Syria Aims to Become an Economic Hub Among Four Seas (Syria-Report: Strategy‪)‬

Syria is planning to develop a role for itself as a hub for energy supplies and transportation routes among "four seas," namely, the Gulf, the Mediterranean, the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, Syrian reporters said recently. The reporters of the pan-Arab daily AL HAYAT and the Lebanese daily AS SAFIR, were commenting on Syrian President Bashar Assad's recent visits to Armenia and Azerbaijan. "In recent economic forums that brought together Syrian and foreign business people, Syria presented a strategic vision of itself as a hub for gas and oil supplies and transportation routes among countries to its east, west, north and south," Ibrahim Humeidi said in the London-based AL HAYAT. "Syria, in other words, wants to be a crossing point among four seas--the Arab Gulf, the Mediterranean, the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. Syria has followed wise and balanced policies in its dealings with regional foes," he added in the Saudi-owned newspaper, giving as an example Turkey and Greece, which have longstanding disputes over many issues, including the reunification of Cyprus. Syrian-Turkish relations have progressed from being on the verge of war about 10 years ago to a state of military cooperation now. A state of war was averted when Syria, under Assad's late father, Hafez, arrested and handed over to Turkey Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which was fighting for Kurdish independence in southeastern Turkey. Since then, the two countries have been taking steady steps towards wider cooperation, including better control of their long common borders and in business, commerce and trade. Syria, however, did not side with Turkey in the latter's dispute with Greece over the terms of reunifying northern Turkish-populated Cyprus with the rest of the Greek-populated island-state.