ABSTRACT
Israel has long been perceived in Damascus and Tehran as a Western implant, the primary threat to the autonomy and integrity of the region. Nevertheless, bowing to the realities of the power balance, Syria under Asad pursued an end to the conflict with it on terms which would merely minimize Israeli hegemony. Iran under President Rafsanjani, at Syrian urging, accepted, in practice, the reality of a settlement. This is hardly compatible with claims that these regimes were driven by unrelenting irredentism or that domestic stability depended on keeping the Arab-Israeli conflict brewing.
