Syrian President Bashar Assad rewarded the Obama administration's decision to re-establish normal relations with Syria a few days ago by laying out the red carpet in Damascus today for Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. While taking in Damascus' sights Ahmadinejad also intends to break bread with the leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah -- Iran's terrorist proxies whose military wings are based in the Syrian capital.
After all, its important to visit the family.
If anyone at the State Department or the White House is surprised that Assad barely missed beating a hasty retreat into Ahmadinejad's arms after getting an ambassador from Washington, they should not be. After all, Syria has perfected a penchant for having it both ways when it comes to dealing with United States.
At their joint press conference today in his presidential palace, Assad and Ahmadinejad went to great lengths to scuttle any notion that a year's worth of carefully orchestrated American and French diplomacy designed to wean Syria away from Iran has had any visible, much less, tangible affect.
To the contrary, Assad reassured his hosts that Iran is entitled to its nuclear ambitions, deeming U.S. efforts to thwart Iran's nuclear weapons program (don't blame me, call the IAEA) as an anti-Islamic western conspiracy.
It is entirely conceivable that in the Middle East diplomacy bazaar Assad's reassuring gesture to Iran is just part of the game of keeping Tehran at bay while Syria slowly files away at Iran's shackles.
That, I am afraid, remains wishful thinking.
Syria's straight-jacketed dependency on Iran is permanently fixated on regional, ideological, military and economic foundations, which date back decades. Indeed, Syria was the first nation to recognize the Islamic Republic in 1979 and has been rewarded ever since with Iranian largess that has taken the form of military, nuclear, intelligence and financial aid.
These ties will not be easily severed merely to accommodate a major diplomatic goal of the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Given Syria's institutionalized ties to Tehran, is it important to play this diplomatic minuet with Assad to keep trying to convince him to substantially reduce Syria's dependency on Iran?
What, after all, does Iran need from Syria that the U.S. would like to deny it?
First, Iran needs Syria to remain quartermaster for Iran's military and financial pipeline to its Hezbollah pawns in Lebanon.
Second, Syria's ties to Iran is extraordinarily unsettling to other Sunni Arab states allied with the U.S., who do not underestimate Syria's capacity to serve as a junior partner to Iran's regional hegemonic goals against them.
Third, Syria shares Iran's strategic long-term goal of installing a Hezbollah-led government in Lebanon, which would constitute a direct military threat to Israel.
Fourth, within the byzantine framework of Sunni-Shiite politics, Sunni-dominated Syria's deep and abiding friendship with Iran lessens Shiite Iran's bogeyman image in the Arab world.
And perhaps most important of all, Syria's continued validation of Iran's nuclear weapons program (a program Syria secretly coveted until Israel blew that dream up a few years ago) reduces Iran's regional and international isolation, which is crucial to the atomic ayatollahs.
While I fully support the Obama administration's decision to re-establish ambassadorial level diplomatic relations with Syria a few days ago, the question I have is whether there was any quid pro quo? Did the Obama administration extract any concession from Assad on a long list of issues that have torpedoed relations in the past; namely removing Syria's welcome mat for Hamas' military wing, or preventing Hezbollah from rearming in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, or ending its interference in Lebanon's internal affairs. How about coming clean on who in the Syrian government ordered the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri.
Doesn't look like Assad tossed any bone our way other than politely receiving Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri recently without personally threatening him like he threatened his father.
For its part, the Obama administration recently renewed Bush-era economic sanctions on Syria evidently since there is no real evidence that Assad has moved in any positive direction to end his government's state sponsorship of terror. That alone was the best evidence to date that Assad is talking with us, but not walking anywhere toward us.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi once mistakenly proclaimed while visiting Syria a few years ago that all roads to peace in the Middle East lead through Damascus. A gross overstatement to say the least. But Bashar Assad, like his father Hafez before him, has shown a duplicitous capacity to navigate from safe harbor to save harbor with an admirable dexterity that has a "like father like son" quality to it. Meanwhile, he remains Ahmadinejad's kissing cousin.
Israel has refused to make peace in more than 40 years from a position of strength.
You will make peace once US stop helping you and you are kicked out of Jerusalem.
To avoid Europe’s encroaching fate, Israel must abandon its current course.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=169740
"The presidents of Iran and Syria on Thursday ridiculed U.S. policy in the region and pledged to create a Middle East "without Zionists," combining a slap at recent U.S. overtures and a threat to Israel with an endorsement of one of the region's defining alliances."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/25/AR2010022505089.html
Mid East editor of a national British newspaper who has "been receiving small gifts from [the] generous institute in the United States."
"The gifts are high-quality translations of articles from Arabic newspapers which the institute sends to me by email every few days, entirely free-of-charge. The emails also go to politicians and academics, as well as to lots of other journalists. The stories they contain are usually interesting.
... Evidence from Memri's website also casts doubt on its non-partisan status. Besides supporting liberal democracy, civil society, and the free market, the institute also emphasises "the continuing relevance of Zionism to the Jewish people and to the state of Israel". That is what its website used to say, but the words about Zionism have now been deleted. The original page, however, can still be found in internet archives.
Retrieving another now-deleted page from the archives of Memri's website also throws up a list of its staff. Of the six people named, three - including Col Carmon [the co-founder] - are described as having worked for Israeli intelligence.
Among the other three, one served in the Israeli army's Northern Command Ordnance Corps, one has an academic background, and the sixth is a former stand-up comedian."
From http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/aug/12/worlddispatch.brianwhitaker
They believe there is no proof that Iran is trying to build a bomb..
"There is no evidence that Iran has made a decision to produce nuclear weapons," Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said as well as stating that sanctions were an ineffective course to take.
"If we go with the sanctions, we'll not go beyond the goal of our purpose of defending the nonproliferation governing power."
"We don't want the nonproliferation governing power to be used for ... strangling Iran, or taking some steps to deteriorate the situation [and] the living standards of people in Iran," he said
He said Moscow did not plan to agree to embargoes that could seriously damage Iran's economy.
He also added:
"I cannot rule out that the UN Security Council will have to consider the situation once again," he said.
Lavrov advised Iran to answer all the questions posed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and he acknowledged Iran's right to carry out nuclear activities and confirmed the IAEA is continueing to monitor Iran's nuclear activities.
IAEA inspectors inspecting and stationed in Iran have not been able to provide any proof at all of any intent to build or any actual activity leading to a nuclear military device.
Second, Syria's ties to Iran is extraordinarily unsettling to other Sunni Arab states allied with the U.S., who do not underestimate Syria's capacity to serve as a junior partner to Iran's regional hegemonic goals against them.
@@@
Well, if Syria were to break all ties to Iran, that would still leave Iran with many Sunni states that have close ties with Iran. And as soon as the Iraqi government does not fear the US response, its ties with iran will make Syria's look minor. As for Iran's 'regional hegemonic goals', it is only Americans who find Iran's economic and technologic domination offensive, because it reduces their own hegemony.
1) Iran is not and cannot be in such direct competion with the US. With a GDP one sixty eighth of the US, the notion is rather strange. Iran is advancing technologically, and industrially. But, your depiction of an equal competitor is premature by several decades.
2) Iran is on the record for dnouncing hegemonic and capitalistic tendencies of the "big bullies". Again it is rather stange to couch Iran's defensive posture towards US encroachments as a fair fight between two heavy weights. Besides Iran spends 98th the amount the US spends on its military. Source http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/policy/securityspending/articles/fy09_dod_request_global/
Sorry if I'm misinterpreting your comments. Please elaborate.
And Iran will be undergoing explosive growth (similar to the explosive growth that the US underwent) over the next few years as its baby boom hits it productive and consumptive years.
First, Iran needs Syria to remain quartermaster for Iran's military and financial pipeline to its Hezbollah pawns in Lebanon.
@@@
The problem with this statement is that Hezbollah, thanks to its support by the vast majority of Lebanese (including the majority of the Christian Lebanese) is now part of the government of Lebanon, and the Lebanese government is free to sign agreements to buy arms from Iran, to engage in trade with Iran, and to use the government funds of Lebanon to defend Lebanon.
And if you don't think that Iran's offer to intervene if Israel attacks Lebanon is popular with the average Lebanese, you may want to review the history books. Pay attention to the number killed, the damage done, and the US position.
And though the US public might see that sort of offer as an empty gesture, because the US public image of Iran is that of a 3rd world country, the Lebanese public will likely have some knowledge of what Iran actually is (an industrial power on the scale of Germany, with a tech base to match).
Please spell out in what way does Syria's or Iran's national interests are not the same as that of the US.
If you would, please highlight the following areas:
Trade
Tourism
Regional security
Regional/world ban on WMD
stability in Lebabnon, Iraq, etc.
Many thanks in advance.
Amb. Marc Ginsberg wrote:
Well, space is short, but let's start with Syria is officially declared by the U.S. as a state sponsor of terror, as is Iran. I don't quite see how it is in the U.S. interest to share that damning moniker. Marc
I replied:
State sponsor of terrorism? A damning moniker not to be shared?
It must be some Dorian Gray thing the state department is afflicted with. Are you even aware of the reputation the US actually has in the world? And we are supposed not to know that Saudis funded the Mojahedeen who morphed into al-Qaida?
I was asking an adult question about national interests, which I hope you realize trumps any particular war, let alone a battle, let let alone any particular tactic.
So, please answer the question. National Interests? Where do they diverge?
I suspect that bringing the Rapture was Bush's reason for invading Iraq; Cheney's was for the oil.
Iran seeks nuclear weapons for the simple reason that its existence is threatened by a nuclear power: Israel, a dangerous rogue state that (from hearsay) blackmailed the US into sending them weapons by threatening to nuke Arab countries if we did not.
The Middle East must be free of nuclear weapons. That can only happen if Israel gives up its nuclear weapons. Until then, we should cut all aid and weapon supplies to Israel.
PS before I hear the anti-Semitism accusations: my kids are Jewish. I care about their future, but I don't care about any fundamentalist religious government, in Israel or in Iran.
Disqualified for being Jewish ?
Flagged as the bigot you clearly are
I also do not trust the views of evangelical Christians on the Middle East. Polls show most service men and women serving in Iraq believe they are fighting a war against Islam, for Christianity. Is it an accident that evangelicals supported (and still support) the war in far greater than numbers than others?
Fact: evangelical Erik Prince founded Blackwater explicitly to fight Islam. Iraq was a holy war to many if not most of the supporters.
I'll put it more succinctly: if you believe the Bible is true, I do not trust your opinion on the Middle East. That includes Muslims; Islam is based on the Old Testament too.
Orthodox Jews (like Lieberman) believe they are God's chosen people. They believe it is unclean to eat food cooked by non-Jews.
I call that bigotry.
A little time spent searching the names Carpenter, Ross, Albright, Whitman - coupled with "neo-con" will reveal a shared ideology with Ginsberg, Ledeen, Perle, Netanyahu etc.
The ideology that has placed the U.S. in the quagmire of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Astonishing to see a former Ambassador respond to a cheap jibe with a spurious obfuscation.
Seems like denial, from someone who worked for our first fundamentalist Christian administration. Fortunately, it will be the last.
Americans will never again elect another evangelical President. We've had two, Carter and Bush Jr, and they were both disasters.
Where is all this David Duke Left racism?
Let me enlighten you....if Israelis are semite....guess what....so are Arabs and Palestinians...
It's not RACISM you're talking about....they are all supposed to be the same race...though I doubt many Israelis are caucasian like myself...Can't find much there....
Tehran and Damascus ARE speaking words of peace....I don't know where you get any words of war from the two...they have pledged to defend themselves....against Israel....THEY are the perps in this instance....and that is without a shadow of a doubt unless one is extremely sheltered and doesn't utilize the internet at all outside of the msm websites...
Hey....no one ignores racism from any source...speaking for myself...this disgusts me:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_7FKbMiiwOw0/R1R2g-vsyXI/AAAAAAAAAHU/NbLi4Q5SOb0/s1600-R/abs2Bto%2Bthe%2BGas%2BChambers.jpg
as much as this:
http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/57529382.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF878921F7C3FC3F69D929FDF879DE2E2F5EA47AD16A91CF
E14E458E94376C8071D1F8D5B01E70F2B3269972
I suggest some further study of the region and it's history....Go way back....
You may find some information that will absolutely floor you.
We've been lied to a long, long time.
other url got posted goofy....try that one
It is obvious you are having trouble properly identifying zombies. This could be hazardous at night especially when you are out hunting raccoons for supper..
Let me help you...
Here's a brief tutorial....
http://usersites.horrorfind.com/home/zombies/coffindecay/zombie_warn.jpg
WHAT? What validation?
~(a program Syria secretly coveted until Israel blew that dream up a few years ago)~
Oh right....that would be when Israel got nukes..?.
reduces Iran's regional and international isolation, which is crucial to the atomic ayatollahs.
ATOMIC AYATOLLAHS???
Hoo boy....
Understand, using terminology like that does decrease your credibility among intelligent folks.
But then, you folks aren't aiming for us, are you?
"Altogether, this raises concerns about the possible existence in Iran of past or
current undisclosed activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile. These
alleged activities consist of a number of projects and sub-projects, covering nuclear and missile related aspects, run by military related organizations." Page 9--2-18-10
With all due respect Ambassador, that's not proof. Raises concerns. That is all. Frankly any nuclear technology that Iran is using or would use raises concerns of some folk.
I just do not feel threatened by Iran and neither do many Americans. They are not a threat to the citizens of the U.S. You know they are not.
'We don't want want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud" Sept 8,2002, Condi Rice. -Not proof.
David Kay Iraq survey group "The inspection team has found no weapons of mass destruction." -proof.
Most of us haven't yet forgotten the lies we were told that led the nation to war with Iraq under decidedly false pretenses. Bush said in Poland May 29, 2003 "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories." But as journalist Bob Woodward reported in State of Denial, days earlier a team of civilian experts dispatched to examine the two mobile labs found in Iraq had concluded in a field report that the labs were not for biological weapons. The team's final report, completed the following month, concluded that the labs had probably been used to manufacture hydrogen for weather balloons.
We won't get fooled again. Please choose peace....be a hero...against the grain....Don't wave this banner Ambassador....let's not kill any more innocent people. Please.
The other "KEY" passage is (repeated in IAEA's other 23 reports): "the agency continues to verify non-diversion of nuclear material".
Mr. Ambassador, by all means take us as sheep. Assume that another 4000 lives, 10,000 limbs and a Trillion $$$s down a hole will barely raise a b'aaaa. But, please don't assume we are stupid.
We are intelligent sheep. We know a bunch of "unauthenticated" documents are at the root of these baseless allegations.
Reality: an embargo on medical isotopes was introduced in 2007, the medical exception clause has been ignored. 850,000 patients may not be treated because Iran is running out of radioactive isotopes essential to radiotherapy, even though they are legally authorized to produce their own. But that will surely have the war monkeys hopping.
This is a war on Iranian cancer patients as well as Iran's desire for a nuclear power generating station.
To produce their own. Iran would need to enrich uranium up to 19.75 percent purity...
GONG....which the war monkeys say would be a gross violation of UN sanctions.
A war on cancer patients....
Someone needs to do a morality and reality exam on the war monkeys.
"We would prefer to buy the fuel as quickly as possible," said Mohammad Ghannadi, vice-president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), "We could enrich on our own," he said. "But we will run into technical difficulties. We also won't be ready in time to help our patients."
Anyone else need the vomit bucket after me? They've manipulated the situation in a manner that will deny cancer patients lifesaving treatment.
I agree with Nancy Pelosi . . . I think Syria is doing the right thing . . .
Not one piece of solid evidence indicates that Hamas and Hizbollah are "pawns of " Iran. To the contrary, if Iran was arming either or both of these outfits, there would be traces of the very sophisticated weapons that Iran produces is known to produce. Google Sunburn Missile.
Hizbollah repulsed Israel's unprovoked (yes you heard it right, no-one goes to War over a border skirmish) attack in 2006 with Katyusha rockets and RPGs. Hamas had very little with which to defend itself during "Cast Lead". If Iran was truly sponsoring these groups, where were the big bangers?
His Excellency wants to get his War on.
Are you joking?
The same evidence that you say shows Hamas and Hezbollah to be pawns of Iran shows they are (along with the Saudis, the Egyptians etc).
They actually believe their own b*****hit: we send them a pathatic embassodor and we expect them to run and kiss our feet. And when they don't: THE POLICY HAS FAILED!!!!
That's not policy, that's a comedy show run by Israeli lobby who ignores America's fundamental interests in the region. Do these people really believe that a pretty speech in Cairo and sending of a sad embassador to Damascus, actully makes that nation to change 30 years of policy while still under sanctions and all the trash the George Bush did just over a year ago.
It is truely sad!!!! This is what we get when our foreign policy, like our domestic policy, is run by special interest groups who have no sympathy toward what America's interests are.
domestic policy, is run by special interest groups who have no sympathy toward what America's interests are.