A little outdated but nevertheless interesting:
From
http://www.cbc.ca/news/iraq/players/syria_iraq030328.html
March 28, 2003
Population: 16,728,808
Position: On March 28, 2003, the United States accused Syria of sending military equipment to Iraq, warning that it considered this to be a hostile act.
"We have information that shipments of military supplies have been crossing the border from Syria into Iraq, including night vision goggles," U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters at a Pentagon briefing.
"These deliveries pose a direct threat to the lives of coalition forces. We consider such trafficking as hostile acts and will hold the Syrian government accountable for such shipments."
A day earlier, American networks reported activity on the Syria/Iraq border. Syria does not support the attack on Iraq as it did during the last Gulf War. In 1991, it provided armed forces to help the U.S.-led coalition.
Syria's highest Muslim religious authority, Mufti Kaftaro, called on all Muslims to use "all possible means to defeat the aggression, including martyrdom (suicide) operations against the invading combatants."
Syrian officials said the mufti was expressing a personal point of view but Syrians in the thousands have backed their religious leader, taking to the streets to protest against the war.
In the weeks leading to the war, Syria called on Arab countries to refrain from offering assistance to any military operation that would threaten the security, safety and territorial integrity of Iraq. When U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell asked Syria to back the second UN Security Council resolution allowing a pre-emptive attack on Iraq, it refused.
Like Jordan, Syria is preoccupied with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and considers that problem to be more important than the Iraqi situation. Syrian President Basher al-Assad is not fond of Saddam Hussein but has been involved in trying to improve relations between Iraq and Iran.
Syria is included on the U.S. State Department's list of sponsors of terrorism.
Quick Facts
Source: CIA Factbook
History: The French administered Syria following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War until its independence in 1946. In the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Syria lost the Golan Heights to Israel. Since 1976, Syrian troops have been stationed in Lebanon, in a peacekeeping capacity.
Geography: Eastern Syria has a 605-km border with Iraq.
Economy: While petroleum accounts for 65 per cent of Syria's exports, oil production is levelling off.
Ethnic groups: Arab 90 per cent; Kurds, Armenians, and other 9.7 per cent.
Religions: Sunni Muslim 74 per cent; Alawite, Druze and other Muslim sects 16 per cent; Christian 10 per cent; Jewish (tiny communities in Damascus, Al Qamishli, and Aleppo).