ABSTRACT
Syria was influenced by two major events during the course of 1991: the weakening of the Soviet Union and the eruption of the Gulf crisis in the wake of Iraq’s takeover of Kuwait. In the inter-Arab arena, Syria continued to be isolated, while an unmistakable Iraqi threat began looming on its horizons after the Iraqi-Iranian War came to an end in 1988. The prominence in 1991 of foreign policy issues such as the Gulf War and the peace process underscored the striking absence of any change in Syria’s domestic scene. Syria’s siding with Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States during the course of the Gulf crisis made them morally and materially indebted to it. The Egyptian-Syrian axis, which began forming in 1990, remained a focus of Syria’s activity in the inter-Arab arena in 1991 as well. Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shar‘’s performance at the conference catered primarily to Syrian public opinion.
