US to extend hand to Syria in first step to reshaping Middle East

[Coventina]

Source: The Times Online

A new US-led initiative to reshape the political landscape of the Middle East starts tomorrow with the first senior American envoys arriving in Syria after years of isolation.

Jeffrey Feltman, the acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East, and Dan Shapiro, of the National Security Council, are due to arrive in Damascus for preliminary talks with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, the first such high-level delegation since 2005.

With Iran on the verge of developing a nuclear capability, the West is moving swiftly to draw its main regional ally away and lure it into renewed peace talks with Israel, changing a dynamic in which Damascus is a central component of Iranian influence across the Middle East.

In the interlocking jigsaw of Middle East politics, Syria is a vital link between Iran and its affiliated militias in Lebanon and Gaza. It provides a hub for funds, men and weapons to be channelled into Lebanon for the vehemently anti-Israeli Hezbollah movement, while also supporting a base for Hamas’s most senior leaders in exile. It has also played a key role in allowing foreign jihadists to enter Iraq and attack the US forces and their Iraqi allies there, causing years of havoc.



Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5858608.ece

[karynnj]

1. This could be a very important first step

(Here is a link to a video of the mentioned Kerry speech on the middle east - what a shift from Bush! http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=284420-1

This is real nice coordination between Kerry, who as chair of SFRC could go places that the Obama team might find awkward (ie Gaza - HRC going would be an official visit by the Obama team) and Clinton and obviously Obama, who is determining the policy.

[msongs]

2. as winston churchill said (paraphrasing) talk talk is better than war war nt