424 • 21 THE WAR ON TERRORISMUS occupation. Many Iranians feel threatened by the American invasion of
neighboring Afghanistan in 2001 and of Iraq in 2003, fearing the same fate
for themselves. This fear is fueled by Bush administration rhetoric, similar
to what it used to justify attacking Iraq, that has begun to target Iran.
The state has been building up its nuclear capability. It now has the
technology to produce enriched uranium and may soon be able to pro¬
duce its own atomic bomb. Direct pressure from the US and Israeli gov¬
ernments, the UN, and the International Atomic Energy Agency seeks to
forestall an Iranian nuclear weapons program. The Iranian government
insists that its program is entirely peaceful. Its supporters ask why Russia,
India, Pakistan, and Israel may have nuclear weapons, but not Iran.
Popular participation in the country's governance has gradually in¬
creased at the local and provincial levels, and the Majlis (Iran's parlia¬
ment) debates, though it does not determine, Iran's policies. All men and
women over age sixteen may vote. Support for the Islamic republic runs
deep, even if many Iranians desire further democratic reform and greater
personal freedom.Arab States of the Fertile Crescent
Syria has long been the region's most dissatisfied state, due to its belief that
France and Britain deprived it of territories that should have been Syrian
by creating Lebanon as a Christian enclave and Transjordan (later Jordan)
as a Hashimite kingdom, the cession of Alexandretta to Turkey by France
when it held the mandate to govern Syria, and the subsequent creation of
Israel in place of the British mandate of Palestine. Syria was first among the
Arab countries to develop an Arab nationalist and socialist ideology and
to import arms and advisers from the USSR. Its troops have occupied
Lebanon since 1976 but are withdrawing now. Since 1966 it has been gov¬
erned by a radical branch of the Ba'th Party, and after the death of Hafiz al-
Asad, its long-serving president, in 2000, he was succeeded by his son,
Bashar. The government tolerates no opposition, and its heavy industries
and public utilities remain under state control. Light industries are pri¬
vately owned, and banks were being privatized in 2004. The Israelis and the
US government, especially under George W. Bush, regard Syria as a threat
to peace and stability in the Middle East, mainly because it allegedly pro¬
motes terrorism. They speak openly of replacing its dictatorial government
with a more democratic regime (which probably means one whose policies
would be more acceptable to the US). The Iraq War and Bush's reelection
have intensified Syrian fears of an imminent American invasion.