Carrots for Syria

Syria is making noises about returning to full membership in the international community. The Democrat takeover of the U.S. Congress coupled with Tony Blair's recent statements about London-Damascus negotiations have energized the Syrians to start making demands. It's reasonable to assume that Iran is puppeteering.

From Asia Times Online:

After all, the Syrians cannot offer everything without getting anything in return. After the Iraq war, the Americans said there would no longer be carrots for the Syrians - only sticks. The Syrians repeatedly said, and continue to repeat the same line, that they will not police Iraq, nor cooperate on any Middle East-related issue, for no carrots.

And abandoning Iran, Hezbollah or Hamas for the Syrians is a red line. Also, the Syrians do not really trust the Americans. They want to reach some kind of formula whereby they can maintain relations with Tehran and Washington, with a free hand to work with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine, similar to the perfect working relationship that the Syrians had with the Americans during the Bill Clinton era in the 1990s. [emphasis mine]

For some time it has been said that the US carrots should be jump-starting talks on the Golan Heights, returning to the Syrian-Israeli peace track, ending the Syrian Accountability Act, and re-welcoming Syria into the international community.

So, for a perfect working relationship with Syria, the U.S. needs to pony up some carrots without mentioning Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas while re-establishing a Clinton White House.

Syrian eagerness, with conditions, of course, for dialogue with the U.S. has been elevated by comments by Blair, Democrat Senator Joe Biden and others calling for meetings. Furthermore, the Syrians heard the statements of American Protestant Pastor Rick Warren on a recent visit.

He [Warren] met with Assad and the Grand Mufti of Syria, Sheikh Ahmad Hassoun, saying, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency, that "80% of the American people rejected what the US administration is doing in Iraq and considered the US policy in the Mideast as wrong." SANA added, "Pastor Warren expressed admiration of Syria and the co-existence he saw between Muslims and Christians, stressing that he will convey this image to his church and country."

Holy moly -- shades of Jimmy Carter. Pastor Warren, author of the bestselling The Purpose Driven Life, goes to a foreign country and trashes the U.S. Naturally, conservatives were outraged. However, when the media questioned Warren about his statements, he denied that he had said them. Okay, so who's telling a fib here? It's hard to tell without a recording. Both the Syrians and Pastor Warren have reputations for making creative, yet deniable, pronouncements.

And then there's the involvement of Reverend Joan Brown Campbell, head of a delegation of senior American clergy, who recently visited Syria. The Americans met with the Grand Mufti of the Republic Dr. Ahmad Badruddin Hassoun who explained that Islam is the religion of tolerance and "asserted that man was the most sacred creature on Earth." In response:

Members of the delegation expressed pleasure over the climate of tolerance they had seen in Syria, stressing that realities in the country were different from what the negative image given about Syria in the past.

It's assumed that the "sacred creatures" strapped with explosives were hidden from view. And there's more.

Members of the American delegation expressed admiration for what they had seen in Syria and for the example of coexistence and fraternity among Moslems and Christians, adding they were going to convey what they had seen in Syria to the American people.

In conclusion, it's logical for the Syrians to want new rounds of dialogue with the U.S. and it's also logical for them to expect the U.S. to roll over and offer carrots. From Syria's perspective every American who visited the country recently has enjoyed having smoke pumped up his/her ass so, obviously, it's time to talk to more Americans and get some carrots.