Cte 3

Question Is Syria a real threat to the American interests in the Middle East? Why? Why Not? Elaborate on your answer and give specific examples. Answer:
In the recent years, the political and social changes in Syria have had a massive impact on the country’s internal and external affairs. This paper discusses numerous activities and facts about Syria that threaten the US interests in the Middle East.
Around mid of the year 2012, the government of Syria declined the access of the UN observers to a site where mass killing was reported (Khan, 2012). According to the statistics reported by the Syrian opposition, up to 78 civilians were killed in that mass killing in which about 50 per cent were children and women. The Syrian opposition accused the Syrian government of shelling that led to the mass killing. When asked, the government of Syria denied the responsibility and referred to the accusations as baseless allegations, though the accounts could not be verified because of the restricted observers and journalists. “ Those responsible for perpetrating these crimes must be held to account. We cannot allow mass killing to become part of everyday reality in Syria” (Annan cited in Khan, 2012).
Last year, commencement of the street uprising among the Syrians has led to the development of a scattered and sprawling force of opposition that attempted to bring the President’s regime down. The White House spokesman Jay Carney noticed elements of threat for the US in the uprisings that he revealed in these words, “ We’ve certainly noted that there are some elements of the opposition that are not necessarily friendly to the United States. They do not make up the bulk of the opposition, and the opposition is not entirely unified, as you know” (Carney cited in Childress, 2012).
In December 2012, the US joined the Gulf states, France, Turkey, and Britain to formally identify the opposition of Syria in the National Coalition as Syrian people’s legitimate representative (BBC, 2013). Syria and Turkey have placed ban on providing air space to each other’s planes after five civilians were killed as a result of the Syrian mortar fire on the border of Turkey. President Obama then said that the National Coalition includes and represents the big step.
Syria has an effective program of research and development in the area of nuclear energy. Syria is working with Russia and China to develop a program of civilian nuclear energy. In addition to that, in spite of the fact that Syria has signed the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Syria has not yet signed the Additional Protocol NPT. Likewise, Syria has not signed the Chemical Weapons Convention. Currently, Syria is running a range of programs of advanced conventional weapons in addition to being equipped with hundreds of missiles of both long and short range.
In light of the points discussed above, it can be concluded that Syria is a real threat to the American interests in the Middle East. The uprising, unrest among the civilians, tension between the civilians and the government, tension between Syria and Turkey, and Syria’s nuclear program are all factors that threaten the interests of the US in the Middle East.
References:
BBC. (2013, Jan. 31). Syria profile. Retrieved from http://www. bbc. co. uk/news/world-middle-
east-14703995.
Childress, S. (2012, June 22). What’s Known about Syria’s “ Murky” Opposition. PBS Frontline.
Retrieved from http://www. pbs. org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/syria-undercover/whats-known-about-syrias-murky-opposition/.
Khan, A. (2012, June 7). The Troubled History of Hama, Syria. PBS Frontline. Retrieved from
http://www. pbs. org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/syria-undercover/the-troubled-history-of-hama-syria/.