Region | Syria
Obama's Syria statement welcome
Shows the 'new look' of US attitudes towards the middle east, analysts say.
- By Jumana Al Tamimi, Associate Editor
- Published: 23:02 July 12, 2009
Dubai: US President Barack Obama's statement on Syria, though seemingly tentative, was warmly received by many Syrians and analysts.
The statement, in which Obama said he was troubled by Syria's behaviour yet hoped for improvement in ties with Damascus, comes within the "normal" and "realistic" course of ongoing improvement in the bilateral relations, many analysts in the region said.
"The important side is that US President [Barack] Obama expressed willingness to accept the Syrian President Bashar Al Assad's invitation," Syrian analyst Thabet Salem commented. "Concerns or worries were not the important things," he said in an interview with Gulf News.
Obama, during an interview with Britain's Sky News television, expressed readiness to visit Damascus, a few weeks after Al Assad said: "We would like to welcome him [Obama] in Syria, to discuss Middle East issues."
Asked whether he would accept the Syrian invitation, Obama said: "We've started to see some diplomatic contact between the United States and Syria," adding, "There are aspects of Syrian behaviour that trouble us and we think that there is a way that Syria can be much more constructive on a whole host of these issues.
"But, as you know, I'm a believer in engagement and my hope is that we can continue to see progress on that front."
Obama's statement shows the "new look" of the US vis-a-vis the region, analysts said.
"It comes within the 'normal' course of bilateral relations improvement," Abdul Fateh Awad, former Editor-In-Chief of Al Thawra said in an official Syrian newspaper.
But at the same time, Obama's statement was a step towards improving relations, but "carried no major shift" Amr Hamzawy, senior Associate at the Beirut-based Middle East Centre of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said.
"It was a realistic [position] and a balanced one," Hamzawy told Gulf News.
American-Syrian relations deteriorated during the years of the US administration of George W. Bush. However, several steps have been taken in the past few months in the course of improving Washington ties with Damascus, including the announcement of sending a US ambassador to Syria.
Furthermore, imposed sanctions against Syria since 2004 over charges of sponsoring terrorism are expected to ease in the near future.
"There are demands and conditions for each side," Hamzawy said of improving bilateral relations. "The Americans want to see a change in the Syrian behaviour in regional issues, while the Syrians want to regain the Golan Heights occupied by Israel, an American sponsorship to peace talks with the Israelis, recognition of a Syrian regional role and to end Damascus isolation."
Syria, analysts stressed, has proved its influence in many regional issues.
Meanwhile, American-Syrian rapprochement will lead to an overall improvement in the relations of Syria with the West.
"Obama is like the maestro. And once the maestro conducts, the whole choir starts singing," Salem added.
Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner concluded his two-day visit on Sunday during which he met with Al Assad and hailed the improvement of economic relations with Syria.
"We have restored the relationship of trust with Syria since President Bashar Al Assad's visit to France, and President Nicolas Sarkozy's and my visits to Syria in the summer of 2008," Kouchner said in remarks published on Sunday in Al Watan newspaper.
"These improved relations "must be reflected more on the economic level," he said.
"Much has already been done," he stressed.
Also during his visit to Damascus, Kouchner presided over annual meetings of France's ambassadors to Middle East countries.
Syria gained its independence from France in 1946, but France remains one of Syria's main trading partners, with exports to France accounting for below nine per cent of Syria's total.
Kouchner arrived to Damascus from Beirut where he held talks with the Lebanese President Michel Sulaiman and political leaders as well as officials from Hezbollah. The meeting is considered the latest in a serious of European contacts with the group, which is listed by the US and European parliament as a "terrorist organisation".
However, Kouchner defended the meeting.
"Hezbollah is part of the parties that participated in the recent parliamentary elections. It is natural to meet with its representatives," he said. "Lebanon is a democratic country; democracy implies we meet with opposition figures as well," the English-language Daily State quoted him as saying.
The Hezbollah-led Lebanese resistance liberated Southern Lebanon in 2000. The group also fought Israel in the 2006 war. Speaking on the third anniversary of the 2006 war, a member of the Knesset, Shaul Mofaz called the war "a missed opportunity".
In an interview with Israel Radio, Mofaz, who was a transportation minister during the war, said Hezbollah had many more rockets today than it did before the war, adding that the group now possessed longer range projectiles.
- With additional input from agencies
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