Syria backs the Palestinian president's bid to improve relations with Israel and hopes developments there may lead to peace in the Middle East, Syria's ambassador to the United States said on Tuesday. But
| There's always a "but," isn't there? |
Ambassador Imad Moustapha said relations between his country and the United States were much rockier than in the past and that he was "shocked" when US President George W Bush called Syria an obstacle to peace in his state of the union address last week.
| "I was shocked! Shocked!" |
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared a cease-fire on Tuesday at a summit in Egypt aimed at ending four years of bloodshed and reviving peace talks. "We are very supportive of what he is trying to do," Moustapha said of Abbas in a seminar at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. "We are hopeful that what is happening right now in the Middle East might evolve into a comprehensive and fair Middle East peace. So we are watchful and crossing our fingers," Moustapha said.
| Are you rounding up Hezbollah members and shooting them on the spot? No? Then you're not serious. |
He said Syria was stunned when Bush singled the country out for criticism in his speech because Syria has tried without success to initiate peace talks with Israel during the past 18 months. The president accused Syria of allowing what he described as terrorists to use Syrian and Lebanese territory to "destroy every chance of peace" in the Middle East. "I cannot deny that on a personal level I was shocked when I was attending the speech and President Bush said Syria is an obstacle to peace in the Middle East," Moustapha said. "US-Syrian relations are going through a very difficult phase. We've always had disagreements with United States policies toward the Middle East, but we never had such similar difficulties. Sometimes we think we are being treated unfairly. We are, like, being blamed for their own failures."
| More like being blamed for your own failures. |
|