Leverage and Legitimacy in Lebanon and Syria

However, as Tony Badran writes in Foreign Policy, “The evolution of the Syrian uprising has presented Washington with a unique opportunity to squeeze Assad. The United States has leverage; it has simply chosen not to use it.” …

Another key, as Badran argues, is to target the regime’s self-image. As this columnist in the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat explains, the Syrian regime obtained legitimacy by getting world and regional powers to “recognize its role.” Since the time of Hafez, the U.S. has given the Syrians a role in the Palestinian arena, as well as in Lebanon’s; and the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group recommended that the Syrians have a say in Iraq, too, though the Bush administration wisely ignored that initiative. …

The first step then, as Badran writes, is to withdraw Robert Ford from Damascus. The administration is letting on that Ford is meeting with opposition folks and members of the military, but as Washington-based Lebanese journalist Hisham Melhem tweeted, Ford hasn’t even met with the foreign minister or his deputy in some time now.