'Just World News' with Helena Cobban

Syria's policy, post-Annapolis

The director of the Syrian Foreign Ministry's Foreign Press Department yesterday expressed disappointment with the outcome of the Arab-Israeli peace conference held in Annapolis, Maryland, in late November. Syria had sent its deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mikdad, to participate in the conference.  But the Foreign Press department head, Ms. Bushra Kanafani, told me in an exclusive interview yesterday that she was not sure where the process launched at Annapolis was now headed. 

Ms. Kanafani expressed pessimism that the Palestinian-Israeli negotiating track that was re-launched there was headed for success. "As we see it" she said, "the priority for Palestinians is not in these peace talks but to make a reconciliation among the Palestinians themselves."

At the time of Annapolis, Syria had scrapped plans to host a "summit conference" involving Hamas and many other anti-Fateh Palestinian movements.  That conference has now been rescheduled for January 23-25.  Ms. Kanafani was at pains to point out, though, that "its aim is to rebuild Palestinian national unity...  Mr. Abbas has been invited."

Regarding the Syrian-Israeli track, she expressed no expectation that anything would be happening in it any time soon.  A follow-up session that the Russians-- who are members of the US-led "Quartet", along with the UN and the EU-- had considered holding in Moscow in mid-January has not eventualized, and there are no other current prospects for any activity on the Syrian-Israeli track.

At the time of the Annapolis talks, government leaders and pro-government media in Tehran openly criticized the decision of the Syriuan government-- a long-time Tehran ally-- to participate.  Several analysts in the west meanwhile expressed the hope that including Syria in the Annapolis process could succeed in "flipping" Syria away from its relationship with Tehran.  But despite those  Iranian criticisms of Damascus in November, that seems not to have happened.  Ms. Kanafani noted in the interview that throughout the whole period in the 1990s when Syria was actively involved in peace negotiations with Israel, Damascus's ties with Iran were never broken, and she indicated she saw no reason for them to suffer now.

Ms. Kanafani also discussed some intriguing aspects of Syria's burgeoning security relationship with the US-installed Iraqi government.  She expressed Syria's hope that the Arab League's attempt to resolve Lebanon's lingering government crisis could soon be successful.  She discussed Syria's current views of its relationships with Turkey (good) and Saudi Arabia (not so good.)  She also expressed a view of the importance that Syria sees for the US role in the peace process that would be surprising to those Americans who consider Syria an implacable foe of US interests and influence in the Middle East.

Less than two miles away from Ms. Kanafani's office in the Foreign Ministry, hundreds of Iraqi refugees were lined up in a large, well-run reception facility the Syrian Red Crescent Society (SRCS) runs to process their claims for the food boxes and other support the SRCS has been giving to then regularly.  Large numbers of Iraqis-- perhaps more than one million-- have found refuge in Syria from the turmoil and sectarian killing that has plagued their homeland over the past three years. Syria has also hosted hundreds of thousands of refugees from Palestine for 60 years now, and in summer it 2006 hosted half a million refugees from Israel's assault on Lebanon.  The violence, instability, and suffering in these neighboring Arab countries feels very real indeed in Syria.

The text of Ms. Kanafani's interview will follow. It is now here.