Syria and Lebanon declare war on the Axis

On 26 February 1945 Syria declared war on Germany and Japan, and on 27 February Lebanon did the same. Both states, which still had French and British troops on their territory, made it at the last moment before the 1 March deadline set at the Yalta Conference for states wishing to be invited to the founding conference of the new world organisation in San Francisco. The dates are given differently: war chronologies usually assign 26 February to Syria and 27 February to Lebanon; the British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, told the House of Commons on 14 March that both governments had declared war on 27 February; and some lists put both declarations under 26 February.

For neither country was war with Germany and Japan a military matter – their armies were only just being formed, and the front was far away. The declarations were an act of sovereignty: they confirmed that Damascus and Beirut conducted their own foreign policy and were no longer French mandated territories.

Independence promised in wartime

Since the early 1920s Syria and Lebanon had been French mandates of the League of Nations. After the defeat of France in 1940 the administration and the troops in the Levant submitted to Vichy, and in May 1941 the Germans used Syrian airfields to support the rising in Iraq. In June 1941 British, Australian, Indian and Free French troops entered both countries in the invasion of Syria and Lebanon, Operation Exporter. On the day of the attack, 8 June, General Georges Catroux, on behalf of Charles de Gaulle, promised the inhabitants independence, and Britain guaranteed that promise. After the Armistice of Saint-Jean-d’Acre, Catroux, as Delegate-General of Fighting France, proclaimed the independence of Syria on 27 September and of Lebanon on 26 November 1941.

It was independence with reservations. The French kept control of the Special Troops, intelligence, part of the administration and the customs, and de Gaulle held that the mandate would lapse only by virtue of treaties guaranteeing France a privileged position. The British, represented in Beirut and Damascus by Major General Edward Spears, supported the aspirations of the Arab politicians, which the French saw as an attempt to oust them from the Levant.

The November 1943 crisis

Under British pressure, elections were held in the summer of 1943. In Syria, Shukri al-Quwatli, leader of the National Bloc, became president on 17 August. In Lebanon, parliament elected Bechara El Khoury president on 21 September, and Riad Al Solh became prime minister. The two concluded an unwritten “National Pact” dividing power between Christians and Muslims. On 8 November 1943 the Lebanese parliament removed the provisions concerning the mandate from the constitution. On the night of 10/11 November the Delegate-General, Jean Helleu, had the president, the prime minister and several ministers arrested and imprisoned in the citadel of Rashaya. Strikes and demonstrations broke out, and Britain demanded the prisoners’ release. The French Committee of National Liberation, just reshaped by de Gaulle, sent Catroux to Beirut, and on 22 November the politicians returned to their posts. Lebanon celebrates that day as its Independence Day.

From 1 January 1944 the French transferred most administrative powers to the governments in Damascus and Beirut, but retained command of the Troupes spéciales du Levant – formations made up of local soldiers. In the summer of 1944 both states established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, and on 8 September 1944 the United States recognised them unconditionally, after the governments of both countries had given assurances that they would respect existing American rights. On 16 November George Wadsworth presented his credentials in Beirut as the first US minister to Lebanon (he was also accredited to Syria).

February 1945

At the beginning of 1945 relations with France deteriorated again. Paris was preparing draft treaties that would secure it military bases and a special cultural and economic position in the Levant, similar to Britain’s position in Iraq. The governments in Damascus and Beirut – in Syria under Prime Minister Faris al-Khoury and Foreign Minister Jamil Mardam Bey, in Lebanon under Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Karami – refused to conclude such agreements. Unrest broke out in the Syrian Alawite region; the authorities in Damascus accused French political officers of fomenting it and handing out weapons.

In this situation taking part in the San Francisco Conference mattered to both countries for more than prestige. A place among the founders of the new organisation meant international recognition of their independence and gave them a forum before which they could defend themselves against French pressure. On 20 February President al-Quwatli asked the American minister, George Wadsworth, whether a declaration of war was really necessary: he had read that Peru and “two other Latin American republics” had made one (Latin America declared war on the Axis in those same weeks), and the Egyptian Prime Minister had given him to understand that it was not essential. A few days later his doubts were dispelled by Turkey, which declared war on 23 February, and by Egypt, which did so on 24 February; its Prime Minister, Ahmad Mahir, was killed by an assassin the same day. Syria and Lebanon followed their example.

The declarations did not settle the matter at once, however. Invitations to San Francisco were sent to states that had been United Nations at the time of the Crimea Conference or whose accession to the Declaration by United Nations had been accepted by 1 March. On 14 March Eden explained to members of the House of Commons who asked why Syria and Lebanon had not received invitations that their applications to accede to the Declaration and to be invited were being considered “in accordance with the agreed procedure”. The powers eventually agreed, and both states sent delegations to San Francisco.

What came next

On 22 March 1945, in Cairo, Syria and Lebanon, together with Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, founded the Arab League. In May the dispute with France turned into open conflict. The landing of French reinforcements in Beirut provoked demonstrations and clashes, and on 29 May the French shelled and bombed Damascus, including the parliament building; several hundred people were killed (estimates vary widely). On 31 May Winston Churchill demanded that de Gaulle order a ceasefire, and British troops took control and confined the French units to barracks. The Levant Crisis was one of the sharpest disputes between the Western Allies in 1945.

On 26 June 1945 the delegates of Syria and Lebanon signed the Charter of the United Nations in San Francisco; both states are among the UN’s 51 founding members. In 1946 the Security Council took up their complaint about the presence of foreign troops. The last French and British soldiers left Syria in April 1946 – the Syrians celebrate 17 April as Evacuation Day – and Lebanon at the end of 1946. The February declaration of war, though of no military significance, thus proved for both countries the last step on the road to full independence.