Collapse

Barrett: The Collapse of Iraq and Syria
words increased, Assad suffered another blow. King Feisal of Saudi Arabia
had been a steadfast Assad supporter and an absolute opponent of the Egyptian
agreements with Israel; however, a troubled, American-educated family
member assassinated the king. Isolated and assailed by Cairo, Baghdad, and
Washington and effectively isolated by U.S. diplomacy in the region, Assad
became heavily reliant on his relationship with the Soviet Union. 113
In addition, two new developments threatened the Assad regime. In 1975,
full-scale civil war broke out in Lebanon and, by early 1976, the Lebanese
army and security services had divided along sectarian lines and collapsed.
Lebanon, a microcosm, not only of Syria but Iraq as well, put ethnic and
sectarian chaos at Assad’s doorstep. For the Assad regime, it was a nightmare
that seemed to be spreading. In 1976, an insurrection that would last
for six long years broke out in Syria pitting the Muslim Brotherhood (Sunni
backers in Iraq and the Arabian Gulf) against the Ba’thist state dominated
by Alawite apostates. What began as assassinations of government officials
escalated into a full-blown revolt centered on Aleppo in 1980 and Hama in
1982. 114 The Brotherhood exploited old rivalries between regions and overlaid
it with the ideology of jihad against the Alawite apostates.
Syria-Iraq and Another Proposal for Unity
By 1978, isolated and desperate for allies, the Assad regime sought a rapprochement
with the Bakr regime in Baghdad which now was basking in
the flood of oil money generated by the embargo five years earlier. It was a
means of gaining some breathing space and securing his flank against Iraqi
support for the insurgency. On 26 October, Iraq and Syria signed the Charter
for Joint National Action and began to move toward a unity agreement.
Given the history of relations between Assad and Hussein, the real power in
Baghdad, the odds of unification occurring were remote. Conjecture about
who actually scuttled the talks, Saddam or Assad, are academic—some historians
have argued that unified with Iraq, Assad could not hope to retain
power because of Iraqi wealth and the confluence of Sunni interests. Others
countered that it was Saddam Hussein that opposed the union because with
Bakr as the president of the new unified Ba’th and Assad as his deputy,
Hussein would be the odd man out and his opportunity for personal rule
in Iraq would vanish.
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