America said in two

Speaker Pelosi Talks to Syria Against President Bush's Will

Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi dealt a powerful blow to President Bush's Middle East policy. An influential Democratic politician arrived in Syria, with the authorities of which the Republican US administration completely refuses to talk. Mrs. Pelosi met yesterday in Damascus with President Bashar al-Assad, who over breakfast assured her guest of Syria's desire to resume peace talks with Israel, which were interrupted in 2000. This was Assad’s response to the message that Pelosi delivered to him from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Before arriving in Syria, the speaker visited Israel, and before that, Lebanon.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem clarified that Assad agrees to peace with Israel based on the Arab plan “Saudi Initiative”. It provides for Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for the return of lands occupied in 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights. "We have no illusions, but we have great hopes," Pelosi told reporters in Damascus.

After the negotiations, the guest toured the capital's bazaar, where she chatted and bargained with the hawkers who offered her nuts. Without buying anything, she headed to the ancient Umayyad mosque, where the head of John the Baptist rests. In the mosque, the speaker, as custom requires, put on a headscarf and a black cloak.

Yesterday, Damascus newspapers came out with the headlines “Welcome dialogue!” and called the arrival of the “brave woman” a diplomatic victory for Syria. "American lawmakers - Democrats and Republicans - recognize that US policy in the region, especially the war in Iraq and relations with Syria, has been a fiasco, and this must be corrected," the Tishrin newspaper said in an editorial. The head of the scientific center “Russian-Arab Dialogue” at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Anatoly Yegorin, who recently returned from a business trip to Syria, told Vremya Novostei that “the Syrians are ready for any scenario - both calm negotiations and negative developments of events.” . However, he doubts that Israel will agree to talk with Syria within the framework of the Arab peace plan, which stipulates the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, which is unacceptable for the Jewish state.

On Tuesday, as Pelosi arrived in Damascus, President Bush accused the speaker of sending a "dangerous signal" to Syria: "Appearing in front of cameras with President Assad allows his government to believe that it is part of the international community, when in fact Syria... the state is a sponsor of terrorism.” Bush explained that Syria was included in the American blacklist for supporting the Islamist organizations Hamas in the Palestinian Authority and Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as for destabilizing Lebanon and condoning the infiltration of foreign fighters from Syria into Iraq. To this, Pelosi noted that Assad’s guests this weekend were three Republican congressmen: “I haven’t heard the White House talk about this.”

Democrats won the US congressional elections in November 2006. They now claim to be implementing the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. Late last year, the Panel felt that direct US negotiations with Iran and Syria on the Middle East crises were necessary, but Bush rejected that advice.

Alexander SAMOKHOTKIN