{"id":465,"date":"2007-11-05T05:39:31","date_gmt":"2007-11-05T05:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=465"},"modified":"2007-11-05T05:39:31","modified_gmt":"2007-11-05T05:39:31","slug":"top-french-officials-go-to-damascus-on-a-fools-errand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/top-french-officials-go-to-damascus-on-a-fools-errand\/","title":{"rendered":"Top French Officials Go to Damascus on a Fool&#8217;s Errand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/worldlatest\/story\/0,,-7050335,00.html\">Sarkozy sent his two top advisers to Damascus<\/a>&nbsp;on a fool&#39;s errand. <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Claude Gueant, President Nicolas Sarkozy&#39;s chief of staff, and Jean-David Levitte, his chief international adviser, met with&nbsp;Bashar al-Assad. They all&nbsp;agreed the Lebanese should elect their next president freely and without any foreign inference, SANA reported. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>How France can believe that Syria will help the West elect an anti-Syrian government that will try to disarm Hizbullah before the West gives any guarantees to uphold UN resolutions concerning the return of&nbsp;the Golan Heights is mind boggling. The French&nbsp;know better. This must be posturing before the failure. Everyone is position himself to blame the other when Lebanon fails to elect a president. <\/p>\n<p>Before the Iraq adventure, the skeptics warned, &quot;You break it, you own it.&quot; The wisdom on the Lebanon adventure is: &quot;You break it, Syria owns it.&quot; That was what happened in 1975; it happened in 1982. Nevertheless, Washington seems determined to push Lebanon to the breaking point by encouraging March 14 not to compromise. <\/p>\n<p>Italy&#39;s Prodi&nbsp;advised the United States that if Syria and Iran are not at the Annapolis conference there would be&nbsp;no use in reaching agreements because&nbsp;without the cooperation of Iran and Syria, little could be implemented.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/news.xinhuanet.com\/english\/2007-11\/05\/content_7011714.htm\">Rice, Olmert agree to involve Syria into peace summit conditionally<\/a>&nbsp;say the headlines, but it is not true. The second sentence of the article explains that Syria would be included only to be seen and not heard. Trying to treat Syria as a Victorian child is silliness.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Syria is welcome to join Middle East peace talks set to be held before the end of this year in Annapolis, Md., the U.S. and Israel both said on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>But such a dramatic diplomatic breakthrough would only happen if the Syrians agreed to focus on Israeli-Palestinian issues and not on Syria&#39;s desire to regain the Golan Heights, which Israel conquered during the Six-Day War in 1967.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iht.com\/articles\/ap\/2007\/11\/04\/africa\/ME-GEN-Syria-Palestinians.php\">Syria-based Palestinian factions mediating between Hamas and Fatah<\/a>, International Herald Tribune<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sarkozy sent his two top advisers to Damascus&nbsp;on a fool&#39;s errand. Claude Gueant, President Nicolas Sarkozy&#39;s chief of staff, and Jean-David Levitte, his chief international adviser, met with&nbsp;Bashar al-Assad. They all&nbsp;agreed the Lebanese should elect their next president freely and without any foreign inference, SANA reported. How France can believe that Syria will help the [&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":[34,15,22,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-france","category-israel","category-lebanon","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>Top French Officials Go to Damascus on a Fool&#039;s Errand - 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\/top-french-officials-go-to-damascus-on-a-fools-errand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Top French Officials Go to Damascus on a Fool&#039;s Errand - Syria Comment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sarkozy sent his two top advisers to Damascus&nbsp;on a fool&#039;s errand. Claude Gueant, President Nicolas Sarkozy&#039;s chief of staff, and Jean-David Levitte, his chief international adviser, met with&nbsp;Bashar al-Assad. They all&nbsp;agreed the Lebanese should elect their next president freely and without any foreign inference, SANA reported. How France can believe that Syria will help the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/top-french-officials-go-to-damascus-on-a-fools-errand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Syria Comment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-11-05T05:39:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joshua\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@joshua_landis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@joshua_landis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joshua\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/top-french-officials-go-to-damascus-on-a-fools-errand\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/top-french-officials-go-to-damascus-on-a-fools-errand\/\",\"name\":\"Top French Officials Go to Damascus on a Fool's Errand - Syria Comment\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-11-05T05:39:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3b31d23576e1b8c0928811e638957c80\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/top-french-officials-go-to-damascus-on-a-fools-errand\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/top-french-officials-go-to-damascus-on-a-fools-errand\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/top-french-officials-go-to-damascus-on-a-fools-errand\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Top French Officials Go to Damascus on a Fool&#8217;s Errand\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Syria Comment\",\"description\":\"Syrian politics, history, and religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3b31d23576e1b8c0928811e638957c80\",\"name\":\"Joshua\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.joshualandis.com\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/joshua_landis\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/author\/syriacomment\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Top French Officials Go to Damascus on a Fool's Errand - Syria Comment","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/top-french-officials-go-to-damascus-on-a-fools-errand\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Top French Officials Go to Damascus on a Fool's Errand - Syria Comment","og_description":"Sarkozy sent his two top advisers to Damascus&nbsp;on a fool&#39;s errand. Claude Gueant, President Nicolas Sarkozy&#39;s chief of staff, and Jean-David Levitte, his chief international adviser, met with&nbsp;Bashar al-Assad. They all&nbsp;agreed the Lebanese should elect their next president freely and without any foreign inference, SANA reported. How France can believe that Syria will help the [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/top-french-officials-go-to-damascus-on-a-fools-errand\/","og_site_name":"Syria Comment","article_published_time":"2007-11-05T05:39:31+00:00","author":"Joshua","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@joshua_landis","twitter_site":"@joshua_landis","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Joshua","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/top-french-officials-go-to-damascus-on-a-fools-errand\/","url":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/top-french-officials-go-to-damascus-on-a-fools-errand\/","name":"Top French Officials Go to Damascus on a Fool's Errand - Syria Comment","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-11-05T05:39:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3b31d23576e1b8c0928811e638957c80"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/top-french-officials-go-to-damascus-on-a-fools-errand\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/top-french-officials-go-to-damascus-on-a-fools-errand\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/top-french-officials-go-to-damascus-on-a-fools-errand\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Top French Officials Go to Damascus on a Fool&#8217;s Errand"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/","name":"Syria Comment","description":"Syrian politics, history, and religion","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3b31d23576e1b8c0928811e638957c80","name":"Joshua","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.joshualandis.com","https:\/\/x.com\/joshua_landis"],"url":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/author\/syriacomment\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p38J3A-7v","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}