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For Syria, voting no was not an
option
By George Baghdadi
DAMASCUS - France and the US leaned heavily on
Syria to vote for the United Nations resolution on Iraq
after some fears that it might abstain.
A call
from the office of French President Jacques Chirac to
Syrian leaders helped nudge Syria towards voting with
the rest, officials here say. Chirac had visited
Damascus last month. France advised Syria that a "yes"
vote would help it break out of the political and
economic isolation it faces, officials said.
US
Secretary of State Colin Powell sent a letter to Syrian
Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara saying that a unanimous
vote would "serve to avoid a future military
confrontation".
There are fears in Damascus that
if war does break out, Syria could be next in line.
"Syria fears also that Israel could use a war with Iraq
as cover for action against Syria," an analyst said.
Syrian officials had before them the example of
Yemen which voted against a United Nations (UN) Security
Council resolution approving the Gulf War in 1990. The
US cut off aid to the country, with one official calling
Yemen's vote "the most expensive 'no' in history".
After the last eight weeks of intense
negotiations, there had been little doubt that the
resolution drafted by the US and co-sponsored by Britain
would be adopted with broad support. But unanimity still
had appeared a dream, largely because of Syria, the only
Arab member of the 15-member Security Council.
The resolution, which was passed unanimously by
council members Friday, requires Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein to cooperate fully with UN weapons inspectors
and warns of "serious consequences" if Baghdad fails to
cooperate.
The resolution gives Iraq until
November 15 to notify the UN of its readiness to comply,
and 30 days to disclose details of its weapons
capabilities.
Syria's deputy UN envoy Faysal
Mekdad said his country voted after receiving assurances
from key nations "that this resolution would not be used
as a pretext to strike Iraq" and because it "reaffirms
the central role of the Security Council".
Patrick Seale, a Syria expert and biographer of
the late Syrian President Hafez Assad, says Syria voted
for the revised resolution because it did not
automatically trigger war and because it incorporated
changes proposed by France.
"The resolution in
its final form amounts to a significant victory for
multilateralism over American unilateralism," Dr Imad
Fawzi Shuaibi, a professor at Damascus University told
IPS. "At the same time it gives Saddam a final
opportunity to cooperate with inspectors, holds out the
possibility of lifting 12-year-old sanctions imposed
after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, and reaffirms the
country's sovereignty."
But other analysts say
Syria had no choice. "Syria voted yes because once
France, Russia and China were on board, opposition was a
lost cause and Syria didn't want to be the odd one out,"
said one analyst. "For Syria the priority is the
Israeli-Palestinian issue. It does not want to be in the
bad books of the US on this point."
Syrian
leaders say they have expressed the Arab view in the
vote. "In the Arab world they don't want war against
Iraq," Mekdad told media representatives after the vote.
"They want to solve the issue in peaceful ways and want
to solve all other problems in the region."
Syria is keen to go with the UN for its own
reasons. It has depended on UN Security Council
resolutions in its diplomatic campaign to force Israel
to return the Golan Heights and other land seized in the
1967 war.
The Syrian vote is unlikely to create
difficulties with its Arab neighbors. "We have always
respected Security Council resolutions," said Hisham
Youssef, spokesman for the Arab League. "Many Arab
countries have already indicated that once the Security
Council votes, the resolution will be respected."
Arab views were being discussed at a meeting of
foreign ministers from the 22 members of the Arab League
to in Cairo Saturday.
(Inter Press
Service)
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