Syria Clarification

As an addendum to this post, let me note that it's not the case, as what I wrote implied, that the United States doesn't have diplomatic relations with Syria. That's a formal step that we haven't taken. Instead, we're just in a weird state where we don't actually conduct diplomacy with Syria -- nobody takes the Syrian ambassador's calls, our chargé d'affaires in Damascus isn't laying the groundwork for higher level talks, nothing. Apologies for any confusion.

Comments

it's not the case, ... that the United States doesn't have diplomatic relations with Syria. That's a formal step that we haven't taken.

Huh?

Apologies for any confusion.

Your welcome.

Posted by Tim | October 25, 2007 8:59 AM

Re Syria

The issue of relations with Syria are a prime example of disagreement within the Bush administration and between the US and Israel. The Cheney faction in the administration is obsessed with the notion of regime change in Syria, while the Israeli Government, particularly the intelligence service, is less sure that this is a good idea, based on the fear that an Islamic extremist regime would replace the Assad kleptocracy. Given that the Israeli intelligence services were right about regime change in Iraq, as per Mr. Wilkerson, maybe we should pay attention to them this time.

Posted by SLC | October 25, 2007 9:13 AM