Former Canadian ambassador to Syria, Glenn Davidson immediately recognized the location targeted Monday by six Israeli missiles in the heart of Damascus. “From my office at the time, I would have had an unobstructed view,” the retired diplomat told me, reached at his home in Halifax.
Until 2012, the Canadian embassy in Damascus was located on the Mazzeh highway and was the immediate neighbor of the Iranian embassy which was completely obliterated this week. According to the Iranian authorities, who promise revenge for this attack, six Syrians and seven Iranians died on Monday. Among them were two commanders of the Quds Force, the elite unit of the Revolutionary Guards. This Iranian paramilitary body brings rain and, above all, bad weather in Iran and the region.
“I was initially surprised by such an attack on a diplomatic target with potentially dangerous consequences for the region,” François Larochelle, also a former diplomat, told me. After verifying that this attack had indeed taken place next to the embassy [du Canada], I had a nostalgic surge for my fascinating assignment in Syria. It was a time full of hope,” says the man who is now a fellow at the Montreal Institute of International Studies at UQAM.
It was Mr. Larochelle, who was sent to Syria from 1990 to 1993, who pointed out to me the proximity between the location of the attack and the former Canadian representation in the Middle Eastern country. He recognized the building in a video posted online on lapresse.ca in which we can clearly see the embassy – gray in color – to the right of the smoking ruins of the Iranian embassy.
Watch video of Israeli raid on Iranian embassy
François Larochelle was there the day the embassy opened its doors, in the early 1990s. At the time, a wind of renewal was blowing across the Middle East. The terrible war that devastated Lebanon, neighboring Syria, ended in 1990. Negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians led to the Oslo Accords in 1993. Canada played a role in maintaining peace on the plateau Golan, an area on the border between Syria and Israel. Syria, led by Hafez al-Assad, was ahead. “He played both the role of arsonist and firefighter in the region,” remembers François Larochelle.
At the time, the embassy was a hive of activity with political and commercial sections. We also managed immigration applications from Syrians, Lebanese and Iranians.
Life there was not, however, a great quiet river. From 1990 to 1991, the roof of the embassy made it possible to observe the Scud missiles that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq rained down on Israel during the first Gulf War in which a coalition of 35 countries, led by the United States, participated. . Canada was included.
After the September 11 attacks, Canada’s role in Syria came into the spotlight when Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen of Syrian origin, was imprisoned and tortured in his home country at the request of the United States. . In 2007, following a commission of inquiry, the Canadian government apologized for its role in this affair and paid Mr. Arar $10.5 million in compensation.
However, it was after the start of the Arab Spring in 2011 that the Canadian-Syrian diplomatic relationship, established in the 1960s, began to fade. “When I arrived in the country in 2008, it was a bit of a honeymoon,” recalls Glenn Davidson. People were discovering Syria. The welcome was warm and it was very safe. We could travel all over the country. The regime had broad support in the country and there was a lot of interest in Bashar al-Assad and his wife, because they seemed to have more progressive ideas [que le père de Bachar]. But it was illusory. We quickly discovered that the only thing that mattered for the regime was to stay in power,” says the ex-ambassador who witnessed the start of Syria’s descent into hell. The repression of demonstrations, mass imprisonments and the start of a civil war which has since left hundreds of thousands dead and forced millions to take shelter.
PHOTO LOUAI BESHARA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Rescue workers search the rubble of a building annexed to the Iranian embassy the day after an air attack in Damascus. On the left, you can see the building where the Canadian embassy in Syria was located.
Glenn Davidson didn’t stick around for all that. In 2011, Canada began evacuating its personnel. In 2012, the government decided to close the embassy. “I took down the flag and put the key in the door,” remembers the former ambassador. It was a very emotional moment. We had a great, fantastic Syrian staff at the embassy,” he says, also piqued by a pang of nostalgia.
These days, Canada, along with the Netherlands, is fighting the Syrian regime before the International Court of Justice, accusing it of violating the international convention on torture.
It is difficult to imagine how the country could once again be established in Damascus, still under the control of Bashar al-Assad. The embassy building, which Canada was renting, was abandoned along with ties to the dictator’s regime. A few months after the withdrawal from Syria, Canada also closed its embassy in Iran.
The Israeli strike in the heart of Damascus will have unexpectedly brought to light the rubble of diplomatic relations in the region.