Hillary Clinton offers handshake of friendship to Syria

And Senator Kerry had A LOT to do with this. But it's all good.



Hillary Clinton offers handshake of friendship to Syria
James Hider, Middle East Correspondent



It was a brief but significant gesture: in the hubbub of the Gaza donor’s conference in Egypt, Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, shook hands and exchanged a few words yesterday with Walid Mouallem, her Syrian counterpart.

In the Middle East, where even the slightest gesture is closely scrutinised, the brief encounter was seen as a sign that Washington was prepared to mend fences with Syria, whose leader, Bashar Assad, was treated as a pariah by the Bush Administration.

Mr Mouallem said afterwards that the meeting “was short but very pleasant”, and that he was “happy it happened”. With the strict protocols at summits, such encounters rarely happen by chance; they are more frequently designed to send subtle but powerful messages.

The Syrian Foreign Minister was standing at the door to the banquet room as delegates filed in for lunch at the conference to pledge more than $5 billion (£3.6 billion) for the reconstruction of Gaza. Mrs Clinton, on her first official trip to the region, had just promised to breathe new life into the peace process. She stopped in front of Mr Mouallem, shook his hand and exchanged a few words with him.

more...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5834205.ece

Even though Assad is more moderate than the previous Baathist ruler, Syria is still a state sponsor of terror.

when it comes to intellgence concerning the muslim brotherhood.

Which is why the Bush administration gave the finger to Assad: The Muslim Brotherhood denounced terror tactics and are now what is considered the "peaceful opposition" to Mubarak's brutal military dictatorship.

after Sept. 11th because they hated OBL as much as we do.

an engaging foreign policy is such a refreshing change from the high-school Heathers bullshit of the last 8 years.

Sid

This is a relationship we've been needing to turn around for ... 6 years.

(btw: you are not the first person I've heard this statement from.... I thought it odd then and now that a fellow DUer has said this...well I just had to go look for myself. Perhaps you meant to say Gulf War 2, if so, I am sorry for my own mistake but I find the notion that some folks think Syria sat out the first one interesting enough material to delve into anyway.)

First off, even though Operation Desert Storm occurred almost 2 decades ago, I thought I recall seeing photos, (in our newspapers), of Syrian troops as being a part of the coalition forces during Operation Desert Storm. I further seem to recall seeing a photo of an F-16 with either Syrian or Jordanian markings partaking in Desert Storm too! I recall thinking that this was a good thing-that the coalition was made up of many civilised nations to include many of Iraq's neighbors, all equally angry at a rogue President's actions!

Your post, prompted me to google Syrian Actions during Gulf War I and I came up with precious little! Perhaps my skills with google are lacking but here is what little I found:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_of_Gulf_War

...
Egyptian, Syrian, Omani and Kuwaiti troops
stand for review during Operation Desert Storm.

Syria had the sixth largest contribution of ground forces: 'List of Coalition forces by number of military personnel: Syria 14,500'

That said, I could find nothing regarding their actions. What part they actually played in Desert Storm is not so easy to find in a quick google search. Like I said earlier, perhaps my skills with google are lacking or......

(putting on my tinfoilhat)

...perhaps we are not supposed to think Syria had anything to do with that war!
Considering how the recent bush administration tried so hard to paint the Syrians as our enemies and as such good friends to Saddam Hussein, (they hid his WMD you know- :sarcasm: ), and later they were supposedly best buds with the, (as of then, yet unnamed), 'terrorists' and oh lest we forget their full support of Hamas...well perhaps there is a reason that I can find precious little on Syria's action's in Operation Desert Storm....well precious little in English that is.

(taking off my tinfoilhat)

Well now my curiosity is piqued, I would actually be interested in learning exactly what parts Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and even Iran played in Operation Desert Storm. Furthermore I think I'd like to learn if it does or does not conflict with what popular American opinion holds.

....is doing a damn good job, not perfect, but damn good....far too long I've been 'knee-jerk' anti-Hillary but I've been more than surprised at what a fine, intelligent and successful Secretary of State she's becoming repairing the huge amount of damage bushco created....

....her charm and talents are many and I look forward to her tackling the many vexing problems we face in the world....I must admit, she now seems to be an excellent choice for the job....I guess I was wrong....

No one will ever be. And we're talking less than two months.

I was not pro-Hillary either, but I think she could be really excellent.

just how good (or bad) she is as SoS.

--whose primary goal is to end American imperialism. At least the smart variety results in getting a lot fewer people killed.

is important here for Obama and for Clinton. But let's acknowledge that other countries are capable of thinking and also want to kiss and make up.

There are two sides to foreign affairs.

It's like saying Reagan killed off the Soviet Union. It doesn't acknowledge the tremendous work the Soviet Govt. did to kill itself.

a secretary of state doesn't do anything without the president's approval.

The contrast between the last gang of crooks and an honest President Obama is surreal. How did we ever allow bushco to happen is going to be a question I'll forever be asking. how did it happen?