Nancy Pelosi arrives in Syria today promising to build bridges between Washington and a state treated as a pariah by the Bush Administration. That's because they use terrorism as a tool of statecraft...
The Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives said it was a good idea to “establish some contact”, adding that she was travelling with hope, but “no illusions”. Her visit has been criticised by the White House which has resisted domestic and international pressure for it to talk to Syria about the future of Iraq. “I think most Americans would not think that the leader of the Democratic Party in the Congress should be meeting with the heads of a state sponsor of terror,” the White House counsellor Dan Bartlett said.
Ms Pelosi said that she would speak to President Assad about two Israeli soldiers captured by the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah and a third captured by Palestinian militants last year. The delegation, which includes Republican Congressman, met the families of the soldiers in Israel.
The Israeli Government has asked Ms Pelosi to tell Syrian leaders that it would engage in peace talks if their regime stopped supporting Palestinian militants. “Pelosi is conveying that Israel is willing to talk if they would openly take steps to stop supporting terrorism,” a spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister said. “But at this point the Syrian Government, by openly backing terror all around the Middle East, is not a partner for negotiations.”
In Washington, her Democratic colleagues in the Senate stepped up the pressure on Mr Bush over Iraq, telling him they would block all war funding if he vetoed a Bill requiring the withdrawal of combat troops next year. But the presidential hopeful Barack Obama was criticised by liberal activists for saying that Congress would provide funding if the President vetoed its legislation, because nobody “wants to play chicken with our troops”.