2003/04
Introduction of Market-oriented Reforms – Uncompromising Policies on Israel – Syria Included in ‘Axis of Evil’ – Oil Production Dwindles
President Bashar al-Assad is struggling to modernise the state-controlled econ- omy via a programme of cautious reforms, but has stopped well short of privatisation. Despite further amnesties of political prisoners, the liberalisation of the one-party state is not on the agenda, as was evidenced by arrests of intellectual dissenters in 2001. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict further hardened Syria’s anti-Israeli stance.
Freshened-up President Bashar, who took over as leader in July 2000 following the death of his father, Hafez, made his first cabinet changes in December 2001. The reshuf- fle swept aside many of the old guard, particularly in finance, the economy and industry, signalling Bashar’s determination to revive the flagging state-domi- nated economy through the introduction of market-oriented reforms. Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa Miro retained his post, while other sensitive portfolios, including defence and foreign affairs, remain in the hands of veteran politicians, Mustafa Tlass and Farouq al-Shara. On the domestic political front, Bashar maintained his policy of conciliation in 2001 and 2002, reversing the hardline stance of his father. In November 2001, Bashar released a further 113 political prisoners, including four leading mem- bers of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, which was persecuted during Hafez al-Assad’s rule. Other high-profile political exiles were also allowed to return to the country. Media controls were relaxed in 2001 and around 120 new publica- tions, satellite television and commercial radio music stations were licensed. The government is still nervous of opening the floodgates for a too-rapid liberalisation of the political system. Calls by an informal political grouping, the National Dialogue Forum (NDF), for an end to the one-party state and the authorisation of political parties prompted the government to close down the NDF and to arrest its leader, the parliamentarian Riyad Saif, together with nine other pro-reformers, in September 2001. Riyad Saif and Mamoun Homsi went on trial in November 2001, charged with participating in unlicensed assemblies and undermining the constitution. In March 2002, relatives of the detainees formed a committee to demand the release of the 10, calling on the government
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���9 | doi:�0.��63/978900439�533_0�7 254 2003/04 to permit free speech and observe human rights. In August 2002, the last three of the 10 detained men were sentenced to 2–5 years in prison. Analysts claim that the sentences marked a return to the hard line policies of Hafez, although the government pointed out that it had shown its desire to liberalise the coun- try by releasing Haitham Naal, Syria’s longest serving political prisoner, on grounds of ill health in the same month.
Support for Terror The escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2002 hardened Syria’s anti-Israeli stance. The government organised 200 mass rallies and demonstra- tions in Damascus in March and April 2002 in protest at Israel’s incursion into Palestinian-held territory. Since he came to power in July 2000, Bashar has maintained his father’s uncompromising policies, which demand the total withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories, including the return of the Golan Heights to Syria. In March 2002, Damascus publicly backed the Middle East peace initiative put forward by Saudi Arabia, calling for Israel’s withdrawal to its pre-1967 borders and the creation of a Palestinian state in return for rec- ognition of the state of Israel. Bashar remains unwavering in his support for the anti-Israeli militant groups, Harakat Al-Muqawama al-Islamia (Hamas) (Is- lamic Resistance Movement) and Hezbollah. In July 2002, Bashar rejected calls from the US president, George W Bush, for Syria to cut ties with Hezbollah. Syria maintains a military force of around 25,000 troops in Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based. Along with Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Libya and North Korea, Syria is one of the countries named by the US as part of an ‘Axis of Evil’ accused of sponsoring terrorism, despite President Bashar’s condemnation of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the US. In April 2002, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reiterated charges that the Syrian government was facilitating the flow of arms and finance for terrorist ac- tivity within the Middle East. In April 2002, some 155 US politicians put forward to Congress a proposal to introduce sanctions against Syria. Known as the Syr- ian Accountability Act, the proposed legislation would limit the movement of Syrian diplomats in the US and ban US exports to Syria deemed as having both a civilian and military use. The Bush administration rejected the introduction of the legislation, wanting to get Syria on side for any possible US-led attack against Iraq. In September 2002, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Satterfield said that ‘the imposition of new sanctions would severely limit our ability to address a range of important issues directly with the highest levels of the Syrian government. It would also render more dif- ficult our efforts to change Syrian behaviour and avoid a dangerous escalation of violence in the region’.