Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, opening a new phase of direct American diplomacy in the Middle East, met today with President Bashar al-Assad and said afterward that Syria had begun closing the offices of at least some militant anti-Israel groups in Damascus as demanded by the United States.
| My guess is that this is one of those promises they don't intend to follow through on... |
Although Mr. Powell gave no details and Syria provided no immediate confirmation, a senior State Department official said that Syria had shut down the offices of three organizations that the United states considers terrorist. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, identified them as Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
| If so, that is a step in the right direction. I'd hate to imagine the hedging around it, though... |
Syria has long maintained that the groups only kept information offices in Damascus. The State Department official also said that Syria was taking steps to ensure that members of the groups would limit their television appearances from Damascus.
| I'd rather see them limit their operational control... |
In his visit to Syria, Mr. Powell said that "a new strategic situation" had emerged with the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq. It appeared that the administration's message had already been heard in Syria. Speaking at a news conference in Beirut hours after a visit to Damascus, Mr. Powell said of the Syrian government: "They did some closures. I expect them to do more with respect to access and the appearance of various officials of organizations, and we've provided some other suggestions to the Syrians that they have taken under advisement. And I expect to hear back from them in the future."
| I hope that one of those suggestions was to kill as many of them as possible, before we have to come in and do it... |
The closings appeared to be a breakthrough in dealing with Syria, which has had an up-and-down relationship with the United States over the years and more recently has been labeled by some American officials as a junior member of the "axis of evil" because of its tolerance of the groups' presence. The United States has tried for years to get the offices closed. For Syria, they represented a sign of its commitment to the Palestinian cause in the Arab world and as a means of pressure on its foe, Israel.
| To us, they represented a sign of the dirt under Syria's nails... |
Their closing was also welcomed by the United States because it considers the attacks sponsored by Islamic Jihad and Hamas in the occupied territories and Israel an obstacle to peace between the Palestinians and Israelis. |