{"id":210,"date":"2007-04-04T15:46:09","date_gmt":"2007-04-04T15:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=210"},"modified":"2007-04-04T16:55:10","modified_gmt":"2007-04-04T16:55:10","slug":"the-pelosi-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/the-pelosi-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pelosi Visit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pelosi visit to Syria gives Syrians further hope that the policy of isolation imposed on it by the US and Europe for the past two years is eroding. Saudi Arabia reversed its policy of isolation at the Arab League summit last week, giving Asad a warm reception. <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cumberlink.com\/content\/articles\/2007\/04\/04\/ap\/international\/d8o9o2og1.jpg\" border=\"0\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" align=\"right\" style=\"width: 300px; height: 200px\" \/>The last high-ranking U.S. official to visit Syria was then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in January 2005. The isolation, however, has begun to crumble in recent months, with visits by U.S. lawmakers and some European officials. <\/p>\n<p>Initial articles on the visit stress various aspects of the meeting between Pelosi and Asad. Here are some of the main results of their talk.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.speroforum.com\/site\/article.asp?idarticle=8822\">House Speaker Pelosi<\/a> and her 27-member delegation, which includes members of Congress and the Iraq Study Group, met with Syrian leaders in Damascus &#8212; but unlike Merkel, she wants &quot;dialogue&quot; with Syria.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/topNews\/idUSL0432142420070404?src=040407_0920_DOUBLEFEATURE_top_news&amp;pageNumber=3\">Syrian officials<\/a> said Damascus wants to help Washington achieve an &quot;honorable withdrawal&quot; from Iraq but in return the United States must press Israel to return the Golan Heights. Washington accuses Damascus of sponsoring terrorism and estimates up to 90 percent of suicide bombers in Iraq enter from Syria. Syria says it is trying to stop the flow.<\/li>\n<li>Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said Syria was ready to resume talks with Israel based on an Arab plan calling for Israeli withdrawal from all Arab land for peace, adopted at a summit last month. &quot;They said that Mr. Olmert is ready for peace with Syria. We replied that Syria is ready for peace according to the Arab initiative,&quot; he told reporters.&nbsp; Ehud Olmert&#39;s office to underline the Jewish state&#39;s preconditions for such talks. &quot;The prime minister said Israel is interested in peace with Syria, but Syria would first have to abandon the path of terror and providing support for terrorist groups.&quot;<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>\n<p>Pelosi said it was important Syria used its influence with Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/wireStory?id=3006905&amp;page=2\">Pelosi described<\/a> the meeting with Assad as &quot;very productive.&quot;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.signonsandiego.com\/news\/world\/20070404-0644-mideast-pelosi.html\">Rep. Tom Lantos<\/a>, the head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who was in Pelosi&#39;s delegation, said the meeting &ldquo;reinforced sharply&rdquo; the potential benefits of talking to Syria. &ldquo;This is only the beginning of our constructive dialogue with Syria and we hope to build on this visit,&rdquo; he told reporters. <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailystar.com.lb\/article.asp?edition_id=1&amp;categ_id=2&amp;article_id=81158\">Pelosi told Lebanese<\/a> leaders on Monday that her country &quot;will not bargain over Lebanon,&quot; adding that the US was &quot;totally aware&quot; of the situation in Lebanon.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/04\/04\/world\/middleeast\/04cnd-pelosi.html?ex=1333339200&amp;en=00820d27d1696ece&amp;ei=5088&amp;partner=rssnyt&amp;emc=rss\">She was expected<\/a> to have dinner with opposition members and members of Parliament at the American ambassador&rsquo;s house. <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>At the White House on Tuesday, President Bush criticized Ms. Pelosi&rsquo;s visit, saying it sent mixed signals to the Middle East and to President Bashar&rsquo;s government. &ldquo;Sending delegations hasn&rsquo;t worked,&rdquo; Mr. Bush told reporters. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just simply been counterproductive.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>&ldquo;Ms. Pelosi is going to be very happy in Syria,&rdquo; said Izzat Abdoulkarim, who runs an optical shop in downtown Damascus. &ldquo;George Bush says we are bad, but she will see this is not true. She views the world through a different perspective than Bush. She&rsquo;s more open-minded.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>the Iraq Study Group (ISG) noted, &quot;To put it simply, <a href=\"http:\/\/capweb.democracyinaction.org\/dia\/track.jsp?key=265037239&amp;url_num=28&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfgate.com%2Fcgi-bin%2Farticle.cgi%3Ff%3D%2Fc%2Fa%2F2006%2F12%2F07%2FMNGHMMQLCR34.DTL\">all key issues in the Middle East<\/a> &#8212; the Arab-Israeli conflict, Iraq, Iran, the need for political and economic reforms, and extremism and terrorism &#8212; are inextricably linked.&quot; No one doubts that Syria is causing trouble in the region. &quot;<a href=\"http:\/\/capweb.democracyinaction.org\/dia\/track.jsp?key=265037239&amp;url_num=29&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2007%2F01%2F19%2Fwashington%2F19cnd-cong.html\">But we cannot wish that influence away<\/a>,&quot; said ISG co-chairman <a href=\"http:\/\/capweb.democracyinaction.org\/dia\/track.jsp?key=265037239&amp;url_num=30&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.americanprogress.org%2Fissues%2F2007%2F03%2Ffour_years_later.html\">Lee Hamilton<\/a>. &quot;Undoubtedly, they are part of the problem. It was the view of the study group that we must try to make them a part of the solution.&quot;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/capweb.democracyinaction.org\/dia\/track.jsp?key=265037239&amp;url_num=53&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fthinkprogress.org%2F2006%2F12%2F08%2Firan-syria-diplomacy%2F\">Seventy-five percent of Americans<\/a> now support U.S. talks with Syria. <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Syrian-Foreign-Minister-Wal%20%282%29.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/thumb-Syrian-Foreign-Minister-Wal%20%282%29.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Reception for Pelosi at Airport by Wreford\" title=\"Reception for Pelosi at Airport by Wreford\" width=\"475\" height=\"399\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Photo sent by John Wreford <a href=\"http:\/\/www.johnwreford.com\/\">www.johnwreford.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pelosi visit to Syria gives Syrians further hope that the policy of isolation imposed on it by the US and Europe for the past two years is eroding. Saudi Arabia reversed its policy of isolation at the Arab League summit last week, giving Asad a warm reception. The last high-ranking U.S. official to visit [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15,7,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-israel","category-politics","category-us"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Pelosi Visit - Syria Comment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/the-pelosi-visit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Pelosi Visit - Syria Comment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Pelosi visit to Syria gives Syrians further hope that the policy of isolation imposed on it by the US and Europe for the past two years is eroding. Saudi Arabia reversed its policy of isolation at the Arab League summit last week, giving Asad a warm reception. 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