this can only be helpful, imo - anything resembling a solution to the mess in iraq is gonna require regional cooperation:
Quote:
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 — James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state who is now Republican co-chairman of a bipartisan group examining strategic options in Iraq, has met several times with Syrian officials to discuss how they might cooperate with the United States, the Syrian ambassador here said Friday.
“What would it take Syria to help on Iraq?” the Syrian ambassador, Imad Moustapha, recalled Mr. Baker asking Syria’s foreign minister, Walid Muallem, during a meeting in New York at the Waldorf-Astoria in September. Mr. Moustapha described the session as “very promising.”
During a 45-minute interview at the Syrian Embassy on Friday morning, the ambassador said he arranged the New York meeting, also attended by other members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, at Mr. Baker’s request. Separately, Ambassador Moustapha met twice with the study group in Washington.
|
might as well get used to the idea that we're gonna have to talk to Iran at some point, too. the Prez, however, is not willing to come down off his high horse:
Quote:
President Bush, though, has not seemed open to dramatic policy shifts. During an appearance in the Oval Office on Monday, Mr. Bush called on Syria to withdraw from Lebanon and stop “harboring terrorists,” and said Iran must suspend uranium enrichment before talks could begin.
“If the Iranians want to have a dialogue with us, we have shown them a way forward,” Mr. Bush said. On Syria, he said, “The Syrian president knows my position.”
|
only the President is still clinging to the notion that Iran and Syria must come forward on bended knee, bearing concessions. they won't because they have no reason to. but at least Bush now appears to be listening to people, older and wiser than he, who are considerably more realistic about US limitations in the region.
Quote:
...there is speculation that the study group will advocate greater cooperation among the United States and Syria and Iran.
But Mr. Baker said at a news conference in September that the group intended to meet with officials of both countries. An outside adviser to the group, speaking on condition of anonymity, said in an interview this week that the panel had also interviewed the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, Javad Zarif.
Mr. Baker has made little secret of his belief that the United States should negotiate with nations that it regards as enemies. He often likes to recount how, as secretary of state under the first President Bush, he traveled 15 times to Damascus in pursuit of a Middle East peace agreement. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain delivered a widely publicized speech in which he suggested the West should pursue greater engagement with Iran and Syria.
|
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/18/wo...artn er=MYWAY