Does Mideast Peace Run Through Damascus?<\/p>\n
Long isolated by Washington, shunned for its support of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, the Obama administration now appears to be courting Syria as a possible solution to the problems of the Middle East.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Syria has been using its influence over groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, traditionally viewed as \u201cspoilers,\u201d to drive the peace process, something that Washington appears to be using to its advantage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Recently, a U.S. ambassador was named after a five-year absence. And in the space of the past month, Syria has been visited by American counter-terrorism experts \u2013but also by the Iranian president.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all a very delicate game of chess, says Damascus-based Peter Harling of the International Crisis Group.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have a lot of re-alignments going on, but not simply between good and bad, between being pro-U.S. or anti-U.S., it\u2019s much more subtle than that,\u201d said Harling.<\/p>\n
Syrian political analyst Dr. Samir Altaqi said Syria has historically been in a sensitive and strategic position and is accustomed to navigating the turbulent waters that flow between competing interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the case since more than 5000 years.\u00a0 Syria was always a political state,\u201d said Altaqi.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was always a political entity between two big powers\u2014the Romans and the Persians, Egyptians and Mesopotamia etc, which shows that it is in a strategic position, and to survive it has to work on culture and politics.\u00a0 We are a mercantile nation,\u201d Altaqi.<\/p>\n
But the worldview from Damascus can be quite different from that inside the U.S.<\/p>\n
For example, I met praise for Iran\u2019s nuclear program at a karaoke evening, in part of the old city.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say, \u201cGood for them.\u201d\u00a0 I envy them.\u00a0 We wish we were doing what they are doing right now,\u201d said one man.<\/p>\n
This man saw it as a brave act of defiance of the West, and a counterbalance to Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Syria views Hamas and Hezbollah through a different prism than the United States government does.<\/p>\n
Syria\u2019s Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Dardari said: \u201cThe question of negative and positive is a relative matter.\u00a0 It\u2019s again how you view things.\u00a0 Hamas and other resistance movements are a consequence of the basic problem in the region, i.e. the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan, and parts of Lebanon,\u201d said Dardari. \u201cWhen this occupation is over, through a comprehensive peace process, why would there be such resistance movements?\u201d<\/p>\n
Dardari is hopeful about the ratcheted-up engagement between the United States and Syria, and the delineation of points of divergence and convergence of views and interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe discussion that has already started between the two countries is moving toward that point.\u00a0 It\u2019s much better to understand each other and disagree on some points than not to understand each other in which case we disagree on everything,\u201d Dardari said.<\/p>\n
There are a lot of similarities between Syrians and Americans.\u00a0 But also differences.\u00a0 Probably the real common ground at this point, is the apparent goodwill on both sides to explore ways to rebuild the relationship and make it fruitful to both parties, and the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Does Mideast Peace Run Through Damascus? Long isolated by Washington, shunned for its support of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, the Obama administration now appears to be courting Syria as a possible solution to the problems of the Middle East.\u00a0 Syria has been using its influence over groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, traditionally viewed as \u201cspoilers,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-430486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}