Region | Syria
Syria upbeat despite UN visit to probe nuclear accusations
Syrian leaders host UN nuclear sleuths this week, but the intrusion may not spoil a sense of confidence generated by indirect peace talks with Israel, gains for their allies in Lebanon and a rapprochement with France.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:08 June 21, 2008
Beirut: Syrian leaders host UN nuclear sleuths this week, but the intrusion may not spoil a sense of confidence generated by indirect peace talks with Israel, gains for their allies in Lebanon and a rapprochement with France.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors will investigate US charges that Syria was secretly building a nuclear reactor with North Korean technology at a site bombed by Israel nine months ago. Damascus denies any such covert work.
The Syrians clearly do not relish the visit by the UN team due in Damascus on Saturday, but for now their mood is buoyant.
"The Syrians feel very confident because things on all fronts are progressing towards a kind of reconciliation or cooling down," pro-government analyst Samir Al Taqi, director of the Orient Centre for Studies, said by telephone from Damascus.
Apart from Syria's Turkish-mediated talks with Israel, he cited attempts to mend the rift between Fatah and Hamas, the Gaza truce between Israel and Hamas, and a calming of conflict in Lebanon.
Syria was delighted by last month's Qatari-brokered deal among rival Lebanese leaders, which translated a military victory won by Hezbollah and other Syrian allies against US-backed factions into political gains.
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'Wiping away US'
"The Syrians were thrilled to see them wiping away the facade of US power," said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert at Oklahoma University. "It was clearly very sobering for the Americans, who are trying to figure out where to go from here."
The Doha deal, which gave the Hezbollah-led opposition veto power in Lebanon's next government, broke an 18-month political deadlock and allowed the election of President Michel Sulaiman. This in turn prompted France to reward Syria diplomatically.
Crediting Syria with a positive role in the Doha agreement, President Nicolas Sarkozy has invited his Syrian counterpart Bashar Al Assad to Paris for a July 13 Euro-Mediterranean summit, which Israeli Prime Ehud Olmert is also due to attend.
Syria insists peace talks can only succeed with the full involvement of the United States.
Those who believe Syria is serious about peace with Israel and ready for the major foreign and domestic policy realignments this would entail, are keeping their fingers crossed.
"The attitude is not wait-and-see," said Taqi. "We have to produce the necessary momentum so that when the new US administration comes it will find something to work on, and not treat the Middle East as the Bush administration treated it."
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