New Direction for U.S. in Syria Talks
By Susie Madrak Wednesday Mar 04, 2009 2:00pmWe could all use a little good news, right? And while this is only the first step, at least it's movement in the right direction:
JERUSALEM — Signaling a new direction in Middle East diplomacy, the Obama administration will send two senior officials to Syria this weekend to begin discussions with the government, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on a visit to Israel on Tuesday.
The overture suggests how the Obama administration intends to tackle three interlocking challenges in the Middle East: the nuclear threat posed by Iran; long-simmering tensions between Israel and Syria; and the grinding conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Syria, regional experts say, could be the key to alleviating all three.
By seeking an understanding with Syria, which has cultivated close ties to Iran, the United States could increase the pressure on Iran to respond to its offer of direct talks. Such an understanding would also give Arab states and moderate Palestinians the political cover to negotiate with Israel. That, in turn, could increase the burden on Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, to relax its hostile stance toward Israel.
But in a region where even small steps take years to negotiate, officials sought to tamp down expectations of rapid progress. “It is a worthwhile effort to go and begin preliminary conversations,” Mrs. Clinton said, noting Syria’s wide influence in the region, as well as its troubled history with the United States. Yet, she cautioned, “we have no way to predict what the future of our relations with Syria might be.”
Login or Register to post comments.
New talking points...oh..well...recycled talking points..
Obama is a muslim
Obama is a terrorist apologist
Obama is an appeaser
Obama is endangering the country
Obama hates Israel
Obama is a terrorist
Obama is from the planet Krypton :-)
We had some Diplomacy happening. ... Maybe, now we can get the rest of the world behind us. They all left us after bush (lower case intentional)
How have you been? People been worried about you man. Good to see you. I hope all is well.
Now where's ysbaddaden? Haven't seen him in a while it seems.
[Before the rumors start up again, ysbadadden is fine. He's taking a break and working on his book. I swapped e-mails with him today. Site Monitor]
A little birdie told me today that Ysb is just taking a break for a while, but he's fine.
Thanks POP. Breaks are good. Commenting can be a stressful job.
I'm afraid it's going to take a hell of a lot more than this, Bangkok Bob. And, long time no see: welcome back.
I think it's wonderful news. How disgraceful, the neocons wouldn't even talk with them. Dialogues are how you start. (not with bombs)
We've missed you. It's been so long since we've seen you.
.
Bob is it true what I heard, that you were out riding an elephant and got lost? ;)
Add this bit of promising news to Hillary pledging $900 mil. to the Palestinian Authority a few days ago...then add all the gyrations rightwing extremist/ex-terrorist Netanyahu is going through in trying to at least appear sincere in forming a coalition government with the leader of the Israeli's (sorta, semi) Liberal Party...and you get a snapshot of a very worried Israel.
I say it's about f'ing time!
riiiiiiiiight. More like the US's erroneously perceived "nuclear threat" made up by neocons. It flies in the face of independent reports to the exact opposite of what the kool-aid drinkers have memed right into Fake Factsville, USA.
Yeah yeah I'll be sory, sez the moran.
It's good to see the bastions of bullshit beginning to crumble....
Didn't Rice go to Syria too? Maybe I'm mistaken about that.
Anyway by our own NSE there is no nuclear threat from Iran so I don't really see that as much of a challenge.
We can't ease tensions between the Israelis and the Syrians if we constantly take Israel's side (as both Democratic and Republican administrations have historically done.) Obama might be different but I doubt it. Our ties to Israel run too deep.
Ditto for the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
Is absolutely great.
Gotta start somewhere.
ewwww. What was that , that just landed on my shoulder?
Brain matter. From GOPers heads exploding.
Oh well, they don't work all that well anyway. They won't miss them.
They can get Flush to do their thinking for them.
I agree, negotiations are long overdue. Talking is good.
You are giving the GOP way, way too much credit.
http://www.welt.de/english-news/article303908...
The United States is not exactly used to having competition in the Middle East.
The USSR armed Egypt and Syria in the '60's and '70's. The Soviets were actually supplying those countries before we were arming Israel (those were French weapons that Israel used during the Six-Day War, American weapons when Israel suffered the sneak-attack that started the Yom Kippur War).
well the truth is the isralies picked the french mirage fighters over us made fighters because they were better and cheaper to operate plus they had the advantage of being less disabled by the sands blowing in the air, and id bet the bank we paid for thoes french planes with american tax dollars
Can we just sell them our bases? we could use the money and we don't have enough troops anyway. It would be greener.
Oh, diplomacy, how we missed thee...
This is a much better than the "let's just bomb everybody and smirk when we do it" approach of the last 8 years.
bomb everyone and NOT smirk.
This is the way grown ups handle things. It's just been so long since we have had a grown up in the white house that it's kind of foreign to us.
that the grown ups are steering the wheel now.
Isn't it interesting, for those that know anything of the history in this s---hole, the British it seems are nowhere to be found. It was the f---ing British that established the Balfour Agreement during Lloyd George's reign that set this powder keg off and yet they disappear like W did after his 8 year massacre. It was the British that ignored the Arabs and favored the Zionists and their intimidation. Now they intimidate the U.S. who also kowtow to their destructive policies. It's time the U.S. put the Zionists in their place and that includes in no uncertain terms that we will not tolerate the senseless killing of more Americans like the crew of the unharmed USS Liberty during the 6 day war. Oh, I forgot it was an accident.....
It was also the British that begged the US to overthrow the democratically elected government of Iran and install the Shah. They'd been after it for years but they had to wait for a Republican (Ike) to get into the White House. Then all they did was yell "Commies!" and viola.
Isn't this the same country we've been using for our rendition and harsh interrogations [wink wink]. I would find this news more promising if they dropped the whole EYERAAAAAN iz going to nUkES us ALL rhetoric. At least it's something to keep an eye on.
Login or Register to post comments.