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Syria: Middle East
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Updated information on travel and security in Syria may be obtained from the Department of State by calling 1-888-407-4747 within the United States or, from overseas, 1-202-501-4444. Additional details can be found in the Department of State's Country Specific Information for Syria, the Worldwide Caution Travel Alert, and the Middle East and North Africa Travel Alert which are available on the Department's Internet website at http://travel.state.gov.
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Having been a cradle of Christianity, with the expansion of Islam in the Middle East in the 7th century, Syria became one of the centres of the new religion. After invasions by the Seljuk Turks and the Crusades, Syria came under Arab control until 1516, when it was conquered by the Ottomans.
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Since dawn of time, Syria has been a crossroads of civilization, though often described as the cradle of civilizations. It has been the bridge connecting the cultures of Eastern Mediterraneans and Fertile Crescent, and the beginning of Silk Road joining West with East.
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Syria's 1990 participation in the U.S.-led multinational coalition aligned against Saddam Hussein marked a dramatic watershed in Syria's relations both with other Arab states and with the Western world. Syria participated in the multilateral Middle East Peace Conference in Madrid in October 1991, and during the 1990s engaged in direct, face-to-face negotiations with Israel. These negotiations failed, and there have been no further Syrian-Israeli talks since President Hafiz al-Assad's meeting with then President Bill Clinton in Geneva in March 2000.
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Beginning in early 2003 officials in the United States and Israel began to suggest that Syria had received shipments of chemical weapons and other WMD from Iraq. These allegations increased in frequency as the absence of WMD in Iraq became more apparent. To date the available information suggests that these allegations are at best speculative and at worst malicious. Given the claims that Syria has the most advanced CW capability in the Middle East it is difficult to find a convincing rationale for Syria receiving illicit Iraqi WMD stocks. Since late 2002 Syria has been confronted by an aggressive United States using WMD possession as a justification for pre-emptive military action. Since April 2003 Syria has been effectively surrounded by the United States and its allies and has come under increasing political and military pressures.
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Syria is arid, relying very much upon water coming down from the mountains in Turkey. Most of the country is flat, but has mountains towards the border of Lebanon. The east is desert, the western coast has a mediterranean climate.
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