DAMASCUS | iloubnan.info - November 10, 2010
Tension over a U.N.-backed investigation in Lebanon over the killing of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri has soured a tentative rapprochement between the United States and Syria, Reuters Agency analyzed on Wednesday.
The two countries exchanged tough rhetoric over the last two weeks, with President Bashar al-Assad accusing the United States of spreading chaos in the world and U.S. officials accusing Syria of trying to undermine stability in Lebanon.
The war of words underlined how little progress President Barack Obama's engagement policy with Damascus has yielded.
The bitter words are unlikely to derail the relationship completely because both countries need each other to advance their strategic goals.
But neither Syria, which seeks U.S. pressure on Israel to end its four-decade occupation of the Golan Heights, and Washington, which wants Damascus to curb its ties with Iran and Islamist groups, feels the other has delivered tangible results.
"Both sides have been sitting on the fence. Syria is disappointed with the Obama administration," one Western diplomat in Damascus said of Obama's efforts to engage with Syria since he took office in January last year.
The United States named a new ambassador, Robert Ford, to Damascus in February, nearly five years after withdrawing its envoy following the assassination in Beirut of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri -- a killing which Syria's foes in Lebanon blamed on Damascus. Syria has denied any involvement.
But Congress has yet to approve Ford's appointment, and Syria has shown no sign of addressing U.S. hopes it will cut support for Lebanon's armed Shi'ite group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas, or distance itself from Iran.
"Syria and the United States have been keeping the engagement process on life support; that's all that's been happening for the last year," said Peter Harling of the International Crisis Group.
U.S. Senator John Kerry, speaking in Beirut on Monday, expressed regret that domestic "partisan politics" were holding up Ford's assignment. But he said progress on that front would also depend on Syrian behavior.
"So we will look to Syria to play a constructive role in these next days in what happens here in Lebanon," he said.
"SOWING CHAOS"
Assad told the pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat in an interview published last month that the United States had "created chaos in every place it entered," pointing to interventions in Afghanistan, Somalia and Lebanon.
Read full analysis on Reuters
The war of words underlined how little progress President Barack Obama's engagement policy with Damascus has yielded.
The bitter words are unlikely to derail the relationship completely because both countries need each other to advance their strategic goals.
But neither Syria, which seeks U.S. pressure on Israel to end its four-decade occupation of the Golan Heights, and Washington, which wants Damascus to curb its ties with Iran and Islamist groups, feels the other has delivered tangible results.
"Both sides have been sitting on the fence. Syria is disappointed with the Obama administration," one Western diplomat in Damascus said of Obama's efforts to engage with Syria since he took office in January last year.
The United States named a new ambassador, Robert Ford, to Damascus in February, nearly five years after withdrawing its envoy following the assassination in Beirut of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri -- a killing which Syria's foes in Lebanon blamed on Damascus. Syria has denied any involvement.
But Congress has yet to approve Ford's appointment, and Syria has shown no sign of addressing U.S. hopes it will cut support for Lebanon's armed Shi'ite group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas, or distance itself from Iran.
"Syria and the United States have been keeping the engagement process on life support; that's all that's been happening for the last year," said Peter Harling of the International Crisis Group.
U.S. Senator John Kerry, speaking in Beirut on Monday, expressed regret that domestic "partisan politics" were holding up Ford's assignment. But he said progress on that front would also depend on Syrian behavior.
"So we will look to Syria to play a constructive role in these next days in what happens here in Lebanon," he said.
"SOWING CHAOS"
Assad told the pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat in an interview published last month that the United States had "created chaos in every place it entered," pointing to interventions in Afghanistan, Somalia and Lebanon.
Read full analysis on Reuters
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