Politics

Gareth Evans 

The border between Israel and Syria has been Israel’s quietest since 1974, and neither side has any interest in again setting the Golan front alight. It is time to translate that reality into a full-scale peace agreement between the two countries. The parameters of that agreement are well known, have been long debated and – in a rational world – would be readily achievable. The resumption of serious negotiations would be positive news in a region that desperately needs some at the moment, and a successful outcome a potentially major catalyst for making major progress elsewhere. Just what a fair and comprehensive Israeli-Syrian deal would look like is no mystery. The outlines of an achievable deal, put forward in a 2002 International Crisis Group report* and recently restated in the context of an unofficial peace initiative involving private Israeli and Syrian citizens, are based on the following key points:

Sami Moubayed

Imad Moustapha has challenged a long-standing principle which says that career diplomats are better at diplomacy than people who are parachuted into the job from other fields. His tenure in Washington DC has been one of the richest and most prolific since Syria sent its first ambassador to the United States in 1945. The current Syrian Ambassador was previously the Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science at Damascus University. Prior to his diplomatic appointment in 2004, the Syrians knew him as an academic, a writer, and a patron of the arts. A common face at art exhibitions, operas, and theatrical plays, Moustapha was always a highly accessible man who endeared himself to all those who knew him, from students at university who looked up to him as a friend and role model, to ambitious young musicians wanting to make a break-through in the artistic community. In many ways, his surrounding has changed since 2004. He now has to deal with the hostile hawks at the Bush administration— the Neocones—constantly having to tell them that unlike what is said in the United States, Syria is not a state sponsor of terrorism. Syria is a country with a just cause, an occupied land, a rational foreign policy, and a great civilization. He does this in a variety of ways—his ways—that vary from administering an online blog, to speaking at universities, and appearing on talk shows on US television. The doors to the Middle East run through Damascus, he always says. His job— for obvious reasons—has not been easy given the US attitude towards Syria since the war on Iraq in 2003. This summer, Ambassador Moustapha came to Damascus for a much needed and well-deserved vacation. Having regularly contributed to our magazine since its launch in January 2007, both as a friend and an ambassador, he took the time to speak to Forward about the nature and future of Syrian-US relations.