Pelosi arrived in Damascus after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem Sunday. On Wednesday she conferred with Syrian leaders, including Assad, and told reporters: "We were very pleased with the assurances we received from the president that he was ready to resume the peace process. ... He's ready to engage in negotiations for peace with Israel. The meeting with the president enabled us to communicate a message from Prime Minister Olmert that Israel was ready to engage in peace talks as well."

Not long afterwards, however, Israeli and Syrian officials put her comments in a different light. The talk of readiness to negotiate peace is not new, and if anything Israel presented a new condition for talks: a cooling off of Syria's ties with Iran.

The prime minister's office said in Jerusalem it "wishes to clarify" a few points.

According to the Israeli account, Olmert told Pelosi that several Senate and House members recently visited Damascus and got the impression that "despite the declarations of Bashar Assad, there is no change in the position of his country regarding a possible peace process with Israel."

Israel is interested in peace with Syria, Olmert said. However, "That country continues to be part of the axis of evil and a force that encourages terror in the entire Middle East.

"In order to conduct serious and genuine peace negotiations, Syria must cease its support of terror, cease its sponsoring of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations, refrain from providing weapons to Hezbollah and bringing about the destabilizing of Lebanon, cease its support of terror in Iraq, and relinquish the strategic ties it is building with the extremist regime in Iran."

"What was communicated to the U.S. House Speaker does not contain any change in the policies of Israel, as was communicated to other foreign leaders," the statement added, suggesting there was nothing unique about it.

Syrian Minister of Information Mohsen Bilal indicated Olmert's message was, also, not good enough. If Israel and Olmert really want peace, they should say so clearly, Bilal stated.

Israeli doves have been criticizing the government for failing to follow an opportunity to conclude peace with Syria, but others would rather hold on to the Golan Heights that Israel occupied in the 1967 war.

In the latest issue of Strategic Assessment, published by the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, retired Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, who headed the army's planning branch and was then national security adviser, cited several reasons for opposing peace talks with Syria, "especially if there are chances that the negotiations might succeed."

A treaty with Syria will not resolve other important problems. It will not remove concerns over Iran's nuclear threat. Israel would probably agree to withdraw to the pre-1967 war lines and by that set another precedent for talks with the Palestinians, he added.

"If there were any thoughts of reaching a peace agreement at some time with the Palestinians based on borders that are not identical to the June 4, 1967 borders, reaching an agreement with the Syrians that validates the borders of June 4, 1967 will make it very difficult to effect the changes," Eiland argued.

Moreover, Syria is ruled by the minority Alawi sect who Sunni Muslims regard as inferior and not genuinely Muslim.

The Alawis remained in power partly because Iran has been backing them and partly because the country is ruled by an emergency regime "on the argument that an Israeli attack is expected and that emergency laws are essential for defense."

With peace, thousands of Israeli tourists will visit Syria and this argument will no longer be relevant, Eiland said. "The Sunni majority ... will demand its share of power and will ultimately assume control in Syria. ... There is no guarantee that a Sunni government of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria would honor a peace treaty" that the Alawis concluded, Eiland argued.

A security agreement with Syria would be "unreasonable ... dangerous," he added. He did not believe the Syrians would adhere to a demilitarization of the Golan.

Syrian military deployment on the Golan would infringe the envisaged peace treaty, but an Israeli entry there would be a declaration of war because the Golan would be Syrian territory.

"This means that from now on ... should war break out with Syria, it will not be waged along the Golan Heights ridge and eastward; rather, it would start from the Jordan River and proceed (westwards) towards Safed and Tiberias," Eiland warned.

Israel's security concept is now based on the fact that its presence on the Golan Heights means it can immediately threaten Syrian government assets and reach Damascus. And what if there is no peace? There are dozens of territorial disputes around the world, some of which have been going on for centuries, Eiland noted. "There are conflicts that are solved, some that are not solved, and some will never be settled," he said.

earlier related report
Analysis: Pelosi on the road to Damascus
by Claude Salhani
Washington (UPI) April 4 - Ignoring a Bush administration ban on opening diplomatic channels with Syria, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi flew to the Syrian capital, Damascus, for a meeting with President Bashar Assad.

Pelosi, who is the third-ranking U.S. official after the president and vice president, brushed off strong criticism from the White House that she was undermining U.S. foreign policy.

So far, U.S. foreign policy toward Syria has consisted of shunning the regime in Damascus -- one that despite Washington's likes and dislikes remains a key player in the Middle East.

In fact, Pelosi is not the first member of the U.S. government to ignore President George W. Bush's edict regarding Syria. Several members of Bush's own Republican Party took the road to Damascus, as recommended by the Iraq Study Group's report, co-chaired by James Baker III and Lee Hamilton.

Although diplomatic relations were not severed with Damascus, the Bush administration put a stop to any exchanges it might have had with Syria after the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Although it remains to be proven who was responsible for Hariri's death, the Lebanese government, the Bush administration and the European Union have all pointed fingers at Damascus.

Since then, the Bush administration has repeatedly accused the Syrian government of supporting terrorist groups. Indeed, the Syrian government is host to several groups considered by Washington to engage in terrorist activities.

Among them are the political leadership of Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian resistance movement that operates mainly in Gaza; the leadership of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, which has managed to maintain some military infrastructure in southern Lebanon; and the Lebanese Shiite movement, Hezbollah, which remains high on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations.

Furthermore, Washington accuses Damascus of working to overthrow the legitimately and democratically elected government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and to try and replace it with one that would be more sympathetic towards Damascus.

The top-ranking Democrat on Capitol Hill brushed off the White House criticism, saying dialogue with Syria was key to solving the Iraq and Lebanon crises.

Syria, despite its involvement with groups considered to engage in terrorism by the United States and Israel, retains one of the principle keys to any Middle East solution. Syria has never accepted the loss of the Golan Heights to Israel, the territory Israel occupied during the June 1967 war. So long as the Golan remains under Israeli occupation, Syria will continue to maintain its current policies, often seen as destabilizing by Washington.

Addressing a news conference on the White House lawn just as Pelosi's plane was entering Syrian airspace, President Bush said the speaker's trip to Syria sent "mixed signals" that undermine U.S.-led efforts to isolate the Syrian president.

"Photo opportunities and/or meetings with President Assad lead the Assad government to believe they're part of the mainstream of the international community, when, in fact, they're a state sponsor of terror," said Bush.

In Syria, where the regime of President Assad has been trying -- unsuccessfully -- to make overtures to Washington, Pelosi's visit was welcomed by the state-controlled media. It's a "positive" development, reflected one paper, calling Pelosi a "brave lady."

Another paper, Tishreen, didn't mince words, describing U.S. policy in the Middle East -- particularly the war in Iraq and Washington's relations with Damascus -- as "a fiasco" in need of repair.

Syria has been eager to initiate a dialogue with the United States, Syrian Ambassador Imad Mustapha told United Press International recently, but all attempts at defusing the tension between Washington and Damascus were repulsed by the White House, the State Department and the Department of Defense.

Syria's official Tishreen said Pelosi can now discover for herself that "the Syrian hand is extended for serious and honest dialogue with American officials" and see the real picture of the country.

The newspaper praised her for seeking dialogue with Damascus, saying it is important to reach a common understanding that could help resolve crises in the region. "Ms. Pelosi will herself sense the truth of the Syrian position and its seriousness in resolving all pending problems towards balance and security in the region, as well as establishing constructive and fruitful relations with the United States," it said.

The paper stressed that Syria constantly affirms that dialogue, not boycott, is the way to reach understanding and healthy ties. "The hope remains high with the results of the visits and dialogue, and Ms. Pelosi, who is welcomed in Syria, can contribute in rectifying the position and regaining balance in American-Syrian ties," it said.

Pelosi's visit may well help thaw icy relations with Damascus, but for her visit to be successful, any breach made by the speaker's diplomatic efforts will need to be followed up by the administration. Chances of that happening are rather slim.

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