Стр. 4 - V

Author : V. Chernega
Advisor at the Council of Europe, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Doctor of Science
(Law)
FRANCE PLAYED A SPECIAL ROLE in devel-
oping the Syrian statehood partly through the no-
torious Sykes-Picot Agreement signed by the UK,
France and Russia in 1916 in Petrograd (now St.
Petersburg) that was moving under French control
practically the entire territory of what is now Syria
and Lebanon and part of Iraq with the city of
Mosul on it. Officially annulled in 1917, when the
Bolshevist government of Russia had published
the secret agreements of the Entente, it was, on the
whole, realized. France lost its Iraqi "share" to Great Britain in exchange for the right to extract
oil in Mosul.
Very much in line with the mandate, France ensured Syria's independence: in 1926, Syria had
adopted a Constitution that envisaged the president and the parliament; two years later, under
the supervision of the French Administration, it elected its first parliament; in 1936, Hashim al-
Atassi was elected the country's first President.
The relations between France and independent Syria were strongly affected by the Cold War,
the Suez crisis of 1956 and the Israeli-Arab wars.
France had nothing to do either with building up CENTO or with its activities yet its highly
negative attitude to Syria's close relations with the Soviet Union did nothing good to the efforts
to tune up cooperation between Paris and Damascus.
In the energy sphere, the French companies were especially attracted by Qatar's huge resources
of fairly cheap gas, an access to which could have lowered Europe's comparatively great depend-
ence on Russian gas and meant support of the United States and its European allies for potential
projects in this area.
Oil and gas were not the only attractions: huge contracts on weapons supplies to Qatar and Saudi
Arabia and modernization of their infrastructure were no less tempting.
On November 26, 2015, during President Hollande's visit to Moscow, the Russian president sup-
ported the French initiative and assured him that Russia was ready to coordinate its efforts in
Syria, in particular, along the lines of air and naval forces, as well as special services. French De-
fense Minister, Le Drian and Chief of the Defense Staff, General Pierre de Villiers came to
Moscow to discuss further cooperation.
These contacts that at least slowed down the slip to another Cold War between the West and
Russia over Ukraine proved useful yet no real cooperation on the Syrian issue was achieved.
Электронное приложение к журналу «Международная жизнь»
France at a Syrian Impasse