Change of tack as Rice meets Syrian minister
Condoleezza Rice intimated a softening of the Bush Administration’s stance towards Syria today when she met the country’s Foreign Minister on the sidelines of a conference called to discuss the rebuilding of Iraq.
The US Secretary of State ducked into a private meeting with Walid al-Moualem on the first day of the two-day conference, at which America and Iraq are trying to muster support from 50 nations, chiefly in the Arab world, for reconstruction and debt relief to the war-ravaged country.
Ms Rice’s meeting with Mr al-Moualem is the first high-level contact between Washington and Damascus for several years. America withdrew its ambassador to Syria after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, in Beirut in February 2005.
Since then the Bush Administration has accused Syria of funding terrorism, meddling in Lebanese domestic politics and providing extensive support for Hezbollah, the Shia militant group that fought a war with Israel last summer. Syria is also accused of failing to secure its border with Iraq and allowing the funnelling of weapons, finance and fighters into the west of the country, where hundreds of American soldiers have died.
But the shunning of Syria has been questioned by critics of America’s strategy in Iraq. One of the key recommendations of the Iraq Study Group’s report on the conflict was that Washington engage Iran and Syria in efforts to bring stability to the country. Until now, that recommendation had been ignored. Only last month President Bush criticised the Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, for meeting the Syrian leader, President Bashar al-Assad, saying she was sending “mixed signals” to the country.
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Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
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