that he must change his behavior to align with the implementation of this plan. The martyred Secretary General of Hezbollah, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, said about this meeting and its purpose:

The first step was the war in Afghanistan and the second step was the war in Iraq. After the occupation of Iraq, Colin Powell, who was US Secretary of State at that time, went to Damascus with a long list of Washington’s conditions and met with Bashar al-Assad. At that time, the Americans threatened Syria that if these conditions were not met, they would bring war to that country as well. Their conditions were related to the Golan Heights, Palestine, the Palestinian resistance, Lebanese Hezbollah, and others. In any case, the list was long and extensive. Despite Washington’s threats, Bashar al-Assad refused to surrender to them. In the end, thanks to the strategy and courage of the resistance front, the United States was unable to complete its Greater Middle East plan. After failing to achieve the objectives of occupying Iraq and the Zionist regime’s defeat in the 33-day war, the United States was forced to withdraw its forces from Iraq in 2011 despite all its financial, human, and reputation losses and its expenditure of much money, lives, and resources to achieve its plan for the region.

The second time

Before the beginning of the war in Syria in 2011, opponents of the resistance front entered into negotiations with Syria. Through the mediation of countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and teams that went to Syria country from the United States and some European countries like France, they carried forward negotiations and presented proposals to Bashar al-Assad and Syrian state officials. Among these proposals was the opening up of trade between Syria and Western countries, including the US. But in exchange for these gifts and offerings, they asked Syria to cut Iran out from the region, reduce its relationship with Iran to a minimum, and stop supporting Hezbollah. Bashar al-Assad did not accept their demands and never agreed to such an agreement. They even assigned the King of Saudi Arabia to negotiate with Bashar al-Assad, to tell him that if he did not agree to reach an agreement with the United States and the Europeans, he would face many consequences and problems, but Bashar al-Assad, once again, did not accept these negotiations imposed upon him.

The martyr Nasrallah had explained:

Before the efforts to overthrow the Damascus government began, many efforts were made to push President Bashar al-Assad to drag Syria’s leadership and state toward another axis. The Saudis were working on this matter to the extent that King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz personally went to Damascus despite the siege that he was imposing on Syria. The Qataris also made many efforts to achieve this goal. Turkey tried, along with several other Arab countries, including Egypt under Hosni Mubarak, to convince Syria to join the opposing front. The Americans and their allies, through political promises and tempting financial offers to Assad, tried to direct Syria toward another axis called the “Arab moderate axis,” the one that we call the axis of  surrender.

Nevertheless, Bashar al-Assad and other leaders in Syria continued to emphasize their firm position in supporting the resistance, as they considered that the Arab-Israeli battle was still ongoing. Bashar al-Assad believed that “without decisively resolving the occupied Golan issue and without the return of Palestinians’ stolen rights, there is no possibility for peace in the region.”

The third time

Only a few weeks before December 20, when US sanctions on Syria were set to expire and the US Congress would decide whether to extend them, the Western-Arab-Israeli axis moved again, and promises were made to Syria to ease sanctions on condition of accepting the usual terms. Reuters published a report citing informed sources that the United States and the United Arab Emirates negotiated together about the possibility of lifting sanctions against Assad and Syria if they distanced themselves from Iran and cut weapon supply routes to Hezbollah.

Lebanese media also published a report about this matter, stating that the Zionist entity had also proposed lifting Washington’s sanctions on Syria.

After the occupation entity’s attack on Hezbollah, White House officials conducted negotiations with their Emirati counterparts, following the UAE’s readiness to make financial commitments for Syria’s reconstruction and weakening Assad’s position. Washington believed that the possibility of lifting sanctions on Syria simultaneously with Israel’s strikes on Iran’s allies presented an opportunity to implement a carrot-and-stick policy to break Syria’s alliance with Iran and Hezbollah.

However, at the time these negotiations were being conducted by one wing of the Western-Arab-Israeli axis before the Syrian opposition’s attack on Aleppo, we saw the other wing of the same axis, not committed to the agreement or its pledges, sending a flood of armed opposition fighters toward Damascus. Despite the agreement at the Doha summit, which convened to discuss the latest developments in Syria, to address the Syria issue politically and reach a solution and for Assad’s government to enter negotiations with the armed opposition, the course of field events in Syria showed that Turkey reneged on what it had signed as one of the three guarantors of the Astana agreement.

Yes, as Imam Khamenei said, “one must avoid being negligent about the enemy.”