Syrian President, First Lady Praise Obama

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria's leader praised President Barack Obama's outreach for dialogue and invited him to visit Damascus in remarks released Friday just days after the United States said it plans to return its ambassador to Syria after a four year absence.

Syrian President Bashar Assad comments came in a telegram he sent to Obama on the occasion of the July 4 Independence Day and in an interview he gave to Britain's Sky News.

Also on Sky News, Syria's First Lady Asma al Assad said she envisioned her husband, Bashar, and Barack Obama joining forces.

"The fact is President Obama is young," al Assad said, "and President Assad is also very young as well, so maybe it is time for these young leaders to make a difference in the world."

President Assad's comments also come a month after Obama outlined in a historic speech in Egypt his determination to broker peace among Israel and its Arab neighbors and improve U.S. relations in the region.

"The values that were adopted by President Obama during his election campaign and after he was elected president are values that the world needs today," Assad said in the telegram that was carried by state-run news agency SANA.

"It is very important to adopt the principle of dialogue in relations with countries based on respect and mutual interest," Assad said.

In June, U.S Mideast envoy George Mitchell visited Damascus and met Assad in the highest visit by a U.S. official in more than four years. Mitchell's visit followed two separate trips in the past few months by senior U.S. officials Jeffrey Feltman, acting assistant secretary of state, and Daniel Shapiro, a Middle East expert at the White House.

The Obama administration hopes the diplomatic outreach will encourage Syria to play a positive role in both the Mideast peace process and also in Iraq.

In an interview with Sky News, Assad invited Obama to visit Damascus in order to discuss Mideast peace.

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"We would like to welcome him (Obama) in Syria, definitely. I am very clear about this," Assad said in English. Asked whether such a visit could take place soon, Assad said: "That depends on him."

He added with a smile, "I will ask you to convey the invitation to him."

The Obama administration has stepped up pressure on Arab countries to help resume Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and pursue a peace deal with the Jewish state themselves. Syria is seen as a key player in this process because of its support for the Palestinian militant group Hamas that controls the Gaza Strip and its intermittent peace talks with Israel.

Syria held four rounds of indirect talks with Israel last year, mediated by Turkey. But the discussions were halted during the Israeli offensive on Gaza in December and January.

Last week, Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama's plans to send back an ambassador to Syria.

The U.S. withdrew its ambassador to Syria in 2005 after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Some Lebanese politicians blamed Syria for the assassination, a claim that Damascus denies.

The U.S. also has accused Syria of not doing enough to stop the infiltration of militants to fight U.S. and allied forces in neighboring Iraq.

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Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

Comments

[woodpoppy]

Too bad the Hubby is no more than milk toast.

[getoffmedz]

How long have you known the Assad's?

[CeeCee]

Good question! I'd like to know, too.

[roshni]

You know that how?

[grammargirl]

It's easy to flex your muscles and talk tough about kicking butt. Little Kim of NKorea, Ahmadinejad of Iran, what's-his-name of Venezuela and the late Saddam Husein carried this saber rattling to an art form. But that's all it is: rattling. President Obama understands their culture and their history and knows they are playing to their own populations when they talk tough, so he has wisely ignored them.

Bush would have played the cowboy and challenged them to a duel, but is it really worth it? Any of those nations can be surgically excised if they dare...

Now this lady has intimated the need for engagement (perhaps on behalf of her husband) between the two countries. That's something new in the Middle East, something even more difficult than saber rattling, knowing the history of US-Syrian relations and the tensions that exist in the region.

[Darcy24]

I read somewhere that Obama's ME strategy involved making nice to other leaders in the region, and leaving Ahmadinejad the odd man out, I think it would be great publicity for Obama to go to Syria, make a big hit, have his picture taken with Assad, act like they're getting along great, etc.

Ahmadinejad will have apoplexy. He can badmouth Obama, but not all the other ME leaders. He's got to be on friendly terms with his ME neighbors. Obama should make a point of acting friendly to every single ME leader but Ahmadinejad. His head will explode.

[futate01]

I like your thinking. Too bad our politicians aren't as strategic.

[wisecrack]

Okaaay, but I believe Syria has an alliance with Iran.

[Sweetbay]

Which is the strategy. By initiating dialogue with Syria towards a strategic plan for peace, Syria's influence on Iran as well as Hamas in the Gaza could be a strategic turning point for the region.

[grammargirl]

Darcy, they need you in their meetings.

[chlai88]

This is what Obama's grand strategy is. Isolating those who preach the negative and strives to divide, promoting those who sees positivism and strives to unite. It applies at home as well as abroad. It's community organizing gone global. This is also a subtle but loud "either you're with mutual cooperation and mutual respect or you're gonna be ignored" message to the pariah leaders of the world.

[grammargirl]

Those who "preach the negative" and continue to spew bile will end up isolating themselves. Who will initiate dialogue with the likes of Kim Jong Il and Ahmadinejad while they continue behaving badly? The US doesn't even have to make them pariahs; they would have done that themselves.

[roshni]

Syria was Iran's big partner during the Hezbollah goings on in Lebanon. Now with Hezbollah losing and the Iranian elections being questioned, it's a great time to work with Syria and leave Ahmadijenad out in the cold.

[x004Ronin]

Dialogue can't hurt. This shouldn't be a partisan issue. America has a bipartisan tradition of talking to plenty of unsavory leaders dating back to even before the Cold War.

I'm hopeful for a good outcome after dialogue with Syria, but hey, at worst, no agreement is reached, that's all.

[getoffmedz]

How can this be anything but a POSITIVE sign?

[Bootoomee]

That is because you are not from wingnuttia. You are a naive "fake" American.

[getoffmedz]

What is a "naive 'fake' American?"

Please expand in detail.

You caught my interest.

[roshni]

It can if you are a rethug "I want Obama to fail" low life.

[lexnekst]

And she can wait in line, behind every small town mayor.

[Nicolaus]

I suggest not to get the Syrians angry.
It seems it does not agree with our interests... But then, somehow I don;t think you really care...

[roshni]

She is the First Lady of Syria and deserves respect as such.

[byla]

Like most of the other posters have already commented...she is a very good looking woman.

I'm glad we're talking to nations we haven't talked to before in a long long time.

It's about time. We're all human beings, we have so many similarities in our lifestyles and choices. Some are more progressive than others, but that doesn't mean there is not an underlying population in every country that thinks and feels the same way we do.

[ngoron]

And for the record, this woman looks good. We need to invite her and her sisters and cousins and nieces
over for a few weeks and tour the country. I think that will do wonders for world peace.

[Knowledgeseeker]

she is is a beautiful woman. i would love to meet her !!1

[Knowledgeseeker]

GREAT NEWS !!!

[GregO74]

Lmao! If anybody out there ecspecially Republicans can think she will win in 2012 election you are certified NUTZ! This video clearly shows a lady who is above her head in regard to anybody critizing her and clearly shows anger, childish behaviour, self centered, and overall someone who can't take pressure!

[teron678]

huh?

wrong thread ...?

[gevan]

Palin thread is elsewhere.

[Kenji]

Wow, the first lady of Syria might run in 2012? The Republicans really ARE changing.

[x004Ronin]

Haha, I can see the headlines now: "The Republicans are the first party in U.S. history to nominate a Syrian First Lady to be President of the U.S."

[Sweetbay]

I'm going to want to see a birth certificate.

[marco01]

She is beautiful and looks earnest and sincere, but her husband is a defacto dictator. The two first families have little in common.

[jtjsrch]

Mrs Assad is English. They met - I believe - when he was attending medical school. They lived in Paris and practiced ophthalmology. He did not want to return to Syria but his older brother's death necessitated his doing so. She looks very intelligent, and is quite lovely to boot!

[spartakus99]

No she is not. She is Syrian from city of Hemis in northern Syria.

[Nicolaus]

She is a Syrian girl from a traditional Damascus family.
She did work in England for a year while her husband was studying Opthalmic sonething or another.

He never graduated. He never practiced the Ophthalmic thing. He rushed home to be the heir apparent when his elder brother died in a car accident, and he was groomed to be the President that he is now.

And to make the central theme her looks is simply sick sexism, PERIOD!

[adsandiego]

Send me! Send Me!!

[Luvial]

She should be able to afford the asking price.

[ScaryBob]

Hey, I'd meet with her in Syria, or even in Argentina!

[Maggie Waterman]

I might be a feminist, but I get your humor and laughed out loud.

I think this whole thing with building relationships with Syria is WONDERFUL.

I am good friends with a Syrian family that travels back and forth a lot between the US and Damascus and they are the most fun, interesting and cosmopolitan people you could ever imagine. Their first lady seems typical of the Syrian people from my experience - warm and welcoming. Maybe if more of us get to know more residents of the middle east, neither side would need to be so illogically scared.

[Nicolaus]

Not many seem to share your views of the Syrian people - but that does not make them less accurate - sadly public information systems bar us from seeing the Syrians as anything but devils incarnate.