Syria and the peace conference

A U.S. official says Syria should be barred from regional summit

 

From his point of view, he is right. It is very hard to make peace with enemies, and much easier to make peace with friends. But face it, it won't be a party without Mr. Assad, and it would be better to have him inside the tent, pissing out, then the other way round.

 

As for PM Olmert, it seems he has nothing against speaking with Syria:

 

"I have a lot of respect for the Syrian leader and for Syria's conduct. They have internal problems, but we have no reason to rule out dialogue with Syria," Olmert said in a briefing for Russian-language media outlets in Israel.

 

"As I've said in the past, we want to make peace with everyone," Olmert continued. "If the conditions ripen, we are ready to make peace with Syria, with no preconditions and no ultimate demands."

 

The US is not clear about what it wants:

 

Since U.S. President W. George Bush's administration announced several months ago that it intends to hold the summit, Washington has not clarified its position on whether Syria should attend as well. Several officials were recently quoted as saying that the summit will be attended by countries that can "contribute" to the peace process.

 

Syria is certainly one of the countries that could contribute to the peace process, given that they are a major part of the war process. A major advantage of Syrian attendance at the conference is that the almost inevitable failure can then be blamed on Syria.

 

Ami Isseroff