How To Deal With Syria: Sarkozy Vs. Arlen Specter And Patrick Kennedy

French President Nicolas Sarkozy:

“I will not have any more contact with the Syrians until… we have received proof of Syria’s intention to let Lebanon designate a president of consensus,” said Sarkozy at a press conference in Cairo after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.) visiting Syria on Sunday:

“The time is right now, and prospects are very good,” Specter told reporters Sunday on his 16th visit to Syria since 1984. “The parties will continue talks through intermediaries, and it’s my hope and expectation at some point, if preliminary progress has been made, the U.S. government would be ready too.”

Who the hell gave Specter the authority to make such a statement. That is not within the realm of his legislative authority!

Here is Partick Kennedy on the jailed dissidents:

“The president said that they would be released,” Kennedy said. He said Assad identified “Akram Bunni, Walid Bunni, Jaber Shufi, Ali Abdullah, Fidaa Horani, Mohammad Yasser Aiti and Ahmad Tohmeh … [and] assured me personally that they were [to be] released.”

Well there you go! Kennedy has Assad’s word, therefore they shall be released! Did he release them while you were there? No, he didn’t did he?

Ed Morrissey has a must read, but here is a bit of what he said:

The time is right? The prospects are good? Syria has conducted a series of assassinations in Lebanon over the past two years, killing politicians who oppose its rule over what it sees as a vassal state. The UN has demanded cooperation from Assad and his government, which has not been forthcoming, over the first assassination of Rafik Hariri.

On top of that, Syria has re-armed Hezbollah in the south in defiance of UN resolutions and a laughably inept peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. They have interfered in Lebanon’s political processes and kept its government in a stalemate. Even the French have stopped talking with Syria because of its intransigence. What prospects look good, other than enhanced concessions from Israel and the US that will only encourage further Syrian machinations?

Bryan:

Specter would give the Golan Heights away if he could. It seems almost strange to say this, but the French seem to have the better approach to Syria these days than we do: Isolate them.

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