Assad: Betting on Israeli Gov't İs Waste of Time

Syrian President Bashar Assad called on his American counterpart Barack Obama to resurrect diplomatic relations frozen by the Bush administration. In an interview with the UK's Guardian newspaper Tuesday the Syrian President expressed pessimism about the new Israeli government, regardless of the cabinet formation.

Assad called on Obama to send an ambassador to Syria in a measure designed to kickstart diplomacy between the two countries.

"We are a player in the region. If you want to talk about peace, you can't advance without Syria," Assad told the Guardian.

Later this week, Assad will see Senator John Kerry, the influential chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee and the most senior American to visit Damascus in years.

"An ambassador is important," Assad said. "Sending these delegations is important. This number of congressmen coming to Syria is a good gesture. It shows that this administration wants to see dialogue with Syria. What we have heard from them – Obama, Clinton and others – is positive." However, he said, "We are still in the period of gestures and signals. There is nothing real yet."

He added that he expects Obama to honor his commitment to hold dialogue with states blacklisted by the Bush administration, and that he wanted the US to be the "main arbiter" in the Middle East peace process. "There is no substitute for the United States," Assad said.

Assad was pessimistic about future talks with Israel. "Betting on the Israeli government is a waste of time," he said. But he predicted the talks would eventually take place despite difficulties.

Israel's offensive on Gaza "will make it harder, but in the end we will return to talks," he said.

Regarding Obama's call for certain states to "unclench their fists" Assad said he believes the new president was referring to Iran. "We never clenched our fist," he said. "We still talked about peace even during the Israeli aggression in Gaza."

Assad urged the US administration and Europe to hold diplomatic talks with Teheran and not to pin false hopes for change on the Islamic Republic's presidential elections set for the summer.

"I would say to Obama and the Europeans: 'Don't waste your time on this. Go and make dialogue.' The only way is to go for direct engagement," Assad was quoted as saying.

According to the Guardian, such a rapprochement would require Syria to break its links with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, both by Washington as terrorist groups, and to make a bigger effort to close its border to foreign fighters in transit to Iraq.

There was no sign, however, that Assad is prepared to renounce or downgrade Syria's relations with either group – or, as the US would like to see, with Iran, Syria's strategic ally since 1979, the UK daily added.

The Syrian leader made it clear he would not be pressured into making gestures. The US and Britain, the Guardian said, would like him to send an ambassador to Beirut after last year's historic establishment of diplomatic relations between Syria and Lebanon. But he warned: "We will not send an ambassador to Lebanon because Britain, France and the US want us to. This is a sovereign issue. We are not doing it for Europe or for anyone else."