Region | Syria
Sarkozy in Syria today
French President Nicholas Sarkozy visits Damascus on Wednesday for a high-profile meeting with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, giving Syria "diplomatic victory" following years of political isolation, a top Syrian expert told Gulf News.
- By Layelle Saad, Deputy Editor GCC/Middle East
- Published: 23:15 September 2, 2008
- Bashar Al Assad wants to regain the confidence of the West and Sarkozy has acknowledged that Syria has an "essential role" in the Middle East.
- Image Credit: Gulf News archive
Dubai: French President Nicholas Sarkozy visits Damascus on Wednesday for a high-profile meeting with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, giving Syria "diplomatic victory" following years of political isolation, a top Syrian expert told Gulf News.
Professor Murhaf Jouejati, a professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the National Defence University in Washington DC, said Sarkozy's visit will be the first time a Western head of state will be coming to Syria in five years.
"This visit ends Syria's regional isolation," Jouejati said.
Sarkozy's two-day trip is also important in improving relations that were soured following the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafiq Hariri - a close friend of former French President Jacques Chirac.
Bashar wants to regain the confidence of the West and Sarkozy has acknowledged that Syria has an "essential role" in the Middle East.
Six weeks ago, Bashar had visited Paris to discuss regional cooperation and normalisation of relations between France and Syria. The talks proved to be successful as Lebanon and Syria established diplomatic ties for the first time, just a week back, and exchanged ambassadors.
Stabilising role
"France wants Syria to play a stabilising role in Lebanon to push forward with peace talks with Israel and to improve its human rights record with regard to political prisoners," Jouejati said.
Syria hopes the visit will bring it closer to Washington and expects the administration to be involved in indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel, Jouejati added.
Also, Bashar wants to reopen discussion on free trade agreement with the EU, which Syria was hoping to finalise four years ago.
In 2004, talks halted after Syria fell out of favour with the West. This was primarily because of the refusal of Damascus to join the US-led war on Iraq. It soured relationships with the US that labelled Syria a "pariah" state owing to its close ties with Iran and Hezbollah and also for allowing fighters to cross its borders to fight in Iraq.
Before Sarkozy's visit, Human Rights Watch submitted a letter addressed to the French president, urging him to inquire about the suppression of a riot at Saydnaya prison, north of the Syrian capital in July, in which the rights group said 25 people were killed. They also called on him to put pressure on Syria to stop the persecution of political prisoners.
Cautiously optimistic
Jouejati is "cautiously optimistic" that Sarkozy will be effective in pressurising Syria to release political prisoners. The release of Syrian political dissident Aref Dalilah proves that France has been putting pressure on the regime to respect freedom of speech and human rights, he said. However, Syria has arrested more political dissidents since then.
Tomorrow, Sarkozy will hold four-way talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar and Bashar. He will discuss the next steps in holding indirect peace talks with Israel, for which Turkey has been mediating since May.
While Sarkozy's visit was expected to add momentum to the peace talks, Jouejati told Gulf News that he did not think the talks would be successful without any US involvement.
"Israel has a lame duck Prime Minister, who is unable to offer Syria what it wants - the Golan Heights," Jouejati said.
"The current US administration does not want to engage the Al Assad regime. So we will have to wait for the next president," he said.
Regardless of the success on the Arab-Israeli front, Sarkozy's visit strengthens Bashar's popularity with the Syrian public for having broken free of the political stranglehold that Washington had placed on him, Jouejati explained.
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