Word: syria
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...particular, Syria and Saudi Arabia have long been on opposite sides of a deep rift in the Arab world, pitting those countries that are allied with the U.S. - including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt - against those countries and militant groups such as Syria, Hamas and Hizballah, which have opposed American power in the region and are at war with Israel. That rivalry deepened after the assassination of Hariri, who was Riyadh's main ally in Beirut, and got personal during the 2006 war in Lebanon, when Assad implied that the King and other Arab leaders who had criticized the Hizballah...
...several factors have been pushing the two countries back together. Though Syria survived the efforts of the Bush Administration and Saudi Arabia to isolate the country politically, it faces huge economic challenges as it switches from a Soviet-style economy to a market-driven model. Syria has been touting itself to investors as a future regional industrial and transportation hub. But it will need plenty of Saudi money and Western know-how - not to mention improved diplomatic relations - in order to make that great economic leap forward...
...Syria has been slowly accommodating American and Saudi positions on several issues as well as opening an embassy in Beirut, gracefully accepting the electoral defeat of its Lebanese allies in June, and restricting the flow of foreign fighters across Syrian land into Iraq...
...Iran. The Persian and Shi'ite dominated Islamic Republic is both a religious and racial challenge to Arab and Sunni Saudi Arabia's dominance of the region, and Iran has deftly exploited the divisions in the Arab world by allying itself with radical anti-Israeli movements, in concert with Syria. With Iran's ongoing nuclear-development program - which many Arab countries suspect is a cover for producing weapons - raising those concerns to a fever pitch, Saudi Arabia has decided it can no longer afford open confrontation with Syria...
...wooing Syria away from Iran will be no easy matter. Syrian officials have long said they would be open to a regional peace if Israel returned occupied Syrian land in the Golan Heights and offered a just settlement to the Palestinian question. But they have also maintained their right to continue Syria's relationship with Iran and support for Hamas and Hizballah, just as the U.S. arms and supports Israel...