Memo From Damascus - Ties With Iran Bring Syria Out of Isolation
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- mik661
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more from News and Politics:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/world/middleeast/27syria.html?ref=w...
DAMASCUS, Syria — Only a year ago, this country’s government was being vilified as a dangerous pariah. The United States and its Arab allies mounted a vigorous campaign to isolate Syria, which they accused of sowing chaos and violence throughout the region through its support for militant groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.Today, Syria seems to be coming in from the cold. A flurry of diplomatic openings with the West and Arab neighbors has raised hopes of a chastened and newly flexible Syrian leadership that could help stabilize the region. But Syria has its own priorities, and a series of upheavals here — including Israel’s recent war in Gaza — make it difficult to say where this new dialogue will lead.
It is not just a matter of the Obama administration’s new policy of engagement. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France led the way with a visit here last September. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who was said to be furious at the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, welcomed him warmly in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, this month. Photographs of the two men smiling and shaking hands have been on the front pages of all the major Arab newspapers, along with frequent headlines about the “Arab reconciliation.”
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- News and Politics, Politics
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akamaial [removed]
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"The top priority for the Syrians is a peace deal that would return to them the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967".
Ah yes, let's put more of Israel's enemies in their immediate neighborhood... that'll really speed up a peace process, you bet.!.!
- 11 months ago
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akamaial [removed]
