US's Pelosi conveys Israeli peace message to Syria
04 Apr 2007 15:46:16 GMT Source: Reuters
(Adds Assad's comments, minister's reaction) By Khaled Yacoub Oweis DAMASCUS, April 4 (Reuters) - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on a visit to Syria opposed by the White House, said on Wednesday she conveyed an Israeli message to President Bashar al-Assad that the Jewish state was ready to resume peace talks. Pelosi, the most senior U.S. official to visit Syria in more than two years, said Assad told her he was also ready for negotiations with Israel. Syria wants the return of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. "(Our) meeting with the president enabled us to communicate a message from Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert that Israel was ready to engage in peace talks as well," Pelosi told reporters in Damascus after talks with Assad. "We were very pleased with the reassurances we received from the president that he was ready to resume the peace process. He was ready to engage in negotiations (for) peace with Israel," she added. Assad said Syria was ready to resume talks with Israel based on an Arab peace plan calling for Israeli withdrawal from all Arab land for peace adopted at a summit last month. "Syria has adopted the Arab initiative. It's strategic choice is peace," the official news agency quoted Assad as telling Pelosi. An Israeli government official told Reuters that during a visit to Israel before her Syria trip, Pelosi had asked Olmert if he had any message to give to Assad. "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," the official said. Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal, who is close to Assad, said Israeli calls for peace lacked credibility. "Olmert's government adopts a militant line in front of its domestic audience and declares it wants peace in front of foreign visitors. Whoever wants peace has to prove their seriousness," Bilal told reporters. MIXED MESSAGES The White House has called Pelosi's Syria visit a bad idea. President George W. Bush said it sent mixed messages to Syria. "We expressed our interest in using our good offices in promoting peace between Israel and Syria," Pelosi said. Pelosi described the meeting with Assad as "very productive" and said it was important that Syria use its influence with Palestinian group Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem, who saw off Pelosi at the airport, said Hamas was a resistance movement against occupation and that the group has gained more legitimacy after winning the Palestinian elections last year. Washington accuses Damascus of sponsoring terrorism and allowing suicide bombers and fighters to cross through its desert border into Iraq. Syria, which hosts over 1 million Iraqi refugees, says it has taken steps to secure its side of the border but that Iraq had to do more as well. "We called to the attention of the president our concern about fighters crossing the Iraq-Syria border to the detriment of the Iraqi people and our soldiers," Pelosi said. Pelosi, the third most senior official in Washington, sat next to Assad in front of cameras before starting their meeting at his hilltop palace overlooking Damascus. Assad and his wife, Asma, then took Pelosi and her husband, Paul, for lunch at a restaurant in a restored house in Old Damascus. The United States withdrew its ambassador from Syria shortly after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Rafik al-Hariri in February 2005. Many Lebanese blame Syria for the killing. Damascus denies involvement. Several U.S. lawmakers have visited Damascus in recent months after the bipartisan Iraq Study Group recommended a stepped-up diplomatic effort involving Syria and Iran to help calm the violence in Iraq. The Bush administration has resisted that recommendation.
