Water carrier in Syria.jpg

Following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, France administered Syria until its independence in 1946. The country lacked political stability, however, and experienced a series of military coups during its first decades. Syria united with Egypt in February 1958 to form the United Arab Republic.

In September 1961, the two entities separated, and the Syrian Arab Republic was reestablished. In November 1970, Hafiz al-ASAD, a member of the Socialist Ba'th Party and the minority Alawite sect, seized power in a bloodless coup and brought political stability to the country. In the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Syria lost the Golan Heights to Israel.

During the 1990s, Syria and Israel held occasional peace talks over its return. Following the death of President al-ASAD, his son, Bashar al-ASAD, was approved as president by popular referendum in July 2000. Syrian troops - stationed in Lebanon since 1976 in an ostensible peacekeeping role - were withdrawn in April 2005. During the July-August 2006 conflict between Israel and Hizballah, Syria placed its military forces on alert but did not intervene directly on behalf of its ally Hizballah.

In October of 2008, the United Nations appealed for $20 million to help one million people in Syria cope with the worst drought in four decades. Many of those most in need are herders and subsistence farmers who have lost their livestock and crops, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

More than 100,000 herders have lost at least half of their livestock. In its appeal, the United Nations said that many people in northeastern Syria had been forced to decrease significantly the amount of food they ate or had left the region because of the drought. It also said there was a large increase in anemia and malnutrition, especially among young children and pregnant women. The appeal would finance food and agricultural aid for six months, United Nations officials said.