Developments of US Foreign Policy toward Syria

Geopolitics of Western Asia and North Africa and the civilization status of this region as the center of Islamic world have attracted the US strategic insight. Geopolitics of this region can potentially disturb the US regional strategies. So, in implying its regional policies the US has always been facing disturbances that have geopolitical roots. In order to design and imply its regional main strategies, the US has to consider these geopolitical elements because ignoring them may be threat to the US regional strategy and hegemonic presence. Among all these geopolitical elements, Resistance Front with I.R. Iran in its core is the most active and effective factor against the existence of Zionist regime security and the US interests. So, overcoming the power of this factor and changing its capability to a domestic one is a priority for the US regional policies. In this regard the unique role of Syria in strategic linking of Resistance Front in not ignorable. Syria is the strategic line behind the resistance front against the Zionist regime and removing Syria from the resistance front would change the power balance in the region to the benefits of US allies in the region. US policy developments about Syria can be analyzed in four steps. In the first step, Obama’s analysis about Syrian crisis was based on the fall of Assad like the other Arab countries in crisis that collapsed without any particular attempt by US government. So, Barak Obama resisted the call for the US interference in Syria. In the 2nd step, US government began sending financial and military support for the socalled opposition militia against Assad. After passing few months of the crisis, Obama ordered CIA to arm and finance the Syrian rebels. In this step Washington was still emphasizing on no to have any direct military involvement and hoping that Assad would fall in a process of civil war and after getting weak politically, militarily and economically, he would gradually fall or change his behavior. So, economic sanctions were added to reinforce the civil war to serve the western goals. In the 3rd step, the US government credited the military threat against Syria because of using chemical weapons and could achieve Russian agreement to disarm Syria from chemical weapons. By rising powerful terrorist groups such as ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the US priority for falling Bashar Assad changed and the 4th step of US policy in Syria was shaped on a dual base of overcoming the Resistance Front and Salafi movements and making the Islamic world potentials wasted in civil wars. In this step the US began training part of Syrian opposition but with no success and these trained groups joined al-Nusra Front and other militia right after getting involved in fronts and defeated by Syrian army. In general it can be argued the fundamental factors in the US regional strategy are: welcoming disorder in the region, confronting stabilizing trends out of US hegemony and finally managing the transitional period in order to create a new order based on US interests.