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By JoAnne Allen 1 hour, 43 minutes ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Regional talks with Syria as the "the main player" may be the last chance to help stabilize Iraq and begin moving it toward national reconciliation, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Monday. Asked whether Iraq's neighbors had enough influence to bring an end to that country's civil strife, Assad said in an ABC News interview: "It doesn't matter how strong economically or what army you have, it's a matter of credibility. We have credibility." Any dialogue on the Iraq conflict would have to be carried out with the support of other countries in the region as well as the United States, the Syrian leader said in the interview in Damascus. "We're not the single player but we are the main player in this issue and our role is going to be through supporting the dialogue between the different parties inside Iraq," Assad said. U.S. allies and the bipartisan Iraq Study Group have urged President Bush to hold direct talks with Iran and Syria as part of new Iraq strategy. Bush has not ruled out a regional conference to help Iraq involving Iran and Syria but the White House has indicated Iraq would have to set it up. Assad said he did not expect the Americans to sign on. "I think it's too late for them to move toward that," he said. "It's too late because Iraq is heading toward the chaos for civil war. "So maybe this is the last chance that we have now to start helping Iraq," Assad said, adding that it is in the Middle Eastern neighbors' interest to halt the bloodshed that threatens to engulf the region. "Whether it's a budding civil war or a full-blown civil war, it doesn't matter what the definition. It's like domino effect, it's going to affect the whole Middle East in general, and this means it's going to affect the rest of the world," Assad said. The United States is responsible for the deteriorating political situation in Iraq, Assad said, and politically the United States had failed to help the Iraqi government restore security. "They only talk about sending more troops or less troops. They only talk about troops and power, not about political process," Assad said. Assad suggested that elections and democracy had done little to help the people of Iraq, estimating that 700,000 Iraqis had been killed since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. "What's the benefit of democracy if you're dead?" he asked.

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Again, the US is resorting to force before taking ALL avenues of negotiation. The administration hasn't even tried diplomacy, but then again the Iranians won't back down off their nuclear program. History is repeating itself.

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It's not just the US that needs to engage in dialogue with Syria. Israel needs to step up and take a key role in mediating peace in the region. It's already tried unilateral invasion to no avail ... give back Shebaa farms and eliminate the primary justification for Hezbollah's existence and do SOMETHING to avoid a civil war in Lebanon it helped to create. Sryia needs to sign a peace treaty and dismantle Hezbollah. The Palestinians are too fucking incompetant to do anything meaningful so fuck the roadmap and start dangling tangible carrots of a Palestinian state to force some kind of consolidation of a Palestinian mandate. There are simply NO leaders in the middle east even outside of the Iraq snafu. Pathetic.

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Retro ...

quote:

Originally posted by Krypton Again, the US is resorting to force before taking ALL avenues of negotiation. The administration hasn't even tried diplomacy

complete rubbish.

so Assad wants recognition?

Bush doesn't need to negotiate. Iraq needs to negotiate.

Assad has let his border run totally ammock for the last 3 years and he wonders why Iraq can't talk to him? they're too busy dealing with jihadist and murderers that are coming from his country.

Assad may sound like a sane and virtuous diplomat, but don't think for one second he doesn't know full well what goes across his border into Iraq whether he has complete control of it or not. he doesn't.

half of all the violence in Iraq comes from Syria.

shut down your border for 90 days. then we'll talk.


EDIT> BTW Syria is a complete and utter shithole of a country and is an embarassment to all things Muslim. been that way long before the war, longer than most of us have been alive.

Last edited by Q5echo on Feb-06-2007 at 11:13

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Originally posted by Q5echo complete rubbish.

+1