The year of 2004 is by no means going smoothly for Syria, a hardliner in the eyes of the United States and Israel.

The United States, the sole super power, slapped economic sanctions on Syria in May and secured a UN resolution in September targeting Damascus and urging it to stop meddling in affairs of neighboring Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Washington has accused Damascus of supporting terrorism, seeking weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and doing too little to stop border infiltrations into Iraq.

On the other hand, Israel thrust out at times strong warnings of military attacks as the Jewish state believed Damascus was behind some suicide attacks against it by Palestinian militants.

Deteriorating international and regional environment has led to a tangible change of the Arab country's foreign policy.

Without compromising on its principled stances, Syria showed willingness to continue dialogue with Washington and made efforts to address the US concern on the issue of border infiltrations into Iraq.

Moreover, Damascus intended to open the door of dialogue with the European Union. The two sides finally achieved consensus on the long-standing issue of WMD and initialed the association agreement in October.

As for arch-foe Israel, Damascus has repeatedly underscored its willingness to resume peace talks, which, however, was rebuffed by the Jewish state.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has also carried out a shuttle diplomacy to woo international and regional support.

MOUNTING PRESSURE

After long contemplation, the United States imposed economic sanctions on Damascus on May 11 under the Syria Accountability Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush last December.

However, with trade between the two countries only valued at about 300 million US dollars, the sanctions were widely considered to have more political impact.

Brushing aside the negative impact, Syria did not give up its efforts to continue dialogue with Washington.

"The policy of pressure will not solve existing problems between the two countries, but will aggravate them," then Syrian Information Minister Ahmed Ahmad Hassan said.

His remarks were echoed by Foreign Minister Faruk al-Shareh, who said Damascus wants a "constructive and objective dialogue to settle outstanding issues" with Washington.

But Washington dealt another blow to Damascus barely four months later.

Despite strong objection from Syria and Lebanon, the UN Security Council narrowly adopted a US-sponsored resolution demanding respect for Lebanon's sovereignty and a withdrawal of foreign forces.

The resolution did not mention Syria by name but apparently pointed at it, as Damascus still deploys about 14,000 troops in Lebanon and serves as a main power broker there.

The military presence is welcomed by Lebanon, which has reiterated that the Syrian army has been a stabilizing factor since the 1975-1990 civil war in Lebanon.

Angered by the resolution, Syria claimed that such a resolution interfered in the internal affairs of an independent country.

Nevertheless, all these adverse developments did not stop Damascus from further engagement with Washington, as demonstrated by President Assad who still sought dialogue while receiving US congressman Darel Issa and two US scholars on Sept. 4.

In fact, the US-Syrian dialogue was never interrupted. US congressional and scholar delegations have visited Damascus since the sanctions were imposed.

Meanwhile, Syria endeavors to strengthen its solidarity with other Arab and friendly countries as a "first choice" under pressure and its efforts seemed to have paid off.

President Assad made visits to Turkey, Spain, China, Iran, in addition to trips to neighboring countries, during which he reasserted his country's principled stances and garnered support.

Arab foreign ministers on Sept. 14 voiced "full solidarity" with Lebanon against any attempt to sever Lebanon-Syria ties and renewed rejection to a unilateral US sanction against Syria.

Another major breakthrough in Syria's diplomacy was the finalization of its association agreement with the European Union, the largest trading partner of the Arab country. bilateral trade volumes exceed 6 billion US dollars each year.

Last December, Syria and the EU ended negotiation on the association agreement but the signing ceremony was held at the last minute as three countries -- Britain, Germany and the Netherlands -- insisted on including in the final text a much stricter clause on the non-proliferation of WMD.

After the US sanctions, the EU, under suspicion of following suit, distanced itself from Washington, saying that it has an independent foreign policy and would not influenced by Washington's decision although they are allies.

Damascus, for its part, has made continued efforts to bargain with the EU countries.

After rounds of coordination, the two sides finally reached consensus on WMD in September and the final endorsement of the agreement was expected to be in next spring.

BORDER INFILTRATIONS

The issue of border infiltrations has been unremittingly brought forward by both the Bush administration and the interim Iraqi government as a serious source of instability in Iraq.

Syria and Iraq have a 600 km-long common desert frontier which is hard to control. Members of nomad tribes reportedly cross the frontier constantly.

Syria's offer to cooperate in this respect has been questioned by Washington and Bagdad.

Interim Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiar al-Zibari has stated either explicitly or implicitly since the transfer of power from the US-led coalition in late June that Damascus has not done enough to stop militants or weapons from crossing into Iraq.

However, Damascus seemed to be determined to address their concerns and Syrian officials endeavored to convince senior Iraqi officials that Damascus is willing to cooperate on the issue.

Things seemed to be getting better after interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's visit to Damascus in late July, during which Allawi said that bilateral relations have entered a "new stage," and branded his visit as "the beginning of a bright chapter."

The two sides agreed to set up a joint committee to improve security along the border and sign a border cooperation protocol later.

According to Syria's state media, security control has been tightened at its border with Iraq, including doubling night patrols, increasing the number of checkpoints and clamping down on illegal visas.

Since January, no Syrian man under 40 has traveled to Iraq without special permission and just 30 people a day now make their way across the border for trade or to visit their relatives.

In addition, a two-meter-high sand berm along the border, topped with barbed wire for extra security around border towns, was also under reconstruction, the official Syria Times said on Nov. 7.

In response, the measures have been affirmed by Bagdad and Washington.

In September, Iraqi Interior Minister Falah Hassan al-Naqib confirmed that "very positive development recently took place" in Damascus' border security control.

Three months later, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiar al-Zibari reaffirmed Syria's "positive response" to a call for stopping infiltrations.

He also declared that Syria has agreed with Iraq to resume full diplomatic relations, which broke off in 1980 because of Syria's support to Iran during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

US Secretary of State Collin Powell has welcomed Syria's moves to stop border infiltrations, but urged Syria to do more in this respect.

"There is more that we think Syria can do, and I also know that the Iraqi government wants to work more closely with Syria to seal that border from infiltrators, from financing, from arms and equipment that might go across the border to insurgents and terrorists," he said.

PEACE OFFER

Although Israel lashes out at Damascus, the latter has offered to restart the derailed peace talks with the Jewish state.

Senior Israeli officials have threatened to launch pre-emptive military attacks against targets in Syria following a double suicide bombing attack in the southern Israeli city of Beersheva in late August, which killed 16 people, as it believes that Damascus was involved in the blasts.

Despite the threat, Syria, however, expressed hope to resume talks with Israel over all the pending issues.

President Assad has renewed his call for reactivating the Syrian-Israeli peace track "without condition."

According to Syria's official SANA news agency, Assad wants to resume talks at the point where they broke off in 2000.

But the Israeli government said that if Assad was serious, he would first have to crack down on Lebanon's Hezbullah group and Palestinian groups based in Damascus, which Syria sees as legitimate resistance groups fighting Israel's occupation.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said earlier this month that he would agree to meet with Assad "under certain conditions," which was swiftly dismissed by Damascus as unacceptable.

Questioning Syria's motive behind the offer, Sharon claimed that Syria is trying to relieve mounting US pressure by proposing negotiations with Israel.

Analysts say that Sharon actually has no interest in reviving talks with Syria, while concentrating on the Israeli-Palestinian track and his unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip next year.

However, Israeli President Moshe Katsav said that it was "important and worthwhile" to assess Assad's overture.

Furthermore, senior Israeli military officials have said that Israel should take advantage of Syria's diplomatic isolation to strike the best possible deal.

Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon, the chief of staff of the Israeli army, broke a longstanding taboo in August, when he declared that Israel's military superiority meant that it could afford to relinquish the strategic Golan Heights, which was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War.

The last bout of negotiations between Israel and Syria collapsed in early 2000, when Israel refused to hand back a narrow strip of land running along the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee at the foot of the Golan.

Syria insists that Israel return all the territories seized in the 1967 war.

The United States said on Dec. 2 that it would encourage the resumption of direct talks between Syria and Israel.

"We have always supported the idea of comprehensive peace in the region," US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

"We have always believed that direct contacts between the parties are very important to this process and so we would encourage any direct contacts that the parties feel are appropriate to have in order to make progress on comprehensive peace," he said.

Source: Xinhua