COMMUNIST AND PRO-SOVIET ACTIVITIES IN SYRIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R002500010001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 25, 1999
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 10, 1949
• Content Type: IR

Approved '0'6AVEMVOIMPOPLIA.
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT NO.
INFORMATIMMEPORT CD NO.
'COUNTRY
SUBJECT
PLACE
ACQUIRED
DATE OF INF
25X1X6
1.
25X1X6
2.
25X1A6a
syzritt
Communist and Pro-Soviet Activities
in Syria.
25X1A6a
OW% 01.1010
DATE DISTR. 10 ::Elr 1949
NO, OF PAGES 2
25Xii
NO. OF ENCL.S.
(LISTED BELOW)
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
Despite the firmness with which the Syrian Government attempted to
suppress Oommunisa in Syria, there is evidence that the movement continues
to be strong in Danascuss where Communists are still holding meetings
and making a certain amount of progress. The Executive Committee
of the communist Party, as of 5 January 1949, was holding weakly and
semi-weekly meetings in the home of Qadri !akin, a member of the Party
and a teacher in the national College for Girls. The Syrian Deuzieme
Bureau discovered that at one of those meetings most of the Communists
present were in the employ of the Syrian Government. Among those
present wore Yiunir Sulayman,* Chief of the Damascus Provincial Office;
KhalidAliD an instructor in the Tajhiz (secondary) school in Damascus;
and Antun Eardushra Palestinian refugee mho is in charge of the
Signal Section of the Syrian Army*
aims that the Deuxiece Bureau also has evidence that, not only
are the local Damascene Communists in touch with representatives of the'
Soviet Union but national figures are also in contact with the Soviets,
Ahmed Sharabati, former Syrian Defense Minister, was, until his resignation
from office, a protector of the Syria a Communist Party leader, EhalidBaghdash,
and gave him refuge in a building which Sharabati owns. Sharabati also
became acquainted with Soviet Minister Soled, through the former's
business partner, Arif Tote:h. This acquaintance was at first purely
social, but later developed into a, mutually beneficial alliance of selfish
interests, source states. Sharabati and Soled, or Solodis representative,
meet in an office above the Hollywood Unsnap Place des Canons, Beirut,
which bad been rented b7Totah, supposedly as an office for one of his
business enterprises, but which is never used as an office, and is kept
guarded at all times, source states.
P9P4149,Tr_bioSulayraan was described in March 1946 as a
promdfRiRTIRiERF751 the Communist Party who as advocating closer
liaison :between the Syrian Communist Party and the Soviet Union,
lft September 1947 Sulayman was said to be a brother of Shafiq Sulayman
(one of Qutmatlifs-most trusted lieutenants) .and an intimate friend
of Ahmed Sharabati, Sulgymanla son-in.-law is Ihaan Boy Sherif,.
Syrian Minister to Turkey.
CLASSIFICATIO
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Next Review Date: ',:?.:":03
eSERE+mi
Nauman
NO CNA
'DEC
Class. EA
DDA
Auth: DDA REG.
Date: _ 4,Y. 8
Approved For e 9/09/09 : CIA-RDP82-00457R002500
25X1A6a
Approved For Release 1999/09/
0.4.111.1611T1i1pL U.S GLITZ ONLY
25X1A2
aalTRALP1 ICE AGENCY
-2-
500010001-6
Comment., In ally 1948 an untested source reported'
la a er liardusho a Palestinian Arab Communists,
had recently arrived In Damascus.
Approved For Release 1999/09/09 : CIA-RDP82-00457R002500010001-6