If debka is right, it's a hopeful sign that Obama can react to reality:
Sharp US reversal: From détente with Damascus to renewed sanctions
DEBKAfile Special Report
May 9, 2009, 1:39 AM (GMT+02:00)
After a major diplomatic offensive to thaw relations with Syrian president Bashar Assad, US president Barack Obama suddenly pulled back Friday, May 8, and announced renewed sanctions against Damascus.
In a letter to Congress, he explained Syria posed a continuing threat to US interests. Obama specifically accused Damascus of "supporting terrorism, pursuing weapons of mass destruction and missile programs, and undermining US and international efforts with respect to the stabilization and reconstruction of Iraq."
DEBKAfile's Middle East sources explain Obama's change of heart on three grounds:
1. Disappointment in the failure of every attempt made by a troop of his envoys, the latest being Acting US assistant secretary of state Jeffrey Feltman on Thursday, May 7, to persuade Assad to start moving away from Tehran and stop transferring arms to the Shiite terrorist Hizballah. The Syrian ruler also refused to keep his hands of Lebanon's June elections, in which Hizballah and pro-Syrian factions are challenging the western-backed majority government.
2. Obama's decision to address the Muslim world from Egypt on June 4 signals a certain cooling in his enthusiastic courtship of Tehran and Damascus. Two US envoys, Dennis Ross and defense secretary Robert Gates, reported back from their missions to Riyadh, Cairo and the Gulf emirates in the last ten days that any further US gestures towards those two radical regimes would place US ties with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Gulf in grave jeopardy.
3. By turning tough towards Damascus, the US president is telegraphing Tehran that their dialogue can make headway only if Iran is willing to make real concessions on key issues, including its nuclear program and sponsorship of terror. |
