Damascus - The visit of two senior US officials to Syria
over the weekend may not have been big news in Damascus, but the
nervousness it produced in Beirut was perhaps the clearest sign that
something important was afoot between the United States and Syria.
Speaking in Beirut on Friday, US Acting Assistant Secretary of
State Jeffrey Feltman and White House aide Daniel Shapiro were quick
to reassure Lebanese critics that their visit to Damascus on Saturday
would not change US policy on Lebanon.
'My visit here today underscores an important reality: The United
States' support for a sovereign and independent Lebanon remains
unwavering,' Feltman, who previously acted as US ambassador to
Lebanon, told reporters in Beirut.
This may have helped reassure those in Lebanon who might have
otherwise greeted Feltman's report that his talks with Syrian Foreign
Minister Walid al-Muallim in Damascus had been 'constructive and
comprehensive' with alarm, especially following earlier visits from
senior US congressional delegations.
Syria withdrew its soldiers from Lebanon in 2005, after a powerful
car bomb killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. The
United States withdrew its ambassador to Syria after the attack, and
a subsequent UN investigation accused Syrian intelligence officials
of complicity in the assassination.
Neither Feltman nor Syrian officials discussed the details of what
they discussed for more than three hours on Saturday, but Feltman
said he was determined to work through the diplomatic differences
between the two countries.
'We want to achieve results,' he said. 'I am sure the Syrians want
to achieve results.'
The visit did not make headlines in Syria's monolithic state
press, which has been consistently and sharply critical of the US
role in the Middle East.
Syrian political analyst Marwan Qablan, told Deutsche
Presse-Agentur dpa that the mere fact that high-level US and Syrian
officials were talking directly was a positive and constructive step.
'But Damascus is only cautiously optimistic,' he said. 'While
Syria expressed a strong urge to improve relations with Washington,
it is looking for tangible measures from its side.'
Syria seeks the easing and eventual lifting of unilateral
sanctions Washington imposed on Syria in 2004, Qablan said, and a
'genuine sponsorship' of the Israeli-Arab peace process.
Qabalan said that a shift in relations between the countries must
be predicated on a shift in the American attitude towards Syria.
If officials from new US President Barack Obama's administration
'recycle the demands of the previous administration and use the same
means, then Syrians will not listen. It is not logical that they
should use the same approach.'
Yet the two countries have a long list of grievances. Syria
remains on the US State Department's list of state sponsors of
terrorism for its ties to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Palestinian
militant group Hamas. US officials remain suspicious of Syria's
nuclear programme, and the US State Department routinely criticizes
Syria's human-rights record.
Dispatching Feltman and Shapiro to Syria is calculated to send a
double message, Andrew Tabler, a fellow at the Washington Institute
for Near East Policy and former editor in chief of Syria Today
magazine, told dpa.
'Dispatching Feltman sends a signal to the Syrian leadership that
discussions will be about the hard issues that divide the two
countries.'
On the other hand, by sending Shapiro, the Middle East chief on
the National Security Council and an adviser to Obama's presidential
campaign, Washington is showing Damascus that President Obama is
listening, Tabler added.
Feltman is a former US ambassador to Lebanon whose support for the
anti-Syrian 'March 14th' alliance, which leads the current government
in Beirut, openly angered Damascus.
Tabler said that while Damascus' position on such groups as Hamas
and Hezbollah are 'a tough sell' in Washington, 'Syria's economy is
being hit hard by the global economic crisis, declining oil
production and a third straight year of drought that has left the
government there in a vulnerable position.'
This, he said, may explain why more and more Syrian officials are
now demanding that Washington lift its sanctions on their country -
which, in turn, might provide an opening for further negotiations.
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