Syrians are mostly Levantines as well so not really Arabs either.
If you know the history then you will know that Nasser viewed it as a staging post to a Pan-Arab nation which he as an Egyptian could dominate. Funny as!
As an aside, one of my history teachers was stationed there during the Suez Crisis. One of his buddies did some graffitiing one night. “Nasser is a Jew”. apparently it didn’t go down well and the guy was sent home promptly. He had many entertaining anecdotes.