http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/485831.html

Wonder why CBS isn't covering this:


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Martin Indyk: Assad offering to make peace with Israel

By The Associated Press



WASHINGTON - Syrian President Bashar Assad is offering to make peace with Israel and says he is ready to cooperate with the United States in stabilizing Iraq, a former senior State Department official said Wednesday.




"Something is going on in Syria and it is time for us to pay attention," said Martin Indyk, assistant secretary of state for the Near East and U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Clinton administration.

In a three-hour meeting with the Syrian president last month in Damascus, Indyk said he detected a "clear change" in Assad's views on a number of fronts.

On peacemaking, Assad offered to hold talks with Israel without preconditions, Indyk said, and had made several overtures to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that the latter rebuffed.

In the past, Indyk said, Syria had insisted that any peace talks should resume where they left off during the Clinton administration - with Israel offering to give up all of the Golan Heights, a strategic area Israel won in the 1967 Mideast war.

And, Indyk said, Assad had dropped a demand that Israel reach an agreement with the Palestinians before Israel could resume negotiations with Syria.

On the domestic side, Indyk said, Assad spoke "about the need to reform the government."

"It's worth watching and it is worth testing," Indyk said at a seminar at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, of which Indyk is the director.

Indyk said Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa was not at his meeting with Assad, evidence the former American diplomat said that change was under way and that al-Sharaa "and others in the old guard are being systematically silenced."

On Monday, Assad shuffled his Cabinet. Ghazi Kenaan, 62, until two years ago Syria's top intelligence general in neighboring Lebanon, was named interior minister. Al-Sharaa retained his post.

Assad switches to cooperation with U.S. over Iraq
On Iraq, Assad "figured out he was on the wrong side" and has switched to cooperation with the U.S. occupation forces in the country, Indyk said.

On support for terrorism, Assad was responding to U.S. demands by moving some leaders of militant Palestinian groups out of Damascus, Indyk said.

Last month, Syria was praised publicly by Secretary of State Colin Powell for dismantling military camps in the hills near Beirut, Lebanon.

Powell told reporters after a meeting with Al-Sharaa that the redeployment of Syrian occupation forces in Lebanon was "a positive step."

At the same time, the State Department has continued to call for a crackdown on terror. And Syria remains one of seven countries branded by the department as sponsors of terror.

Thousands of Syrian troops also remain in Lebanon despite passage on September 2nd of a UN Security Council resolution calling for a withdrawal and for Syria to respect Lebanon's sovereignty.

Also, President George W. Bush's administration has accused Syria of pursuing biological and chemical weapons programs as well as nuclear weapons.

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Interesting development. I think we should keep an eye out for this topic.

Catz

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I'll get nicer when you get smarter.

Hmmm, I wonder if our actions in Iraq have helped the Syrians to look at some things differently?

and completely pissed off the middle east?

Geez, klang, get with the program.

Catz

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I'll get nicer when you get smarter.

The story's on the AP Wire, and a quick Google search shows it's been picked up by the likes of the Dallas Morning News and San Francisco Chronicle. That's ignoring?

That said, what you have right now is a one-source story. I would assume that if this news were true, we'd be hearing about it from the White House before too long. But there is the risk that Indyk is simply another uncredible envoy to unsavory places, spinning his own importance.

I do think the younger Assad is more flexible than his father was, and less constricted by 60-year-old feuds and loyalties. So it could well be true. But it requires some official acknowledgement before it means anything.

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Man up.

Fact, Raytri.

I'm not verifying it myself, I just think it's a story that deserves watching, and i'm learning that we have to be on the lookout for such stories because there is no guarantee that the majors will carry them.

catz

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I'll get nicer when you get smarter.

Where's the catch?

There has to be a catch.

stop CBS from printing unvalidated memos about Bush's national guard service?

Hm.

Catz

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I'll get nicer when you get smarter.

i couldn't find it on the Dallas morning news or the SF chronicle. can you find it and make some links? I only found the article in Arabian news. My suspicion is that something secretive is happening that is making Syria afraid of the US. The State Department would not want any secret threats or deals to be made public.

Catz, CBS is not the only target. I don't see any US news sources carrying the story. Any ideas as to it's significance?

Did something for Qaddafi, Ghadafi, er, uh, the Lybia guy.

[quote="G-1";p="75740"]I enjoy a light Zinfandel with my mushroom clouds... while singing one outta three ain't bad.

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