Syrian-Iranian relations and the creation of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Abstract

The decade of the 1980s, the formative years of the Iranian-Syrian alliance, was the most crucial and decisive stage of the Damascus-Tehran relationship. The chain of rapid events in the bilateral ties, grave regional developments coupled with a fierce political factionalism inside the Islamic Republic, which greatly impacted the Iranian foreign policy, makes this period stand out in the 30 year-old alliance. This research covers the seminal years of 1979-82 of post revolutionary Iran and investigates the Iranian-Syrian relationship and Iran’s policy in Lebanon through the post revolutionary factionalism in Iran. The central question of this research is how political factionalism in post revolutionary Iran influenced the Islamic Republic’s relations with Syria and its policy in Lebanon. To answer the question, this work investigates Iranian ties with Syria and its role in Lebanon during the rule of the moderate provisional government from February 1979 to November 1979 and under the Banisadr presidency, from February 1980 to June 1981. By studying the two Iranian endeavors, in 1979 during the regin of moderats and 1982 under the radical rule, to dispatch forces to Lebanon this research analiyzes the the embryonic years of the Islamic Republic’s involvement in the Levant and the background of creating Hezbollah in post 1982 period. In this study, the post revolutionary power struggle and the role of various forces in the Iranian political scene are explained based on Crane Brinton’s model of revolution. According to Brinton, after the fall of the ancien regime, a revolution moves through different stages from moderation to radicalism and then finally enters a Thermidorian period. The accession of radical clergy in the Islamic Republic and the consolidation of state power in 1981-89 period is analyzed based on Skocpol’s theory of post revolutionary state building.