[...]... during them, the Syrians went out of their way to treat their counterparts as political forces in their own right THE SOVIETS HANG ON Yet, while changes in the Soviet -Syrian relationship are real and profound, they must not be exaggerated Moscow remains engaged in the Middle East and Assad continues to be its principal ally in the region In 1988, well into the era of new thinking, Assad granted the Soviets... longer enjoys the same degree of across-theboard support from the Soviet Union that he enjoyed before."10 6 Pravda, April 25, 1987 ^The Washington Post, September 25, 1987 8 The New York Times, November 28, 1989 ^Al-Hamishmar and Ha 'aretz, June 16, 1991 l0 Kol Yisrael, December 28, 1989 16 DAMASCUS COURTS THE WEST Like many others, the Syrian leadership sees the need to respond to changes in the Soviet... in building their militaries than their countries Each of them looked to Moscow for primary support, but on occasion wooed the U.S government Both rely extensively on the terrorist ^Amos Gilboa, a former Israeli intelligence officer, quoted in Alan Cowell, "Trouble in Damascus, " The New York Times Magazine, April 1, 1990 4 DAMASCUS COURTS THE WEST instrument They have claimed to represent the Palestinians... the other studies stress tensions As a visiting fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on a previous occasion, I wrote an article ("Syria: The Cuba of the Middle East?" Commentary, July 1986) making the case for the minority point of view 14 DAMASCUS COURTS THE WEST Central Europe's new rulers are not only inclined to renounce ties with the friends of the old regime, but (in the words... construct a naval base at the port city of Tartus, making this the only Soviet base in the Mediterranean and possibly the largest permanent Soviet naval base outside the USSR NATO sources quoted in Jane's Defence Weekly noted that the Tartus base gave "a significant boost to the Soviet naval presence in the Mediterranean." 1 1 The base also gave the Syrians leverage over their Soviet patron—something... of the seats,were precisely allotted to the ruling Progressive National Front: 134 to the Ba'th Party, 8 each to the Communist Party and the Socialist Union Party, 7 to the Socialist Unionists Party, 5 to the Arab Socialist Party, and 4 to the Democratic Socialist Unionist Party SOVIET RETREAT AND THE KUWAIT CRISIS 19 These minuscule improvements did not, however, impress the U.S State Department The. .. 1990), p 1579 The quotation from the 1990 report is on p 1646 20 The New York Times, March 19, 1990 20 DAMASCUS COURTS THE WEST demands are fulfilled.21 The Syrian authorities no longer mentioned "strategic parity", for years the keystone of their strategy vis-a-vis Israel Assad also improved relations with the West To appease American and European sentiments, he allowed some young, single Syrian Jewish... in the Soviet Union by going beyond the Kremlin to establish bonds with new, emerging centers of power within the borders of the decaying Soviet empire Their only natural constituency being the 55 million Muslims who make up one-fifth of the Soviet population, these have been the objects of Syrian attention Visits were exchanged between Syrian officials and those of the six Muslim republics (Azerbaijan,... institutions with other command economies, some reforms are simple to make For example, by paying the market price for wheat, the government contributed to a 22 percent increase in the 1991 crop 1 'Syria has three legal exchange rates: official (11 Syrian pounds to the dollar); promotional (20 pounds to the dollar); and neighboring country (42 pounds to the dollar) The third of these equals the old black-market... months with their American counterparts in the deserts of Arabia, facing down Saddam Hussein When war came, American and Syrian soldiers stood together and called themselves allies Second, the Syrian media toned down their habitually vicious anti-American rhetoric; no longer did the United States stand accused of heinous imperialism At the same time, diplomatic contacts increased steadily, from the assistant . Daniel " ;Damascus Courts the West: Syrian Politics, 1989-1991& quot; / Daniel Pipes. p. cm. - (Policy papers / Washington Institute for Near East Policy: no. 26) Includes. assessing how they should best avail themselves of this new moment in Syrian politics for the good of the people of the Middle East Syrian and non- Syrian alike. This