October 6, 2004
THE WAGES OF REGIME CHANGE IS APPEASEMENT AND REFORM:
Ex-U.S. official cites Syrian cooperation (BARRY SCHWEID, October 6, 2004, AP)
Syrian President Bashar Assad is offering to make peace with Israel and says he is ready to cooperate with the United States in stabilizing Iraq, a former senior State Department official said Wednesday."Something is going on in Syria and it is time for us to pay attention," said Martin Indyk, assistant secretary of state for the Near East and U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Clinton administration.
In a three-hour meeting with the Syrian president last month in Damascus, Indyk said he detected a "clear change" in Assad's views on a number of fronts.
On peacemaking, Assad offered to hold talks with Israel without preconditions, Indyk said, and had made several overtures to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that Sharon rebuffed.
In the past, Indyk said, Syria had insisted that any peace talks should resume where they left off during the Clinton administration - with Israel offering to give up all of the Golan Heights, a strategic area Israel won in the 1967 Mideast war.
And, Indyk said, Assad had dropped a demand that Israel reach an agreement with the Palestinians before Israel could resume negotiations with Syria.
On the domestic side, Indyk said, Assad spoke "about the need to reform the government."
"It's worth watching and it is worth testing," Indyk said at a seminar at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, of which Indyk is the director.
The prospect that one will be Saddam Husseined in the morning concentrates the mind wonderfully, eh? Posted by Orrin Judd at October 6, 2004 7:58 PM
oj[ohnson]:
So, so true.
Fred (Boswell) Jacobsen
Posted by: Fred Jacobsen (San Fran) at October 6, 2004 8:11 PMIf this had been Dennis Ross or even Richard Holbrooke, it would carry some weight. But Martin Indyk may just be trying to box Ariel Sharon. Verify, then trust.
Posted by: jim hamlen at October 6, 2004 9:15 PMSomething has gotten into Baby Assad, no doubt fear due to who knows what blackmail, the potential for internal resistance and encirclement by the 'axis of good.'
The good news is that this effect will outlast a Kerry victory, at least for a while because the Bush strategy with regards to Syria/Palestine is now well on its way to fruition.
Unfortunatley his plan to foreswear nuclear bunker busters and provide nuclear fuel to the Mullahs is insane but he could give it a shot thanks to a bad debate and worse spin.
We'll learn eventually.
Posted by: JAB at October 6, 2004 10:16 PM
Baby Assad is waiting for the results on November 2 (or the morning of November 3 in Damascus). If Kerry wins, he'll be safe for at least 4 years.
Posted by: Peter at October 7, 2004 3:16 AMIndyk has been a stooge for the Labor Party for about a decade now, so this is just another attempt to screw Sharon.
Baby Assad can't make any kind of deal because his nation will be split into at least 4 parts if he can't keep their focus on how much they all hate Israel.
Posted by: Bart at October 7, 2004 7:08 AMIs there anyone in their right mind who believes that this willingness by Assad to cooperate could have been accomplished through a global test driven diplomacy?
Posted by: Robert Duquette at October 7, 2004 12:47 PMWhy would anyone believe anything that comes out of Syria? Assad trying to work with Israel? Refoming the government? History of that part of the world only tells me one thing about all of it...it's B.S.
Posted by: BJW at October 7, 2004 2:23 PMFrom Gaddafi, we got more than just rhetoric.
And Indyk is known as someone peddles his services in the Middle East as a PR mouthpiece for Arab potentates. "Hire me, and I'l tell the U.S. on your behalf what they want to hear," he promises them.
Looks like he finally found a sucker in Baby Assad.
Posted by: Eugene S. at October 8, 2004 5:25 PM