While Abu Mazen's Syria visit concentrated on the plight of Palestinian refugees, its real import was Damascus's diplomatic gain, writes Sami Moubayed Consecutive regimes in Syria have consistently engaged in disputes with the Palestinian leadership, led from 1965 until 2004 by the late President Yasser Arafat. On rare occasions the two parties cooperated, such as in 1978, when they opposed Egyptian President Anwar Al-Sadat's visit to Jerusalem, and in 1982, when Israel invaded Lebanon. More recently, they cooperated in 2003 against Mahmoud Abbas, who they viewed as an American imposed political counterweight to Arafat. Syria vigorously opposed the appointment of Abbas, claiming that he was an American creation, and lobbied against the "Road Map" for peace which he strongly advocated. Two years later, during his recent 6-8 July visit, Syria embraced Abbas and welcomed him to Damascus in an attempt to reconcile their differences. Abbas came to Syria with a varied agenda, wanting to rebuild damaged ties with the Syrian government as well as reconcile with the Palestinian resistance based in Damascus. Realising that he cannot succeed as long as the resistance remains active and on the offensive, and rather than attempt to disarm them forcefully, Abbas's strategy is to convince them to join the political process and end the five-year Intifada. Abbas's main goal is to include Hamas and Islamic Jihad in a national unity government that would oversee the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, scheduled for 15 August, 2005. Both movements, apparently, have turned down his offer. As Abbas was making headlines in Damascus, Hamas activist Mahmoud Al-Zahhar told reporters in Gaza that Hamas would not disarm, nor would it cease attacks on Israel after the withdrawal from Gaza. Following several Israeli killings of Palestinians hours earlier, including that of a Palestinian boy by Israeli soldiers in Nablus, and the killing of a member of Islamic Jihad in Gaza, the leaders of Hamas told Abbas in Damascus that their refusal to join the government was based on continuing Israeli violence against Palestinians. In addition, the groups will not cooperate with the Palestinian Authority (PA) unless Abbas sets a date for legislative elections, which he postponed in June 2005, and creates an observatory team to oversee the implementation of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. This team would answer to the PLO and not the PA. From Ramallah, Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei turned down the demand, saying that there will be no "secondary administration" in Palestine to compliment the duties of the PA. Meanwhile, other leaders of the resistance, such as Ahmed Jibril, the veteran commander of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), met with Abbas but made no public statement on whether they would join a national unity government. While Abbas's reconciliation with the resistance failed, the remainder of his trip was a success, mending ties with Damascus and ending the long-standing animosity between Ramallah and Damascus. When Abu Mazen became prime minister in 2003, Syria worked relentlessly against him, seeing him as a product of US pressure on Arafat to produce a flawed peace with Israel. President Bashar Al-Assad ended the gridlock by attending Arafat's funeral in November 2004. Pictures of Arafat were plastered all over Damascus in a show of solidarity with the Palestinians, and his death received front page news in the Syrian press. Syria welcomed Mahmoud Abbas in Damascus in December 2004 with red-carpets, expressing solidarity with his new government and referring to him as "Mr President" rather than "Chairman of the PLO" as it used to address Arafat. The Syrians today realise that they have much to gain from Mahmoud Abbas, as he is one of Syria's last remaining lines of communication to the Americans. Abbas would like the resistance to disarm and join the political process in Palestine. In the past, Syria would certainly have refused such an agenda, dismissing Abu Mazen as a perverter of the Palestinian cause. But today, Syria welcomed Abbas's agenda, making no mention of disarming the resistance, and stressing that it supported intra-Palestinian dialogue and encouraged Hamas and Islamic Jihad to join the PA government. As long as Abbas continues to call for the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and continues to defend the right of return of the 3.7 million Palestinians living in the diaspora, Syria will support him. By joining the PA government, Hamas and Islamic Jihad would, in effect, be killing the Syrian-embraced Intifada. Yet this is a price Syria is willing to pay to avoid another head-on collision with the Americans. For Syria, getting Hamas and Islamic Jihad to return to Palestine, which was discussed during Abbas's visit, would be a blessing. It would free Syria from a large political burden, and leave the issue of Palestine to Abu Mazen to deal with on his own. Currently, there are seven resistance groups based in Syria, and 400,000 Palestinian refugees out of Syria's total population of 18 million. The majority are from occupied Palestine: 40 per cent from Safad, 20 per cent from Haifa, 16 per cent from Tiberias, eight per cent from Acre, five per cent from Nazareth, while four per cent are from Ramallah and other districts. Syria needs Mahmoud Abbas to be its mediator to Washington and has welcomed him so warmly for many reasons. First, his visit ends the international isolation imposed on Syria since the passing of UN Resolution 1559 in 2004. Abbas is only the second head of state to visit Syria in 2005, preceded only by Turkish President Ahmad Nejdet Cesar. Second, it re-activates Syria's role in the Middle East, increasing its visibility. Third, it boosts the regime's image at home by showing that even during the most difficult of times, it is still committed to the Palestinian cause. Fourth, it feeds the image of Syria as a mediator and force for stability in the Middle East, rather than a troublemaker.
