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US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (file)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners April 5, 2007 |
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Contrary to claims made by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Israeli government did not ask her to send the message to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that Jerusalem was willing to reopen peace talks with Damascus.
This is according to a mild diplomatic clarification issued by the Prime Minister's Office immediately after Pelosi, who met with Assad Wednesday, said that Olmert had given her the message for the Syrian president.
According to the statement, Olmert emphasized during his Sunday meeting with Pelosi that "although Israel is interested in peace with Syria, that country continues to be part of the Axis of Evil and a force that encourages terror in the entire Middle East."
The statement said that Israel had not changed its policy on Syria, and that it would judge Syria's sincerity about making peace by its willingness to "cease its support of terror, cease its sponsoring of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations, refrain from providing weapons to Hezbollah and bringing about the destabilizing of Lebanon, cease its support of terror in Iraq, and relinquish the strategic ties it is building with the extremist regime in Iran."
Pelosi, however, maintained that there was a message of peace, saying after she talked with Assad that the meeting "enabled us to communicate a message from Prime Minister Olmert that Israel was ready to engage in peace talks as well."
"We were very pleased with the reassurances we received from the president [Assad] that he was ready to resume the peace process," said Pelosi. "He was ready to engage in negotiations for peace with Israel."
Before the Prime Minister's office released its statement, however, CNN reporter Brent Sadler gave a push to Pelosi's mediation effort by claiming that, just as Olmert had given her a message for Assad, likewise Damascus has now sent a message to Israel via Pelosi that Syria is willing to resume talks with Israel.
Notwithstanding its content, the official statement could be portrayed by anti-Israel press as Israel's unwillingness to make peace with its neighbors.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the meeting between Pelosi and Assad "was widely viewed as an attempt to push the Bush administration to open a direct dialogue with Syria, a step that the White House has rejected. Congressional Democrats insist the US attempts to isolate Syria have failed to force the Assad government to change its policies."
President Bush denounced Pelosi's attempts in Syria, saying Tuesday that "sending delegations doesn't work. It's simply been counterproductive."
"We came in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace," stated Pelosi. Pelosi said that she discussed during her meeting with Assad the issues of: Israel's kidnapped soldiers, Hezbollah, Hamas, the importance of Palestinian-Israeli peace and that Syria allows terrorists to cross over its borders into Iraq.
"These are important issues not only in the fight against terrorism, but priorities for us for peace in the Middle East," she stated.
"These people in the United States who are opposing dialogue, I tell them one thing: Dialogue is... the only method to close the gap existing between two countries," stated Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem following Wednesday's Assad-Pelosi meeting.
"Everyone knows there are different points of view between Syria and the United States," he continued. "We are happy that Mrs. Pelosi and her delegation had the courage and determination to bridge these differences."
Jerusalem Newswire contributed to this report. |
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