Anti-American sentiment has galvanised region

Dubai: Imad Mustafa, the Syrian ambassador to the United States, says being in Washington, DC, can be like living in a Kafka novel.

At least that was the situation two and a half months ago, the ambassador told delegates yesterday, when US congressmen asked him what could be done to create a rift between Syria and Iran.

Mustafa said he responded to the question with some history. Syria has had a long-standing foreign policy, the cornerstone of which is the Palestinian crisis. That policy was already in place in 1979, he said, when Iran's Islamic Revolution resulted in a change in Tehran's foreign policy to one more in line with Syria.

"We have not changed our policy. We do not have a problem with Iran," Mustafa said. "We do not have a problem with a major player in the Middle East having a similar foreign policy and national interests."

When asked about Syrian statements that indicate the country might be willing to make peace with Israel, Mustafa said that Syria was a "realistic state," but continued to emphasise its support for the Palestinian cause.

"The Middle East that we live in is facing serious political problems," he said. "Syria will continue to pay a price for its principled support of the resistance. As far as we are concerned, this is a legitimate Arab resistance."

Vali Nasr, adjunct senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies on the non-partisan US Council for Foreign Relations, told the forum, which is being attended by prominent figures from around the world, that Iran is forcing people to decide who sides with whom.

"Iran is now the focus point of alliance-making in the Middle East," he said, adding that Tehran wants the region to come together under an anti-Israeli and anti-American policy.

The audience to which both men were speaking was there to listen to ideas about the shifting alliances in the Middle East. While Syria-Iran was chief among the alliances discussed, most of the panel agreed that current anti-American and anti-Israel sentiment were helping create a sense of unity in the often divisive Middle East.

Rami Khouri, editor-at-large for Lebanon's The Daily Star, said US and Israeli foreign policies were helping drive the sentiment.

"There seems to be an irritant in the Middle East: the combination of American and Israeli policy aggravated by a much more aggressive and militaristic US policy after 9/11 and a more aggressive and militaristic Israeli policy," he said, adding that Israel's current policy was best illustrated by the its recent invasion of Lebanon.

Khouri added that while the invasion had polarised the Lebanese population, Hezbollah had also been able to tap into a wide array of regional sentiments that had helped it gain popularity.

"This temporary convergence of views is a new frontline - it's a new focal point - for people who want to oppose the US," he said, but emphasised that it would only be temporary.

"It's a doomed collision," he said. "They don't have the answers that people really want in the Middle East. It doesn't show us the way forward."