FACTBOX-Iraq's turbulent ties with Syria
Source: Reuters
Nov 21 (Reuters) - Iraq and Syria agreed on Tuesday to restore full diplomatic relations after a break of a quarter of a century, in a move Iraq hopes may help stem what it says is Syrian support for militants. Here are some key details about these ties: OVERVIEW - Syria and Iraq were ruled by rival factions of the Baath Party, an Arab nationalist political grouping, over much of the last four decades of the 20th century. The ideological and personal rivalry increased after Hafez al-Assad and Saddam Hussein came to power in Damascus and Baghdad respectively in the 1970s. - Syria broke Arab ranks and sided with non-Arab Iran in its 1980-88 war with Iraq. When Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait in 1990, Damascus sent Syrian forces to join a U.S.-led coalition that liberated Kuwait the following year. - The two countries resumed economic ties in 1997 under a U.N. oil-for-food programme for Iraq but Syria soon became a major route for illicit Iraq trade with the outside world. - Relations further warmed after Bashar al-Assad succeeded his late father as president of Syria. Bashar opposed the Iraq war and has said the Iraqi people had a right to resist U.S.-led occupation. TIMELINE * Aug. 1980 - Iraq ordered Syrian diplomats out of Iraq after a carefully managed raid on its embassy in Baghdad uncovered guns and high explosives. Syria claimed it was a plot and it expelled the Iraqi ambassador in retaliation. * Oct. 1980 - Assad accused Saddam of starting a conflict with Iran that took Arab energies from the conflict with Israel. Saddam accused Syria of helping its Gulf war enemy Iran. * In early 1982 Syria reported a plot against President Assad. In February the United States revealed that thousands were killed in an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition elements in the Syrian city of Hama. Assad blamed the United States and Iraq for the uprising. * In March, Syria was promised Iranian oil in return for phosphates. In mid-April Syria, sure of Iranian oil supplies closed its frontier with Iraq and stopped oil supplies from Iraq. Syria then severed all relations with Iraq. * In August 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait and Syria joined a U.S.-led multinational force that drove Iraqi troops out of Kuwait in early 1991. * Syria and Iraq agreed to reopen their borders and engage in economic and commercial cooperation in 1997 as part of a U.N. oil-for-food programme to ease the effects of U.N. economic sanctions on Iraqi civilians. * After Assad's death in June 2000, Syria in November announced it would upgrade its ties with Iraq to full diplomatic relations. * In 2001, Syria removed restrictions on its citizens travelling to Iraq, the latest sign that ties between the two neighbours have improved after years of animosity. * President Bashar opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, saying it would destabilise the volatile region. U.S. and Iraqi officials have since said Syria was doing little to stop the flow of anti-U.S. Arab fighters to Iraq. * In November 2006, Walid al-Moualem, Syria's foreign minister, offered Iraq's government support against militants in a ground-breaking visit to Baghdad.
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