ABSTRACT
The strength of Egypt in inter-Arab affairs has been clear in respect to Syria. Syria seceded from the United Arab Republic in 1961; that failure destroyed the prestige of pan-Arabists in Syria and permitted the rise of “regionalists” to the top levels of the Ba’ath party. Mid-1979 saw a change in the type of violence: Sunni militants gunned down three-dozen cadets in a military school in Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city. Syrian support for the Islamic government in Iran remained largely political and symbolic throughout 1981. The strong influence that Saudi Arabia is able to exercise on Syrian external affairs is most evident in Lebanon. Israel holds very strongly to the view that Syrian forces must never have an opportunity to reoccupy the heights overlooking Jewish communities along the Sea of Galilee. In the field of trade and technical assistance, Syria clearly prefers to deal with Western countries when it can.
