Documents Refute Israeli Claims that Ex-Syrian PM Jamil Mardam Bey Was ‘Double Agent’

President Shukri al-Quwatli (L) and former Syrian PM Jamil Mardam Bey.
President Shukri al-Quwatli (L) and former Syrian PM Jamil Mardam Bey.
TT

Documents Refute Israeli Claims that Ex-Syrian PM Jamil Mardam Bey Was ‘Double Agent’

President Shukri al-Quwatli (L) and former Syrian PM Jamil Mardam Bey.
President Shukri al-Quwatli (L) and former Syrian PM Jamil Mardam Bey.

Israeli media published last month an article alleging that former Syrian Prime Minister Jamil Mardam Bey was a “double agent” who worked for France, Britain and Israel.

Author and Israeli researcher Meir Zamir claimed that he had discovered a trove of documents from the French archive that prove that Mardam Bey was double agent. The official served in office in the 1930s and 1940s and is among the most prominent Syrian national figures.

The article was published without verifying the claims. Those adept at academic research will notice that the “damning evidence” alleged by Zamir were not documented. The very article in which he presented his claims does not merit being described as a serious study of history.

Perhaps it did not occur to Zamir that Mardam Bey was one of the few Arab figures to have preserved all his personal documents. Indeed, he had left at his Cairo home more than 10,000 documents on significant developments that took place during his term as finance, former affairs and defense minister and then prime minister. He kept every personal or official document. He was supposed to hand them over to the Syrian state archive, but after witnessing the tumult in his country, he chose to keep them.

After his death, his family sought that the documents be placed in the possession of the Syrian people. It therefore tasked me with this mission. I worked with a specialized archive center to organize them in a professional manner. They have since been digitized and will soon be available for access to historians.

The documents include minutes of meetings, correspondence, speeches, journal entries and reports on official visits or political analyses. Mardam Bey also used to write his own notes by hand to comment on an issue or a significant event.

Zamir deliberately sought to tarnish Mardam Bey’s reputation. The Syrian official is known throughout the Arab world as a national figure, who was skilled at diplomacy. He is known for his contributions to the liberation of Arab lands from colonization and had waged fierce political battles for Syria’s independence.

The majority of correspondence between Mardam Bey and British government representatives reveal a strong relationship he had forged with the then world power. Ahead of World War II, its army was protecting the Middle East against the German army and the Nazi regime. France, meanwhile, had surrendered to the Nazis. Its resistance leader Charles de Gaulle had sought refuge in London where he launched the movement against the Nazis.

Alleged ‘double agent’
On Zamir’s claims of Mardam Bey’s collaboration with the French that he had alleged to have found in the French archive, developments on the ground refute these claims. France had vowed to recognize Syria as an independent state in 1941. The Syrian Republic, as it was then known, then became a member of the United Nations and Paris slowly began to back down from its pledge. It began to exert pressure on Syrian officials to agree to the deployment of special forces under French command. Mardam Bey, as defense minister in 1945, categorially rejected the proposal and accused the French of seeking to deprive Syria of a national army.

How could Mardam Bey be an agent to French when de Gaulle wrote in his journals that the British were conspiring with the Syrians to kick France out of Syria? Mardam Bey had turned into a fierce enemy of the French so much so that French General Delegate to Syria Étienne Paul-Émile-Marie Beynet had spoken of how he had lost faith in him and other Syrian national leaders. He even stated that they should be replaced by men who had previously cooperated with Paris.

Mardam Bey and his nationalist colleagues were unfortunate to find themselves alone in confronting France’s coercions. A report on a meeting with British officials showed their rejection of France’s pressure and threats. They promised Mardam Bey that Britain will wield its influence to ensure that negotiations with the French would be smooth and transparent. However, Britain soon changed its position when France was again declared an independent nation after it was liberated from the Nazis in 1944. As an independent country, Britain could no longer exert pressure on France and so the Syrians were on their own.

Of course, the British did not want to help the Syrians achieve independence without a price. They sought for Syria to become part of the Hashemite Kingdom, in what Mardam Bey would describe as “British deceit and double standards.”

Mercurial man
The British soon grew annoyed with Mardam Bey, whom they described as the “mercurial” foreign minister. They completely turned against him over his perceived hardline stance against the French. The loss of trust was mutual. Several documents from the British foreign ministry showed that officials had sought on several occasions to sidestep Mardam Bey and approach the president and prime minister without referring to him first.

Tensions between the Syrian and French leaders reached their peak in 1945 when France carried out a barbaric air raid against state buildings in Damascus, including the parliament. The foreign ministry was struck in an attempt against Mardam Bey’s life after he had delivered a strongly-worded address at parliament where he attacked the French and threatened to disclose documents that expose the British and the pressure they exerted on the Syrians to accept the French terms.

What sort of agent would openly attack and threaten world powers? How would he not fear that they would expose his role as an agent? Had Mardam Bey indeed been a “double agent”, where are the favors that he offered the French, British or Zionists, who had initially admired his diplomatic skills, but soon turned on him when he started to use these skills against their interests?



Trump’s Foreign Policy: End Ukraine War, Buy Greenland, Target Mexican Cartels 

Pastries decorated with an eatable portrait of US President-elect Donald Trump are presented by Ursula Trump in a bakery in Freinsheim, Germany, January 20, 2025. (Reuters)
Pastries decorated with an eatable portrait of US President-elect Donald Trump are presented by Ursula Trump in a bakery in Freinsheim, Germany, January 20, 2025. (Reuters)
TT

Trump’s Foreign Policy: End Ukraine War, Buy Greenland, Target Mexican Cartels 

Pastries decorated with an eatable portrait of US President-elect Donald Trump are presented by Ursula Trump in a bakery in Freinsheim, Germany, January 20, 2025. (Reuters)
Pastries decorated with an eatable portrait of US President-elect Donald Trump are presented by Ursula Trump in a bakery in Freinsheim, Germany, January 20, 2025. (Reuters)

Republican President-elect Donald Trump says he plans to acquire Greenland, bring the war in Ukraine to a close and fundamentally alter the US relationship with NATO during his second four-year term. In recent weeks, he has also threatened to seize the Panama Canal and slap Canada and Mexico with 25% tariffs if they do not clamp down on the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States.

Here is a look at the foreign policy proposals Trump has pledged to advance once he takes office on Monday:

NATO, UKRAINE AND EUROPEAN ALLIES

Trump has said that under his presidency, the United States will fundamentally rethink "NATO's purpose and NATO's mission."

He has pledged to ask Europe to reimburse the United States for "almost $200 billion" in munitions sent to Ukraine, and he has not committed to sending further aid to the Eastern European nation. Trump cut defense funding to NATO during the latter part of his first term, and he has frequently complained that the United States was paying more than its fair share. In recent weeks, he has said NATO members should be spending 5% of gross domestic product on defense, a figure well above the current 2% target.

On the war in Ukraine, Trump said during the 2024 election campaign that he would resolve the conflict even before his inauguration. But since his election, he has not repeated that pledge and advisers now concede it will take months to reach any peace agreement.

Trump has indicated that Kyiv may have to cede some territory to reach a peace agreement, a position backed by his key advisers. While there is no fully fleshed-out Trump peace plan, most of his key aides favor taking NATO membership off the table for Ukraine as part of any peace agreement, at least for the foreseeable future. They also broadly support freezing the battle lines at their prevailing location.

While Trump signaled in early April that he would be open to sending additional aid to Ukraine in the form of a loan, he remained mostly silent on the issue during contentious congressional negotiations over a $61 billion aid package later that month.

TERRITORIAL EXPANSION

In mid-December, Trump said he planned to acquire Greenland, an idea he briefly floated during his 2017-2021 term. His previous efforts were foiled when Denmark said its overseas territory was not for sale.

But Trump's designs on the world's largest island have not abated. During a January press conference, Trump refused to rule out invading Greenland, portraying the island as crucial for US national security interests. Trump has also threatened to seize the Panama Canal in recent weeks, blaming Panama for overcharging vessels that transit the key shipping route.

Trump has also mused about turning Canada into a US state, though advisers have privately portrayed his comments regarding the United States' northern neighbor as an example of trolling, rather than a true geopolitical ambition.

CHINA, TRADE AND TAIWAN

Trump frequently threatens to impose major new tariffs or trade restrictions on China, as well as on many close allies.

His proposed Trump Reciprocal Trade Act would give him broad discretion to ramp up retaliatory tariffs on countries when they are determined to have put up trade barriers of their own. He has floated the idea of a 10% universal tariff, which could disrupt international markets, and at least a 60% tariff on China.

Trump has called for an end to China's most favored nation status, a designation that generally lowers trade barriers between nations. He has vowed to enact "aggressive new restrictions on Chinese ownership of any vital infrastructure in the United States," and the official Republican Party platform calls for banning Chinese ownership of American real estate.

On Taiwan, Trump has declared that it should pay the United States for its defense as, he says, it does not give the US anything and took "about 100% of our chip business," referring to semiconductors. He has repeatedly said that China would never dare to invade Taiwan during his presidency.

MEXICO, CANADA AND NARCOTICS

Trump has said he would slap Mexico and Canada with broad 25% tariffs if they do not stem the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States. Mexican and Canadian leaders have sought to prove they are serious about taking on illegal immigration and the narcotics trade, though Trump's actual Day One plans for tariffs on the country's neighbors are unclear.

Trump has said he would designate drug cartels operating in Mexico as foreign terrorist organizations and order the Pentagon "to make appropriate use of special forces" to attack cartel leadership and infrastructure, an action that would be unlikely to obtain the blessing of the Mexican government.

He has said he would deploy the US Navy to enforce a blockade against the cartels and would invoke the Alien Enemies Act to deport drug dealers and gang members in the United States.

Civil rights groups and Democratic Party senators have pushed for the repeal of that act, passed in 1798, which gives the president some authority to deport foreign nationals while the country is at war.

The Republican Party platform also calls for moving thousands of troops deployed overseas to the US-Mexico border to battle illegal immigration.

CONFLICT IN GAZA

Trump's Middle East envoy-designate, Steve Witkoff, worked closely alongside officials in the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden to hash out the peace deal announced earlier in January between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. Sources close to the talks said he applied significant pressure on both sides to strike an accord quickly, though the precise details of his involvement are still coming out in the press.

After first criticizing Israeli leadership in the days after its citizens were attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, Trump later said the group must be "crushed." Trump had said there would be "hell to pay" if Israel and Hamas did not reach a ceasefire deal resulting in the return of hostages held by the Palestinian militant group in Gaza before he takes office.

IRAN

Trump's advisers have indicated they will renew the so-called maximum pressure campaign of his first term against Iran.

The maximum pressure campaign sought to use vigorous sanctions to strangle Iran's economy and force the country to negotiate a deal that would hobble its nuclear and ballistic weapons programs.

The Biden administration did not materially loosen the sanctions that Trump put in place, but there is debate about how vigorously the sanctions were enforced.

CLIMATE

Trump has repeatedly pledged to pull out of the Paris Agreement, an international accord meant to limit greenhouse gas emissions. He pulled out of it during his term in office, but the US rejoined the accord under Biden in 2021.

MISSILE DEFENSE

Trump has pledged to build a state-of-the-art missile defense "force field" around the US. He has not gone into detail, beyond saying that the Space Force, a military branch that his first administration created, would play a leading role in the process.

In the Republican Party platform, the force field is referred to as an "Iron Dome," reminiscent of Israel's missile defense system, which shares the same name.