Diplomacy Possible with Syria, Says Duke Professor Who Recently Met With Syrian President
Professor Bruce Jentleson said President Assad has "a strong interest in at least exploring improved relations."
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced today (Tuesday) that the United States will send two envoys to Syria to initiate discussions between the two nations. A Duke University professor who earlier this year met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says there are diplomatic opportunities worth exploring with Syria.
“The message was very clear that there was a strong interest in at least exploring improved relations with the United States,” public policy professor Bruce Jentleson said about the Jan. 11 meeting involving Assad and a group of American scholars. The unofficial meeting was sponsored by two American non-governmental groups, the United States Institute of Peace and the Henry L. Stimson Center.
Jentleson said there are three prominent points of possible shared interest between the U.S. and Syria: settling the Golan Heights dispute between Israel and Syria, containing the Iraq war and developing ongoing direct communication between the U.S. and Syria.
Jentleson recalls that in responding to a question about peace negotiations with Israel, Assad “very frankly looked at me and said, ‘Yes, after the Israeli election,’ scheduled for February 2009, and he qualified it by saying if there’s an Israeli government strong enough to negotiate.”
“That wasn’t a given, that answer; he could have fudged,” said Jentleson, a former State Department official and author of “American Foreign Policy: The Dynamics of Choice in the 21st Century.”
Jentleson said Assad indicated that Syria’s relationship with Iran is not entirely set.
“On Iran, there was a sense of this as an alliance of convenience,” he said. “My own impression was that in an alliance of convenience there could be leverage points.”