ABSTRACT
The general consensus is that Syria has outmaneuvered Israel and the United States in Lebanon, reaping the greatest benefit from the 1982 war, and that Israel and the United States have lost much ground and prestige. In February 1985 Hafiz al-Assad was "elected" to the presidency for a third term of seven years. For ten years Lebanon has been at the center of Syrian policy, and the regime has met with its main failures and successes. For Assad, as for many Syrians, hegemony over Lebanon is the first step in a vision of Greater Syria—a geographical and historical entity centered in Damascus, stretching from the Taurus Mountains to Sinai and from the Mediterranean to the Syrian desert. Syria's main assets in the inter-Arab arena are its self-appointed status as guardian of Arab interests, its position as the main confrontation state against Israel, and its obstructive power.
