Policy of Syria

The Syria did not know a democratic election any more since the advent of the dictatorship baassist in 1963. Previously, of the democratic elections had been organized in 1943, the November 15th 1949, in September 1954, in May 1957 (bys-election) and on February 1st 1961 (see also reserved Sièges (Syrie)). Since 1963, the Syrian Arab Republic is controlled by the Parti Baath arrived at the capacity by a coup d'etat. The persons in charge with the capacity are for the majority resulting from the minority Alaouite. The Baath party holds the majority of the 2/3 in the Syrian Parliament (called Conseil of the people or Majlis ach-chaab ) which counts 250 members, the remainder of the seats (83) is occupied by independent deputies. The state of emergency is declared in Syria since 1963. With died of the president Hafez el-Assad in 2000, his/her son Bachar el-Assad takes the title of president.

Political system

The Syrian Constitution of the March 13rd 1973 explicitly gives to the Baath party the function of dominant party (with the simple majority of the seats to the Majlis ach-chaab ) and offers to the president very broad capacities. The president is named by n.c. and then approved at the time of a popular referendum for a seven years mandate. It cumulates also the functions of general secretary of the Baath party and chief of the progressive National front. The president has the right to name the ministers, to state the war, the state of emergency, to promulgate the laws (which require the ratification of the Council of the people to come into effect, except in period of state of emergency), to state the amnesty, to modify the Constitution like appointing the officials and the soldiers.

The economy is directed by five-year plans set up by the president and the progressive National front. FNP is supposed being a case of resonance of the company where the economic and political concerns are discussed. Nevertheless, the seizure of the party Ba' ace limits this function and the debates are well controlled by the apparatus of the party.

The Constitution of 1973, to guard itself against any external interference, requires explicitly that the president be Musulman. However, the Islam is not religion of State. The doctrines baassist are based on the nationalism side-Arabic and the socialism, it as much as possible seeks to exclude the religion from the policy.

The civil code includes/understands pieces of Islamic right as well as the influences of protectorate French (between 1920 and the independence of the April 17th 1946) and of the domination Othoman E. The legal system is built on three levels of jurisdictions: course of first authority, Court of Appeal and constitutional supreme court, supreme authority of the Syrian right. There exist two parallel systems: courses nuns which deal with the questions of private law (right of the family) and of the courses of safety of State which are denounced by Amnesty International for their faked lawsuits and the use of “consents” obtained under torture.

Syria is cut out of 14 provinces ( muhafazah ) administrative. Each one of them is directed by a governor, proposed by the Minister of Interior Department and approval by the cabinet of the Prime Minister. The governor is assisted by a provincial council elected by the population.

Actual position (March 2005)

The chief of Actual position is the president Bachar el-Assad, wire of the former president Hafez el-Assad, which dominated the country since his accession with the capacity in 1970 until his death in 2000. The alaouites, to which belongs the Assad family dominate the military stations most important as well as the sedentary apparatus. For a few years, the Baath party has been declining with the profit of the progressive National front ; with the accession of Bachar el-Assad to the " throne présidentiel" , an open monopartism was instituted: several parties saw their raised prohibition and can be described within the Baath party. This change is due, inter alia, with the progressive abandonment of the socialist doctrines baassist even if nationalism side-Arabic remains in the speech and propaganda (in particular in favor of the Palestinians). The army which occupies the largest share of the Syrian economy is also very influential politically: Hafez el-Assad was a general, fighter pilot, before even his accession with the capacity.

The political system seems moderately democratic already on paper but in the facts, the Baath party and the sedentary apparatus exert a control quasi-total on the political life of the country. Hafez el-Assad was confirmed at its position of president with five recoveries by a popular referendum, no candidate was never presented against him (at the time of the last referendum in n.c. only 219 Syrians voted against Hafez el-Assad on 9 million voters). Bachar el-Assad was confirmed at its position of president by a popular referendum in July 2000, it was the only candidate. The decisions are made in the circle baassisto-alaouite of the president and of the security services, the population has a very restricted electoral capacity. Syria is under state of emergency since 1963, the government justifies it by the state of war with Israel. Israel occupies since 1967 the plate of the Golan, territory Syrian which it annexed in 1981 without international recognition, which enables him to point its guns on the Syrian capital.

The capacity baassisto-alaouite in place with Damas maintains a political stability by two means: security services which have freehand and operate apart from the legal framework at the price of violations of the Human rights on the one hand; a representation of the religious minorities and farmers and workmen in the political authorities in addition. The civils servant are honest with respect to the capacity and wish its maintenance to keep their privileged place. The army is faithful to the government since it is resulting from its rows.

Six political parties are authorized to belong to FNP . FNP is at the same time a political party which has the absolute majority with the Council of the people and a political forum where various parties and political tendencies can be described. De facto the Baath party controls the internal debates but leaves certain relative questions to agriculture (30% of the credits in Syria are in agriculture) developing without obstacles. The parties of FNP other than the Baath party have only one importance modest but in 2000, the government had planned to include other parties hitherto a41dernier $c-b1, e,10 $c-b26 ce $c-b16 $c-b43, bn,84 prohibited in FNP . This change did not take place.

The Baath party dominates the known Syrian Parliament under the name of Conseil of the people. This authority is renewed every 4 years. The members of Parliament are not authorized to propose laws and is thus used mainly as room of recording of the laws suggested by the government. In 2002, two independent deputies (Mamoun Homsi and Riyadh Seif) who wished political reforms and it fine of the martial law saw themselves withdrawn their parliamentary privilege before being judged and condemned for attempt at illegal modification of the Constitution. Even if these opponents were judged by a civil court and not, as it is of use, by a military jurisdiction, the lawsuit remained skewed and the severe verdict. The government authorizes a quota of seats for the candidates not forming part of FNP . In the current legislature, elected in December 2002, 83 seats out of 250 are planned for these candidates. This quota leaves with FNP the majority of the two-thirds (absolute majority).

May 11th, 2007, Kamal Labouani, founder of the democratic liberal Gathering, stopped in 2005 with the return of a political round in the European Union and with the the United States, is condemned to twelve years of prison.

Political news

The president el-Assad addressed many peace proposals in exchange of the territory of Golan in summer 2007 Israeli to the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. These proposals refused by Olmert which considers that as long as Syria supports the Hezbollah, Golan will not be returned to him.

The plate of Golan

Occupied since the war of 1967 by the Israeli army, this plate makes it possible the Israeli army to point its guns on Damas, the Syrian capital, which is only to 50 km in against-low. In 1981, Israel annexed the plate of Golan. Negotiations sporadically take place between the two parts but for the moment without results. These negotiations are done sometimes by the discrete mediation of the United States. With arrived of Bachar el-Assad at the position of president and that of Ehoud Barak at the station of Prime Minister of Israel in 1999, the observers had believed in the possibility of an evolution of the situation. The resolution n.c. of the United Nations on n.c. condemned the occupation of the plate of Golan by the Israeli army.

The support for the armed groups

Syria supports openly the Hezbollah, political party Shiite with military branches established in the south of Lebanon. The United States and the the European Parliament regard Hezbollah as an terrorist organization, whereas the Conseil of the European Union regards the senior officer of the intelligence services of Hezbollah Imad Fa' iz Mughniyah as terrorist, but that does not relate to the branch civil and armed with the organization which is located inside Lebanon. UNO does not consider Hezbollah as an terrorist organization but it has to invite to dismantle and disarm the organization as soon as possible by the resolution 1559.

Hezbollah strongly decreased its military actions against Israel since the withdrawal quasi-total of Tsahal of South-Lebanon. The October 5th 2003, the Israeli air force strikes what she denounces like camps of drive of the Islamic Djihad in Syria, a military group and operative policy on the Palestinian occupied territories and in Israel.

The support of Damas for the Islamic Djihad and Hezbollah justifies the inscription of Syria on the list of the States which support terrorism published annually by the American State Department.

The question Lebanon ease

The Syrian army occupied most of the Lebanon since 1975. The Syrian army and the special services withdrew themselves from Lebanon at the end of April 2005. The departure of the special services makes nevertheless debate, Kofi Annan, the general secretary of UNO and part of the politicians Lebanese doubted their complete departure.

The United States and France (inter alia) reproach Syria its direct involvement in the assassination of Lebanese the Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in February 2005. Syria denies any implication in this assassination like those of other Lebanese political personalities. An interim report of UNO directed by the prosecutor Detlev Mehlis is made public on October 21st, 2005 and concludes with an implication as well Lebanese as Syrian (http://www.un.org/News/dh/docs/mehlisreport/) in the assassination from Hariri. The successor of Mehlis, Serge Brammertz, will show himself less categorical than his predecessor in the following interim reports.

See also Ghazi Kanaan

The question of the United States of America

Under the administration Clinton, the United States and Syria maintained a dialog discrete but continuous without for all this the bilateral relations know a particular warming. With the threats of invasion of the Iraq by the United States under the Bush administration, the tensions were made sharp more. Syria, contrary to the first war of the Gulf where it had been invested against Iraq does not have this time not accepted that its Iraqi neighbor is attacked by the United States and thus sharply criticized in the name of the side-Arabism baasist this war which could cause him collateral damage (reception of Iraqi refugees, economic aids and military in Iraq).

Since the beginning of the year 2005, and their military occupation of Iraq, the United States reproaches Syria for letting pass from the combatants towards Iraq to probably fight militarily, and by attacks, against the mode pro-states-unien set up at Baghdad. The origin of its combatants is rather fuzzy. Nevertheless young islamist French were challenged in Syria in Koranic schools which are used as relay for their passage in Iraq. The political parties Shiite representatives the Iraqi (more than 60% of the Iraqi population) as well as the Kurdish (nearly 30%) denounce the role of Syria in the perpetuation of the attacks in Iraq.

The United States shows moreover Syria to have offered asylum to members of the apparatus of State of the time of Saddam Hussein.

The American president George W. Bush denounced in her State of the Union of 2005 Syria like a member of the Axe of the evil . It called Syria a terrorist State.

The néo-conservatives posts some in the Bush administration, galvanized by their military success in the absence of being political in Iraq, wish the fall of the current Syrian mode. This position is not the official position of the United States but the declarations of Condoleeza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld threatening Syria explicitly let think that an military intervention is perhaps considered. However, the difficulties encountered for the pacification of Iraq would militarily prevent the United States from invading Syria.

Partnership Syria European Union

The Syrian economy is breathless fault of reforms and Damas counts on obtaining a partnership with the EU to leave the crisis. Since May 1998, negotiations to arrive to a treaty of association are in hand. The obstacles are enormous: saving in State directed, non-existent banking system, corruption, authoritative government and choking bureaucracy.

This partnership is weakened even compromised today by the Mehlis report/ratio of UNO which was made public on October 20th, 2005 and which clearly indicates Syria like principal instigator of the assassination of Rafiq Hariri in February 2005. Several European countries whose France support sanctions of UNO against Syria.

External bonds

Syria under the fire of criticisms

Sources

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