Syria's and Lebanon's Meandering Road to Independence: The Soviet Involvement and the Anglo-French Rivalry

This article attempts to describe and examine the process of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the USSR, Syria, and Lebanon. While it places special emphasis on the reaction of Britain and France - the hegemonic powers in the Levant, to this development, it also examines the implications of the growing French-British tension in this area on the Soviet-Syrian-Lebanese process of rapprochement. This article covers the period from mid-1944 - the beginning of the Soviet-Lebanese-Syrian diplomatic dialogue, to 1950 - the year which marked Syria's tilt towards neutralism and the powers reaction to it.