US reaching out to Damascus for help?
In a case of better late than never, the Obama Administration finally seems to have put its strategy ducks in order and moved to a more reasoned policy towards Syria. The timing is critical as Israel and Syria indulge in a war of words against the backdrop of escalating tension in the region The Bush Administration famously missed the regional significance of Syria; it ran an ineffective isolationist approach towards. Initially, Obama had a chance to make a clear chance for rapprochement with Syria, but he appeared to mishandle the opportunity when he renewed the sanctions earlier this year.
Serious commentates though this was potential a death knoll for US-Syria rapprochement. Academic and Syria expert Josh Landis seemed quite despondent about the situation at the time:
“They have hit a wall. The Syrians were very upset about the way sanctions were renewed by the Obama Administration,” he said. “I think that they understood that there was going to be a renewal of sanctions, because talks have only just begun. But there was no change in language, and no softening of tone, and they were upset.”
It is therefore good news for the US and the region that official and unofficial steps seem to be under way to repair the relationship. Firstly, there is the appointment of the first US Ambassador to Syria since 2005. The caliber of the appointee also indicates the US is taking the appointment seriously.
In a new effort to loosen the gridlock that is blocking progress towards peace in the Middle East, the US State Department has appointed one of its foremost Arabists as its new Ambassador to Syria.
Robert Ford, whose appointment has yet to be confirmed by the Syrian Government, would be the first US Ambassador to Damascus since his predecessor was withdrawn in 2005 because of apparent Syrian involvement in the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister.
A former ambassador in Algiers who also has long experience in Iraq, Mr Ford’s task will be to attempt to coax the Government of President Assad away from Iran and from its longstanding support of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories.
He will also press urgently for a peace deal between Israel and Syria, which Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defence Minister, said yesterday was the only alternative to a slide to war. “In the absence of a deal with Syria we could reach an armed conflict that could develop into a full-fledged war,” Mr Barak told Israeli army officers.
Walid Moallem, the Syrian Foreign Minister, responded by warning Israel to “stop being the neighbourhood bully” and said that if war broke out it would be “all-out and [would] take place inside your cities”
US picks veteran envoy in push for Middle East peace – Times Online
The rattling of sabers means that in addition to such public displays of rapprochement, there is a need for the US to demonstrate that it trusts Syria and is sincere about bringing them in from the cold. The way to lever Damascus away from Tehran and bind them into the regional moderate powers is to bind them through closer relationships. It is therefore telling that rumors are rife that the US has joined the UK and will share intelligence with Syria, an initiative it has long resisted.
Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh on Wednesday reported that a senior Syrian official told him Damascus has renewed intelligence-sharing efforts with the United States and Britain after a special request was made by U.S. president Barack Obama.
Hersh reported in the New Yorker that George Mitchell, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, relayed Obama’s request, despite Syria being on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terror.
The White House declined to comment on Hersh’s report, which also said that Syrian President Bashar Assad agreed to the request, but warned Mitchell that cooperation with the C.I.A. and Britain’s MI6 would stop “if nothing happens from the other side.”
Hersh sat down with Assad late last year to discuss regional, diplomatic and security issues.
Assad said that he has not received a clear vision from the U.S. “as to what they really want to happen in the Middle East.”
He also told the magazine “that the only thing that can protect Israel is peace, nothing else. No amount of airplanes or weapons could protect Israel, so they have to forget about that.”
Report: Syria renews intel sharing with U.S., U.K. – Haaretz – Israel News
Is this the full rapprochement that Syria desired? Time will tell whether this is diplomatic kabuki theater or a real initiative to expand the regional ‘coalition’. We will continue to monitor developments ion the relationship between Washington and Damascus, but Josh Landis at least is still suspicious of the maneuverings, and the important issue for Syrian pride still remains the Golan Heights
Sphere: Related ContentSyrian officials have been led to understand that the return of a US ambassador is linked to Mitchell’s interest in jump starting the Syrian track of the peace process now that the Palestinian track has gone cold. The Syrians welcome the return of an Ambassador, which they have been pushing for for years. All the same, they fear that the Obama administration is interested in the Syrian track for purely strategic reasons. They worry that it is a gimmick and that Washington has no genuine faith that it can actually bring the process to a conclusion – certainly not one that satisfies Syria’s key request that the Golan be returned. After witnessing Obama’s Palestinian policy collapse and the Obama’s retreat from pressuring Israel on settlements, Syrian authorities are skeptical that Mitchell will have any more luck delivering on the Golan.
