Syria Calls Obama's Bluff: Wants To Talk

The Axis Of Evil is playing Obama! Trust me! This is not sincere! And if the Obama team capitulates, the terrorists will win!

These pro-terror leaders cannot be trusted!

From The Guardian:

Syria expects the US to send an ambassador to Damascus soon to make good on Barack Obama's offer to engage in dialogue with countries the Bush administration shunned, President Bashar al-Assad told the Guardian today.

Assad used a rare newspaper interview to set out his hopes for a new relationship with the US now the Bush era is over – one he hopes will see Washington act as the "main arbiter" in the moribund Middle East peace process. "There is no substitute for the United States," Assad said.

Referring to Obama's call for countries to "unclench their fists" , Assad said he believed the new US president had been referring to Iran. "We never clenched our fist," he declared. "We still talked about peace even during the Israeli aggression in Gaza."

A US decision on whether to send an ambassador back to Damascus is part of a review Obama ordered on taking office. The US is attracted to the idea of engaging with Syria, seeing potential for bringing Assad in from the cold, helping with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and loosening Syria's close ties with Iran.

Do not be fooled, Mr. Obama. Fulfill your oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of The United States.

They are merely using you and using the US to expand radical Islam upon the world.

Obama Team Has Been In Secret Talks With Iran and Syria Since Before The Election

Hardline demonstrators burn posters of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, during a demonstration in support of the people of Gaza, in front of the Swiss Embassy in Tehran January 13, 2009.REUTERS/Stringer (IRAN)

Obama was engaged in private talks with Iran and Syria before, during and after the election. What happened to "one President at a time"?

Oh, right, that was the line you used simply to avoid commenting on the Israel/Hamas conflict.

Remember, Iran thinks that engaging in talks makes us look weak and signals the end of America as a world power.

Breitbart reports:

US President Barack Obama has already used experts within the last few months to hold high-level but discreet talks with both Iran and Syria, organizers of the meetings told AFP.


Officially, Obama's overtures toward both Tehran and Damascus have remained limited.


However, even before winning the November 4 election, Obama unofficially used what experts call "track two" discussions to approach America's two foes in the region.


Nuclear non-proliferation experts had several "very, very high-level" contacts in the last few months with Iranian leaders, said Jeffrey Boutwell, executive director for the US branch of the Pugwash group, an international organization of scientists which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.


Former defense secretary William Perry, who served in Obama's election campaign, participated in some of these meetings focused on "a wide range of issues that separate Iran from the West: not only their nuclear program but the Middle East peace process, Persian Gulf issues," Boutwell told AFP.


The Pugwash official declined to name the other participants, except to say they had considerable clout.


"We had very, very senior figures from both the Iranian policy establishment and from the US; people who have very close, good access to the top leaders in both countries," Boutwell said.


"The Cable," the blog of the specialist magazine Foreign Policy, said Iran's permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA), Ali Asghar Soltanieh, was "among the Iranian officials who attended the Pugwash dialogues."


Meanwhile, a group of experts under the auspices of the think tank, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), announced Thursday that they met for more than two hours in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.


The experts included Ellen Laipson, a former White House adviser under president Bill Clinton and a member of the Obama transition team.


Assad struck positive notes, the participants in the meeting said during a press conference at the Washington headquarters of USIP, a bipartisan think tank financed by Congress.


"His phrasing was 70 percent of our interests are potentially shared and 30 percent are not. And he said: let's work on the 70 percent," said Bruce Jentleson, who was the disarmament advisor to former vice president Al Gore.


The Syrian president himself revealed on Monday that "dialogue started some weeks ago in a serious manner through personalities who are close to the administration and who were dispatched by the administration."


The United States accuses Syria of supporting "terrorist" groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, of destabilizing Lebanon and of allowing armed men to transit its territory to fight US-led forces in Iraq.


Washington and Tehran, which have had no diplomatic ties for nearly 30 years, differ sharply over Iran's nuclear program. Washington charges the program is a covert military one, but Tehran says it is for nuclear energy.

***

Hopenchangeyoucanbelievein!

Without Preconditions Begins: Obama and His "Charm Offensive" To Initiate Talks With Pro-Terror Syrian Government

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syrian President Bashar Assad, Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah



From Telegraph "Syria Will Be The First Rogue State to Get Barack Obama Charm Offensive":



Diplomats and Democrats in Washington have confirmed that Mr Obama wants to persuade the Syrian leader, Bashar Assad, to cooperate with the West, in the hope that he will loosen his country's close ties to Iran, forcing Tehran to the negotiating table as well.


Both countries are accused of arming and sponsoring the terrorists groups Hamas and Hezbollah, funneling extremists and weapons into Iraq and attempting to purchase and develop nuclear technology. A Syrian nuclear plant was destroyed in an Israeli air attack last year.



Other senior sources in Washington say that there will be a "Syrian track" to American diplomacy under Mr Obama.


But dealing with Syria is a diplomatic minefield, as former prime minister Tony Blair discovered to his embarrassment during a previous thaw. On a visit to Damascus after the September 11 attacks, Mr Blair had to stand side by side with President Assad at a press conference while the Syrian dictator lectured the West about terrorism and praised Hamas, which has its political headquarters in Damascus, as freedom fighters.

_____________________________________

Obama had this to say about Israel's attack on Syria:

Now, we don't know exactly what happened with respect to Syria. We've gotten general reports, but we don't know all the specifics. We got general reports in the run-up to the Iraq war that proved erroneous, and a lot of people voted for that war as a consequence.

And let's keep this mysterious Obama-(Syrian National) Tony Rezko-Syria connection, from Leftist blog WizBangBlue:

1. Long-time Barack Obama supporter and campaign insider Tony Rezko was born in Syria and raised among Muslims. Rezko traveled the world for five years putting together business and real estate deals for famed-boxer Muhammed Ali.


2. Muhammed Ali [aka Cassius Clay] is a Muslim.Elijah Muhammad (the man who officially renamed Clay) led the Black Muslim and Nation of Islam movement in the United States from 1934 to 1975.


3. Tony Rezko still has ties to Syria. He is know to have investments, real estate holdings and relatives in metro Damascus


4. Barack Obama's foreign policy adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski traveled to Damascus, Syria last February.


5. Brzezinski was President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser during the time that the ayatollahs rose to power, and was in office when Iran became an anti-western Islamic state. Brzeninski saw no threat in this.


6. In 2005 Tony Rezko's company Rezmar partnered on a deal to build a nuclear power plant in Iraq.


7. Tony Rezko's Rezmar Corporation has been implicated in the FBI investigation of Rezko.

UPDATE:

Senior Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal was congratulated on Saturday by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, who praised Hamas for their "legendary victory" following the Israelis' 22-day aggression against Gaza.

Just saying, maybe we should re-think this one, Mr. President.