Beirut |
September 6, 2007
Lebanon in Six Decades of Bitter Syrian-Israeli Relations
Beirut - September 6, 2007
Following are key events in the bitter relations between Israel and Syria, during most of which Lebanon was the killing field:
- 1948: Syria is one of five Arab states which launch an unsuccessful war against the newly-declared state of Israel.
- June 1967: During the Six-day War, Israel seizes the strategic Golan Heights from Syria. Despite on-and-off negotiations over the subsequent four decades, the Golan Heights are still held by Israel, which annexed them in 1981.
- October 1973: Syria and Egypt launch surprise attacks on Israel, but the resulting Yom Kippur War ends with Syria failing to recover the Golan, and even losing more territory.
- 1975-1990: A vicious civil war in Lebanon leads Syria and Israel to intervene there militarily, both directly and via proxy groups.
Syrian troops go into Lebanon in 1976, and continue to occupy parts of the country until 2005. Israel invades Lebanon in 1982, and pulls its last forces out of the south in 2000.
Syria, a long-time ally of Shiite Iran, backs the powerful Lebanese Shiite group Hizbullah, which continues to confront Israel in the south of Lebanon to this day.
- 1991: Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad agrees to send a small troop contingent to take part in the U.S.-led war against Iraq, which has occupied Kuwait. At the time, the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein is seen as a particularly serious threat to Israel.
- 2000: Hafez al-Assad dies and is succeeded by his son Bashar al-Assad. He quickly withdraws the bulk of his country's troop presence from Lebanon, but in 2003 he refuses to take part in a new U.S.-led war on Iraq.
The latest in a long series of contacts on the status of the Golan Heights breaks down.
- 2001: Following new clashes between Israeli forces and Lebanese Hizbullah militias, Israel bombs a Syrian radar station near the Lebanese capital Beirut, killing two Syrians.
- 2003: The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq leads to a huge increase in tension between Syria and both the United States and Israel, which accuse Damascus of helping Iraqi insurgents. In October, Israel mounts an air raid inside Syria, against what it says is a training camp for Palestinian extremists.
- 2004: Israeli agents assassinate a leading member of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Syrian capital Damascus.
- 2005: Following the assassination of a popular Lebanese politician, former prime minister Rafik Hariri, Syria pulls its last troops out of Lebanon.
- 2006: In June, during a crisis over an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinians, Israeli warplanes overfly Assad's palace in northern Syria while the president is inside.
-
The following month, new clashes between Israel and Hizbullah lead to a brief and devastating war between the two, further raising tension with Syria, which is accused of supplying the Lebanese group.
- August 2007: Israel says it is reducing its troop levels on the Golan Heights. "Israel does not want a war" with its northern neighbor, says Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
- September 6: Syria says its anti-aircraft forces fired on Israeli planes which allegedly violated its airspace.(AFP-Naharnet)
Following are key events in the bitter relations between Israel and Syria, during most of which Lebanon was the killing field:
- 1948: Syria is one of five Arab states which launch an unsuccessful war against the newly-declared state of Israel.
- June 1967: During the Six-day War, Israel seizes the strategic Golan Heights from Syria. Despite on-and-off negotiations over the subsequent four decades, the Golan Heights are still held by Israel, which annexed them in 1981.
- October 1973: Syria and Egypt launch surprise attacks on Israel, but the resulting Yom Kippur War ends with Syria failing to recover the Golan, and even losing more territory.
- 1975-1990: A vicious civil war in Lebanon leads Syria and Israel to intervene there militarily, both directly and via proxy groups.
Syrian troops go into Lebanon in 1976, and continue to occupy parts of the country until 2005. Israel invades Lebanon in 1982, and pulls its last forces out of the south in 2000.
Syria, a long-time ally of Shiite Iran, backs the powerful Lebanese Shiite group Hizbullah, which continues to confront Israel in the south of Lebanon to this day.
- 1991: Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad agrees to send a small troop contingent to take part in the U.S.-led war against Iraq, which has occupied Kuwait. At the time, the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein is seen as a particularly serious threat to Israel.
- 2000: Hafez al-Assad dies and is succeeded by his son Bashar al-Assad. He quickly withdraws the bulk of his country's troop presence from Lebanon, but in 2003 he refuses to take part in a new U.S.-led war on Iraq.
The latest in a long series of contacts on the status of the Golan Heights breaks down.
- 2001: Following new clashes between Israeli forces and Lebanese Hizbullah militias, Israel bombs a Syrian radar station near the Lebanese capital Beirut, killing two Syrians.
- 2003: The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq leads to a huge increase in tension between Syria and both the United States and Israel, which accuse Damascus of helping Iraqi insurgents. In October, Israel mounts an air raid inside Syria, against what it says is a training camp for Palestinian extremists.
- 2004: Israeli agents assassinate a leading member of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Syrian capital Damascus.
- 2005: Following the assassination of a popular Lebanese politician, former prime minister Rafik Hariri, Syria pulls its last troops out of Lebanon.
- 2006: In June, during a crisis over an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinians, Israeli warplanes overfly Assad's palace in northern Syria while the president is inside.
-
The following month, new clashes between Israel and Hizbullah lead to a brief and devastating war between the two, further raising tension with Syria, which is accused of supplying the Lebanese group.
- August 2007: Israel says it is reducing its troop levels on the Golan Heights. "Israel does not want a war" with its northern neighbor, says Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
- September 6: Syria says its anti-aircraft forces fired on Israeli planes which allegedly violated its airspace.(AFP-Naharnet)
