Nancy Pelosi meets Syria’s Assad

OWEIS DAMASCUS – US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met President Bashar al-Assad yesterday, against White House wishes, to urge Syria to help stabilise Iraq and stop supporting Washington’s adversaries in the Middle East.

Pelosi, the third most senior US official, sat next to Assad in front of cameras before starting a meeting at his hilltop palace overlooking Damascus. The White House has described her visit as a bad idea.A member of Pelosi’s delegation said that during her meeting she would raise Syria’s suspected support for anti-US rebels in Iraq and its backing for Palestinian movement Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.The United States withdrew its ambassador from Damascus shortly after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Rafik al-Hariri in February 2005.Washington accuses Syria of sponsoring terrorism and estimates up to 90 per cent of suicide bombers in Iraq enter the country via Syria and says the country has not acted to stop this flow.Syrian officials said Damascus wants to help Washington achieve an ‘honourable withdrawal’ from Iraq but in return the United States must press Israel to return the Golan Heights, which the Jewish state captured in the 1967 Middle East war.Nampa-ReutersThe White House has described her visit as a bad idea.A member of Pelosi’s delegation said that during her meeting she would raise Syria’s suspected support for anti-US rebels in Iraq and its backing for Palestinian movement Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.The United States withdrew its ambassador from Damascus shortly after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Rafik al-Hariri in February 2005.Washington accuses Syria of sponsoring terrorism and estimates up to 90 per cent of suicide bombers in Iraq enter the country via Syria and says the country has not acted to stop this flow.Syrian officials said Damascus wants to help Washington achieve an ‘honourable withdrawal’ from Iraq but in return the United States must press Israel to return the Golan Heights, which the Jewish state captured in the 1967 Middle East war.Nampa-Reuters