Militarily weak, threatened with sanctions and bordered by neighbours who are hostile or under US influence, Syria has chosen diplomacy in response to a weekend Israeli air strike on its territory.
But its decision to engage the UN Security Council is unlikely to bear fruit, given the reluctance of the United States to condemn any ”Israeli aggression” and the poor state of relations between Damascus and Washington.
Israel launched its attack on Syrian soil overnight on Saturday, targetting what it claimed was a Palestinian militant base in response to a suicide bombing that killed 19 people, and the bomber, and wounded at least 50.
On Monday, a Syrian official said that Damascus wants ”the United States to condemn the operation to show it is concerned for peace and stability in our very tense region.”
The ambassadors to Syria from the five permanent veto-holding members of the Security Council were called to the foreign ministry for Damascus to explain its position and urge them to support it.
Syria introduced a draft resolution that ”strongly condemns the military aggression carried by Israel against the sovereignty and territory of the Syrian Arab Republic.”
But US ambassador John Negroponte, who is also the current council president, argued at the United Nations that, in the US view, no new Security Council resolution was needed at this point.
”What is needed is for Syria to dismantle the terrorism in its borders,” he said, adding that Washington ”believes that Syria is on the wrong of the side of the war on terrorism.”
”We believe it is in Syria’s interest, and in the broader interest of Middle East peace, for Syria to stop harbouring and supporting the groups that perpetrate acts,” like Sunday’s suicide bombing.
They were remarks that have hit hard in Damascus, where officials have being trying to vaunt their cooperation with the United States in the war on terrorism since the September 11, 2001 attacks by the al-Qaeda network.
In this context, Syria has few illusions about its chances for success.
As one of the 10 non-permanent members of the council, Syria has already submitted a text condemning Israel’s decision to ”remove” Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. That resolution was vetoed by Washington.
In Damascus though, officials believe the resolution will at the very least show that the United States is out of step with the international community at a time when it is struggling to pass a resolution of its own on Iraq.
For the moment, Syria has the support of the Arab world and from key players in the European Union, like France and Germany, and even some from Washington’s ally in Iraq, Britain.
That will provide comfort while the US Congress debates the so-called Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act, aimed at making it withdraw troops from Lebanon, halt support for alleged terror groups and give up weapons of mass destruction.
If passed, it could ban US exports to Syria and business investment, downgrade Washington’s diplomatic representation or impose travel restrictions on Syrian diplomats in the United States until Damascus meets its demands.
According to British Syria expert Patrick Seale, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ”pushes the envelope with Washington every time, and adopting this law would help him because he has every interest in seeing a boycott of Syria.”
Added to this is a geopolitical problem that Syrian has not confronted before.
To the east, some 130 000 US soldiers in Iraq, to the south, an Israeli adversary with strong US support, and to the north, Turkey, still close to both Israel and the United States, despite its recent rapprochement with Syria. – Sapa-AFP