Syria and Iran: Diplomatic Alliance and Power Politics in the Middle East.

• Author: McGregor, Caroline
• Position: Book review

SYRIA AND IRAN: DIPLOMATIC ALLIANCE AND POWER POLITICS IN THE MIDDLE EAST Jubin M. Goodarzi (London; New York: Tauris Academic Studies, 2006), 288 pages.

The bond between Syria and Iran has baffled--and stymied--the West for twenty-five years. The countries have little in common. Iran is a revolutionary, pan-Islamic theocracy, while Syria is a secular, pan-Arab socialist republic. They are on opposite sides of the Sunni-Shia divide. Yet as Jubin Goodarzi, an independent scholar, demonstrates, it is precisely this absence of competition for leadership on the same turf that has made the alliance so durable.

Goodarzi charts the evolution of the strategic Iran-Syria partnership over three phases in nine years, from the overthrow of Iran's monarchy in 1979 to the end of the Iran-Iraq war in mid-1988. The two played a critical role in stemming Iraq's invasion of Iran in 1980 and ensuring that Saddam Hussein's Iraq would not become the predominant power in the Middle East. Meanwhile, in the Levant, they were also able to thwart Tel Aviv's strategy to bring Lebanon into the Israeli orbit following its the June 1982 invasion and the occupation of almost half of...