UF ORDER OF OMEGA

Although the Syrian authorities said that they would attempt to arrange an interview for me with a government official who could discuss human rights, the interview did not materialise.For now, Syria remains a picture of stability and unity in the Middle East. Assad's regime is probably more secure - and exercising less coercion - than in 1982. Yet Assad's health - he suffered a heart attack in 1983 and underwent a prostate operation this month - remains a subject of speculation among his antagonists His enemies remain at Syria's gates. After agreeing to the land-for-peace formula of the Bush administration, he is now being told by the Israelis that he must make peace without the return of Golan. Six times last year, the Israeli military talked of a possible war with Syria. When Assad transferred some of his 21,000 troops out of Lebanon and positioned an armoured brigade south of the Damascus-Beirut highway to prevent a possible Israeli assault last autumn, he was accused of preparing for war. In reality, he was the only Arab leader to warn of the dangers of the "peace process" and to speak publicly of his suspicions that the Israelis would decide - after obtaining concessions from the Arabs - to hold on to most of the land they seized in 1967.

Which is exactly what has happened under Binyamin Netanyahu.The United States maintains Syria on a list of nations which support "terrorism" - ostensibly because Assad allows violent groups opposed to the Middle East peace accord to base themselves in Damascus. Britain broke off relations after Syrian intelligence agents were involved in a plot to bomb an El Al airliner flying out of Heathrow in 1986. Ankara has abused Syria for supporting the bloody Kurdish uprising in south-eastern Turkey; just after Christmas, a bomb killed 13 Syrians on a bus in Damascus. Syria blamed Israel, suspected the Turks and talked of the dangers of "terrorism".

It is easy to bestialise Syria - along with our other favourite pariahs like Iraq, Libya and Sudan But Syria is too important to be dismissed so glibly. If an earthquake - political or military - shakes the Middle East in the coming months, then Syria will be close to the epicentre.The Map of Syria which you can buy in Damascus bookstalls contains an intriguing anomaly. To the south, the Golan Heights are shown as Syrian - which they are, though under Israeli occupation - but in the north, the national territory is drawn far up the Mediterranean coastline, way beyond Lattakia. Yet drive up the coastal highway and the map seems to be a little ambitious.