U.S. House Speaker Spites White House Diplomatically
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi begins her visit to Syria today. She is making that visit in spite of strong disapproval from the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, which has called the visit “unproductive” and “a bad idea.” The Democrats consider the present administration's foreign policy a failure, and they intend to remedy the situation before Bush leaves office.
On Sunday, Pelosi stopped in Israel, a key U.S. ally regardless of the party alliance of the administration. She held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, spoke before the Knesset and even met the families of the two soldiers who were kidnapped by Hezbollah radicals last summer. Yesterday, Pelosi was in Lebanon, where she met with Lebanese leaders in Beirut. The highlight of her trip comes today, however.
The White House has a policy against maintaining relations with countries that sponsor terrorism, which it accuses Syria of doing. The headquarters of several radical Islamic organizations, such as the Palestinian Hamas movement, are in Syria. Furthermore, according to Western and Israeli intelligence services, Iranian weapons are moved through Syria to the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon and international terrorists travel from Syria into Iraq. The last time an American politician of that rank visited Damascus was three years ago. Washington recalled its ambassador to Damascus in 2005, after the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
Pelosi led a congressional delegation to the Middle East in January. She visited Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries at that time without attracting particular attention. Syria, like Iran, has indicated its readiness for dialog with the United States in the past but their overtures were rejected by the Bush administration.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 03, 2007
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