Sarkozy never had any intention of turning those conditions into obstacles blocking French overtures to Bashar Assad, because he is so keen to fill some role in Arab-Israeli peacemaking.

Wow, Michael Young: Sarkozy must have hurt you a lot? He let you down didn’t he? Said he will break up with Syria forever but didn’t?

Do you want a cookie now?

Syria will only play seriously on the peace front if it can reimpose its hegemony over Lebanon

Again, the whole world revolves around Lebanon. How about considering the equally ‘incriminating’ (but rather more solid) argument; that Syria uses its hegemony in Lebanon to catalyze peace talks? I am not suggesting that it is true. I am just pointing out that Young didn’t take off his set of blinkers while writing this article.

because Sleiman needs to urgently offset the influence of the Friends of Bashar.

Who are those new La Costa Nostra Friends of Bashar? Sounds like one of those Familias which will convene in their dirty conclaves and conspire to destroy the world.

United States Institute of Peace, the Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment, and the International Crisis Group, to name only them, all of which have urged engagement of Damascus, all of which have willfully ignored or papered over Syria’s role in the Hariri assassination.

At least Young is acknowledging that his position is not popular within the US ThinkTank community. maybe he should pause for a second and think why?

And one should wonder; while you can build up your case and improve your rapport with a politician by visiting him. How is Young confident that a Suleiman’s visit to the US will flip the ThinkTanks? I mean those guys are lucid and lean and can travel on their own; they’d get to Suleiman or anyone else should they need him. The Carnegie Endownment even has an office in Beirut, doesn’t it? 😉

The Friends of Bashar have repeatedly shown how little concerned they are by Syrian behavior in Lebanon

Again, there is the hideous assumption that Syria assassinated Harriri and now its time to serve the sentence. Will how about ‘the suspect is INNOCENT until proven guilty’? you want me to spell innocent for you Young?

I am saying this because otherwise one should wonder what is Syria’s behavior in Lebanon is like: are we Syrians harassing females or caught in drunk and disorderly situation? Are there an extraordinary numbers of Syrians caught shop-lifting in Al Hamra? How does Young define Syrian behavior?

while the Lebanese don’t seem to have a clue as to who will save their skins.

Again, you are lead to believe, against your own well, that the Lebanese people are one. And that they all are subject to death threats from the Syrian regime.

Young seems to have lost all his bearings in this article. He is becoming more irrelevant by the day. He should have learned better from Junblat. (or maybe Sarkozy? :))))

Offended,

Leave him alone. He’s still… Young. 🙂

I just love these soothsayers. They KNOW what Syria’s “true intentions” are. They KNOW what’s behind the manipulations. To them, humility is a nanosized germ in Eastern Siberia. Unheard of, and better ignored.

Although Al Hokayem’s tone is lighter than Mr. Young’s, and although he tries to sound realistic and reasonable (probably because he writes for a UAE newspaper); he seems to follow the same line of thoughts: a bunch of bitter M 14 pundits who couldn’t bear watching Syria break its isolation.

He resorts to same old mantra that France should abandon Syria forever for its yet-to-be-defined behavior in Lebanon. And he goes on to say that France’s engagement of Syria is unconditional (how does he know?) and why does it have to be conditional from the first place? Doesn’t he allude somewhere in his article that France is gaining some potential in the ME by engaging with Syria and by butting in to sponsor the Peace Talks? Is the free advice to France based on moral stand or pragmatic stand we don’t know….

Now when he mentions Syria’s occupation of Lebanon, and how it was one of the reasons France has become ‘cautious’ toward Syria (in fact, France was outright belligerent to Syria in the last three years before the recent opening): is it now required that the whole world boycott Syria because it has allegedly occupied Lebanon? Are you looking for revenge Mr. Hokayem?

Young cannot seem to imagine that the Hariri assassination is not the number one issue of importance in the middle east.

the irony is that the conservative think tanks in Washington who think more like Michael Young have been far more influential in regards to shaping foreign policy than the few he mentions. What has shifted the sentiment this past year and a half or so towards listening to these more diplomacy oriented views advocating for engagement with Syria is the simple facts of reality on the ground. Nothing positive or successful has come of following the isolate and punish Syria view of young or the neo-conservatives and their time for pushing their agendas has run out as the failures mount higher and higher.

Shai, Young is so biased that Bill O’ Reilly stands like an angel in comparison!

Michael Young longs for the days when conversations between Lebanese comprised interspered Arabic and French words.

If it is truly quoted that Sarkozy sated that if Iran continuess its work in the nucelar field and Israel decides to nuke them one them the fault will lie with Iran.

Young writes patronisingly as a colonialist if not as a mole for either the CIA or M16. He along with Monsieur Sarkozy are still living in some fantasyland.

Syria Comment’s Beirut correspondent, reporting for duty…

The hummus is delicious, the weather is hot and sticky, and the mood is reconciliatory…

So far I’ve asked three taxi drivers about peace with Israel and they were unanimously supportive. (More on this soon…)

Report: UN to demand Israel pay Lebanon $1 billion

Roee Nahmias

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will demand that Israel pay Lebanon $1 billion in compensation over damages caused during the Jewish state’s 2006 war against Hizbullah, Lebanese media reported Saturday.

According to the report, the sum, based on World Bank appraisals, is aimed at covering the environmental and material damages caused by the Second Lebanon War, to neighboring countries as well.

The fundamental part of the compensation demanded is for the damage caused to the Lebanese coast due to an oil spill following an Israeli bombing of a southern Beirut power plant, which the Lebanese said had caused “an ecological disaster.”

According to the report, Ban plans to submit a report to the United Nations General Assembly at the end of the month, stating that damage Israel caused to the oil reservoir polluted Lebanon’s coast, and that the pollution spread to neighboring countries, especially Syria.

Ban further notes that the UN rehabilitation plan managed to clean some of the oil spill in several areas in northern Lebanon seashores.

The oil spill, which was defined the greatest natural disaster in Lebanon’s history, took place after Israel Air Force planes hit a power plant and caused some 110,000 oil barrels to leak into the Mediterranean Sea.

The report said that the UN wants Israel to compensate the countries harmed by the oil spill and restore the environmental situation along the Lebanon coast. The Jewish state has yet to respond to the demand, despite messages conveyed in August 2007.

About half a year ago, new agencies reported that the German government granted Lebanon 4.5 million euros (about $6.4 million) to help finance environmental projects and damage restoration activities following the war.

There are a few things which neither Hokayem nor Young (as well as thinkers alike) seem to understand. Whether we like it or not, Syria has its sphere of influence over Lebanon since years and years in history, exactly as Turkey might have it over Syria itself, as an example. Same thing applies to France over Belgium or Monaco, and US over Canada or South America in general. People tend to forget that Geopolitical Hegemony GAME is on every country’s agenda. America cannot neglect Russia’s right to have the upper hand in her surrounding/neighboring countries, the same way China has over Formosa/Taiwan.

Remnants of GAME of NATIONS and political Chessplay are always in the offing.

Bachar’s regime (following his late father’s Hafez-the-Lion) is definitely okayed by big regional and international powers in this Game of Nations, including the U.S., France, Russia and Israel. All Sarkozy is doing is trying to bring back French influence in this part of the world, as it should be, “de concert avec les Americains” (as they say it in French), with the benediction of Israel, while trying to build a kind of French “Napoleonian” political saying (as opposed to the anglo-saxon hegemony). It is a very subtile game which Sarkozy, Assad-son, Sleiman, Russia’s Poutine, Turkey, Israel and even Bush are carefully playing, while Iran is looking.

Offended, your credibility or lack thereof is quickly apparent in such phrases “is it now required that the whole world boycott Syria because it has allegedly occupied Lebanon”.

Dealing in Damascus

Syria desires to return to its place in the heart of the Arab world. The possibilities of peace with Israel, security for Bashar al-Assad’s regime, and development aid make for a good deal for the Syrians. A successful Damascus deal could entice Iran next, argues Rami G. Khouri.

BEIRUT — Regional and international players have been meeting in Damascus for thousands of years, to do one of two things: make war, or make a deal. This week’s four-way summit of the leaders of France, Syria, Qatar and Turkey in Damascus perpetuates the age-old tradition of deal-making — in this case bargaining over strategic assets and positions, rather than fine-thread carpets.

Bargaining to strike a deal in Damascus, whether in the world of commerce or politics, is defined by a few basic rules: the process takes time; it often requires third parties to come in and out of the picture like catalysts in a chemical equation; some gains are not calculated immediately but materialize later; and, a deal is consummated only if all sides obtain their key demands in a win-win situation.

This week’s Damascus meeting testifies dramatically to the changing Middle East, which has become incredibly complicated in view of the many conflicts that are now entangled in a single large regional dynamic. It also points to greater changes ahead, because of Syria’s contradictory position on some core issues related to Iran, Lebanon and Israel.

The most striking common denominator in this gathering comprises the roles of France, Qatar and Turkey as important new diplomatic mediators in the Middle East, filling the large gap left by the United States, which has increasingly marginalized itself by its own mistakes and biases. The United States, Europe — and the UN to a lesser extent — have dominated diplomacy on Israel-Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Iran, but they have systematically failed to achieve breakthroughs. The 2006 Israel-Hezbollah summer war reminded everyone of the terrible carnage that will surely occur when simmering tensions erupt into war. The Iraq war revealed how conflict in one area spills over into and destabilizes other parts of the region. Last year’s brief war between the Lebanese army and the Fateh el-Islam radical Salafist group pointed to the new terror threats the entire region faces.

The vacuum created by the United States’ diplomatic auto-demotion is being filled quickly, so that the regional conflicts do not erupt into active warfare. Qatar, Turkey and France are the main players offering to mediate; others also seek roles, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. The focus on Damascus now is solely because Syria has its hands in almost every major conflict in the region — Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Israel, for starters. It must be engaged and placated to an extent, to prevent a deterioration that results in widespread war and destruction.

Syria’s reasonable demands can be met, such as regime survival, territorial integrity, a return of its occupied Golan Heights, and no political intrigues or military threats emanating from Israel or Lebanon. Wider goals of dominating Lebanon and Jordan are not reasonable and will be resisted. Many Lebanese understandably remain unsure how far the major international and regional players will go to preserve Lebanon’s sovereignty, should Syria try to regain control or major influence there.

The two big players watching the Damascus talks are Iran and Hezbollah, and this is where Syria’s position seems untenable. Syria cannot realistically claim it is interested in negotiating permanent peace with Israel while also maintaining its strong alliances with Iran and Hezbollah. A Syrian-Israeli peace is a strong possibility in the coming two years, and if it happens it will trigger Lebanon-Israel peace talks, and major changes in Hezbollah’s strategy and behavior in Lebanon. Syria cannot credibly make peace with Israel while supporting those who resist and fight Israel.

The prevalent international view is that today’s diplomacy aims to separate Syria from Iran. That is unlikely to happen in the short run, but certain to happen in the longer run. The Syrian-Iranian strategic relationship is an unnatural one, and is also untenable for very long in the face of possible Syrian-Israeli ties.

Syria is bargaining to regain its land, and its place in the heart of the Arab world, rather than remain it its quarantine ward. The prospects of peace with Israel, a secure Assad-led regime, normal ties with the major Western and Arab states, and large injections of development aid have all the trappings of a deal that must appeal to Damascus. Syria will work towards this goal slowly and steadily, according to the established rules of bazaar bargaining — without making abrupt and major concessions, or humiliating its many partners. It will change slowly, and also will seek to have others change with it.

The most intriguing thing going on in Damascus is not about Syria alone. It is rather that events in Damascus could be a harbinger of what could soon take place in Iran — where they also know carpets, and when to strike a reasonable deal before the good buys, and your bargaining power, disappear.

Rami G. Khouri is Editor-at-large of The Daily Star, and Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, in Beirut, Lebanon.

QN,

Welcome to our part of the world! In’shalla, may you enjoy your near-year in Beirut! Now that we’re so close, why don’t you come spend the weekend with us? 🙂 Amazing, isn’t it? We’re probably 2 hours away from each other by car, but 60 years of history. Time to put the painful distance away.

Be well my friend!

Shai,

OK , when are you getting out of the Golan .

Dear Norman,

For you, I will get out of my own bedroom, and host you and your family there. I’ve been to the Golan many many times. It’s a beautiful place, and Israel has done amazing things with it. You will be getting back a well-nourished child… For most Israelis, it’ll be a very hard, bitter-sweet day. But it must come, and the sooner the better.

Shai,

Thanks. You could always go to the border and wave.

QN,
Is that you I see waving the large yellow flag? 24 hours, is that all it took?

Cafes and shops signal economic opening in Syria; West wonders if political change will follow
By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Writer
1:57 PM PDT, September 8, 2008
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) _ At the hip Costa coffeehouse downtown, young Syrians chat over cappuccinos and lattes, laptops propped before them. Shoppers at nearby boutiques try on Prada and Armani designs. Tourists stream in and out of the Four Seasons Hotel.

Syria is transforming itself economically and is starkly different from the drab socialism of just a few years ago. Whether it can change politically at the same pace, and break with its hard-line reputation, remains to be seen.

Already, there are signs of a more flexible Syrian stance in the region. President Bashar Assad has agreed to establish diplomatic ties with Lebanon. He has pursued indirect peace talks with Israel, mediated by Turkey, and says he wants direct talks next year.

In response, the West is slowly changing its 3-year-old policy of isolating Syria and instead trying to engage it. The goal is to get Damascus to move forward on a peace deal with Israel — and even to break its longtime alliance with Iran and militant groups, tempting it with the prospect of increased Western investment.

So far, France has taken the lead: Its president, Nicolas Sarkozy, joined the leaders of Turkey and Qatar in a summit with Assad last week in Damascus.

The United States has hung back, insisting Syria must change even more, particularly by stopping support for Lebanon’s Hezbollah and other groups labeled by Washington as terrorists.

The U.S. still bars most U.S. exports to and business with Syria, except for oil companies. But few believe Sarkozy would be courting Syria without implicit American backing — and Assad has made clear he hopes a new U.S. administration will be more willing to embrace him.

For now, at least, Syria is following a model resembling China’s: Crack down on political dissent, liberate the economy and try to manage the growing gap between rich and poor.

The openness so far has been confined to the economy. Dozens of government critics are languishing in prison. Bloggers have been jailed for allegedly posting criticism of the government, and Syria restricts access to much of the Internet, including blocking YouTube.

Younger Syrians still don’t dare criticize the government openly. The richer among them are too busy enjoying the consumer boom, and the poorer are struggling just to make ends meet.

Assad is credited with starting the reform process. In 2001, the government issued a five-year economic plan that included laws designed to attract investments. Reforms were slow at first but accelerated after Syria’s withdrawal from Lebanon.

These days, with the government encouraging investment, money has flowed in from oil-rich Saudi Arabia, Iran and other Gulf nations, and Turkey. The government has released no figures, but observers estimate foreign investment at nearly $800 million in 2007, up 30 percent from the year before.

That’s small compared with other Arab countries sucking in billions in Gulf investments — but in long-isolated Syria, it has a splashy effect.

The Abu Rummaneh area around Damascus’ Four Seasons Hotel has become a see-and-be-seen hangout. Boutiques have sprouted up selling Western designer clothes and shoes costing up to three times the monthly salary of an average Syrian.

International cafe chains — like Canada’s Cinnzeo and Britain’s Costa — dot Abu Rummaneh. At the trendy Rotana Cafe, customers watch video clips and buy CDs as they eat and drink.

Shoppers swarm three recently opened, Western-style malls. Private banks and businesses line the upscale Mazzeh Boulevard. And if you really want to make an impression, the trendy rooftop Z Bar lounge at the Omayyad Hotel is a must.

“I used to dream about leaving Syria,” said Alaa Derbas, a 21-year-old working in a Damascus shoe shop. “I went to Lebanon whenever I had a chance, but I don’t anymore because now we have everything here.”

“Almost,” he added with a smile.

It’s a far cry from the Damascus of the 1970s and 1980s, when commodities were so scarce that travelers from neighboring Jordan and Lebanon brought bread and toilet paper with them.

“Of course, there is still a lot of bureaucracy and corruption,” said Fuad Shaaban, 28, who recently opened up an electronics business in Damascus. “The money is in the hands of a few at the top. But everything is much easier than it used to be.”

Indeed, many call it the Beirutization of Damascus, referring to the capital of next-door Lebanon and its reputation as the region’s playground.

Syria’s economy still depended heavily on Lebanon during the decades in which Syria dominated its smaller neighbor. But Syria was forced to withdraw its forces from Lebanon in 2005. Now much of the banking, insurance and trade that Syria did in Lebanon has now returned home.

Those developments, along with dwindling production from Syria’s small oil industry, led the government to liberalize and diversify parts of the economy. The influx of more than 1.5 million Iraqi refugees into Syria has brought capital but also strained the services.

Many grumble that the transformation has exacerbated social inequality in a country with 12 percent unemployment. Earlier this year, the government gave public employees a 25 percent raise, the fifth increase since Assad took office eight years ago.

At the same time, prices are rising. Diesel fuel, used by middle-class Syrians to heat their homes, has gone up 30 percent in just three years. The prices of fruits and vegetables have doubled. The average Syrian makes about $220 a month.

Analysts say the West may dangle investment to entice Syria to change its ways even more, perhaps with a peace treaty with Israel.

“But at the same time Syria has also been getting by for decades, so it can also continue to scrape by,” says Andrew Tabler, a Syria analyst and consulting editor at the English-language Syria Today magazine. “It all depends now on where the Syrian leadership sees the country going.

Thank you Shai,

If you come to the US i have a guest room , you can get my Email and info from Alex,

Norman, thank you.

QN, we should create an SC-flag, then meet up at the border each waving his. The IDF and HA will be quite baffled… But talk about promotion for SC! (we’ll bring a journalist along, just in case – imagine the photo.)

A few questions for Michael Young and Emile Hokayem

What makes a leader who meets a Syrian President “naïve” or “an opportunist”?

Hokayem wrote about President Sarkozy: “His warm embrace of Assad displayed a curious mix of cynicism and naivety that has not been a characteristic of French diplomacy until now.”
Young wrote:

“Sarkozy has proven to be the most destructive of opportunists here.”

Are all the leaders of the Arab Gulf States naïve opportunists? … Emile is writing in a UAE newspaper. Does he believe that the President of the UAE, who decorated President Assad last month with his country’s highest medal, is a naïve opportunist?

In the mid-to-late Eighties, after Europe, the United States and Canada boycotted Syria for its alleged Role in the Hindawi affair. Does Michael young recall how it was Jacques Chirac himself who first made sure “the Assad regime remains in power and breaks out of the international and regional isolation imposed on it”?

It was Chirac who told the Washington Post that he thought it possible Israeli intelligence and anti-Assad Syrians could have been involved in the plot.

Three years later, the United States followed Chirac’s lead when secretary of State James Baker and President George Bush Sr. met and coordinated their country’s strategy in the Middle East with Syrian President Hafez Assad.

Was Chirac any better than Sarkozy?

Why is Lebanon so special?

Why is the flawed , non-conclusive, fading investigation into the assassination of one Lebanese politician more valuable than peace and stability in the Middle East?

Why should France, Qatar and Turkey live with the possibility of a war with Iran instead of trying to brainstorm with the Syrians in order to find new ideas for solving the dangerous conflict?

Who represents “Lebanon”?

Do you represent Lebanon more than President Suleiman? More than speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri? More than Lebanon’s Shiite community? What makes you more qualified to advice your president not to talk with the Syrians? Are you more experienced? Better informed? less biased?

Why do you keep giving the false impression that you actually speak for “Lebanon”?

What is REALLY driving you?

Is it really true that you are worried about the influence of a “foreign” power (Syria) over Lebanon?
Can you help us find online anything that one of you wrote to express his unease when Saudi appointed Prime Minister Seniora wrote in the Saudi owned newspaper of Asharq Alawsat:

“As for King Abdullah Ben Abd alaziz (King of Saudi Arabia), the grand human being, the grand leader, the noble knight, may god preserve his friendliness and prolong his rule, and allow us to continue enjoying his presence and his work, reward him for all that he provided and participated in, reward him for his struggle and hard work for the success and progress of the kingdom … citadel of all Arabs and Muslims, and his struggle for the benefit of the Arab world and for peace and freedom and Arabism and independence and stability of Lebanon’s democratic system and its successful coexistence.”

Alex,
If it was important enough for Syria to kill Hariri, why is it not important enough for Lebanese to be interested in Hariri’s fate?

Let me ask you a question Alex: Why is a small area like the Golan the thing stopping peace in the middle east? Don’t the Syrians want to stop another war? Why do they insist on getting it back?

Every one has different things that are important to them. Belitlling the Lebanese concern for the Hariri investigation just shows how “selfish” you are. Or at least that is how you would argue.

AIG,

When Young finds it equally “important” to find out who killed all those Lebanese politicians that Geagea is accused of killing, then I will respect his wishes.

If Yong was able to write anything complaining when the Saudis appointed the idiot (Saad Hariri) who speaks Arabic with a heavy Saudi accent, to “lead” Lebanon and to appoint Lebanon’s prime minister who later wrote that famous article that showed us what is the real relationship between him and Saudi Arabia … then I would have taken young’s wishes seriously.

As for the Golan … I explained before that the real reason Syria and Israel did not sign a peace agreement is not merely the Golan, but mostly due to the fact that Syria always pushed Israel and the United States to go for a comprehensive settlement… Israel and the United States made the mistake of considering Syria’s grand plan to be “too many Syrian demands” .. and they felt that “Syria’s price is too high”

Syria wants to fix enough mistakes at once so that a peace treaty will lead to peace.

There is nothing small, or limited to Syria, about it. It is also about what is good for Lebanon and Palestine and Iraq.

Alex,
Gagea spent 11 years in jail. I wouldn’t free him, but the Lebanese decided to do it. The Saudis did not appoint Saad. The Syrians did so by murdering Rafiq because they were afraid of a successful Sunni. Both the Saudi royal family and Chirac took this murder personally as did many Sunnis in Lebanon. Most people do not take it kindly when somebody murders someone close to them but says that it is only business and he is sure they understand. You just do not get it that Asad is a ruthless killer and many people just have a problem accepting that.

On the one hand you admire Asad when he is ruthless and succesful and on the other hand you call people pursuing their interests by talking and convincing (like AIPAC) “selfish”. If you want to convince anyone, how about applying the same standards to everybody? If the Asads were as really smart as you think they are, Syria would not be as backward as it is. Why is it that the Asads are so smart and win all the time, yet the average Syrian constantly loses? Wake up.

AIG,

If killing Hariri was that bad, then why Did Israel kill him?

Can you prove that Israel did not kill him?

Why Did Hariri and Chirac need to pay a false witness to testify that Syria did it?

https://joshualandis.com/blog/?p=666

Why don’t we take Saad Hariri and Chirac to trial for what they did?

Why don’t we simply assume Israel killed him? and then continue to base all our analysis on that “Fact”?

And you said “Most people do not take it kindly when somebody murders someone close to them”?

Want to tell me how the parents of the thousands of Palestinian children you killed the past few years feel? .. since now you are sensitive to how people “feel” when you kill someone (never mind killing thousands) close to them.

AIG

Yes, that’s me with the yellow flag. I can’t quite believe how wrong I once was … so glad that I’ve been set straight.

Shai,

With the authority vested in me (as official SC hanger-on, coffee boy for Joshua, masseur for Alex, and gopher for Ehsani), I authorize you to design an SC flag, which I will wave at the next massive political rally. There are none planned as of this moment, but this is Lebanon… surely something is in the works.

In other news, things seem to be settling down here, politically. The downtown district — deserted only a few months ago during the opposition sit-in — is now packed every night. Ramadan has brought thousands of Gulfi tourists, and the hotels and restaurants are full. I had an ice cream this evening just a few meters away from the Parliament building at Sahet al-Nijmeh and there were just a few soldiers standing guard… nothing like the high security detail posted during the past year.

QN,

You sound like “Our Correspondent in Beirut”… 🙂 Is it nice for you to be back? You mentioned the taxi drivers and (more to come)… I’m interested to hear how the Lebanese view the situation in Israel. And how they see the future of the talks (including their own direct participation, as announced by Bashar a few days ago), the future of HA also vis-a-vis a peace agreement, and Iran’s influence (yes or no) in Lebanon.

Does anybody here believe that Sarkozy has principles? After backstabbing the Mayor of Neuilly, his mentor, Charles Pasqua, he went on to backstab Jacques Chirac, his other mentor. It is rumored that, when Sarkozy’s previous spouse went to live with her boyfriend in New York, Sarkozy even had an affair with Claude Chirac, Jacques Chirac’s own daughter… So, yes, he lacks principles completely.

Anyway, the whole point is: this summit could have been more efficient had it included Lebanon’s head of state, Michel Sleimane, and Iran’s head of state (the real one, Ali Khamenei, but the man is reclusive and does not travel at all nowadays).

At the summit, Sarkozy was the intruder… and, in the post-neo-con era, he needed Bashar Assad far more than Bashar Asasd needed him. So all these words about Sarkozy visiting Syria being a favor to Assad are just… hilarious. Syria’s favorite economic partners do not include France and Syria’s favorite political partners do not include France either; this will not change after this summit.

But France remains fascinating for us French-educated Levantine Syro-Lebanese and Lebano-Syrians, a little bit in the way the smell of the madeleines (not the nasty ones that you get at Starbucks, but the real ones that you would get at the local baker shops in Paris) brought back vivid memories of an enchanted chilhood to the grown up Marcel Proust… May be it was fascination with France that convinced Bashar Assad to have a summit that includes an outsider like Sarkozy.