Washington: Brookings Institution, 2009. — XI, 24 p. — ISBN: 978-0-8157-0324-2
This analysis paper brings together three interrelated issues:
The Israeli-Syrian relationship (i.e., the two countries’ conflict and the efforts to resolve it);
Washington’s bilateral relationship with Damascus;
And the role played by these two issues within the larger context of U.S. policy in the Middle East.These issues are addressed in three sections of the paper. The first section, the Israeli-Syrian relationship, presents historical background of the Arab-Israeli peace process begun in 1974, with particular emphasis paid to the 1990s, when Israel and Syria were engaged in peace negotiations with the active involvement of the United States. The second section, Washington’s relationship with Damascus, reviews and analyzes developments during the present decade, when the George W. Bush Administration sought to isolate Syria while Israel and Syria took part in indirect negotiations following Israel’s preventive military action against Syria’s clandestine nuclear reactor. The third section analyzes policy options for the Obama Administration regarding U.S. relations with Syria.
