The Washington-Damascus Road

It goes without saying that Damascus is receiving the step of two prominent official envoys from the new American administration with open arms. The American political dispatches have been flowing recently to Syria, discussing personal visits from prominent Americans in the Senate and House of Representatives, in addition to official meetings in Washington between the Syrian ambassador and functionaries in the State Department. The last of these American initiatives was the visit of Jeffrey Feltman, Assistant Secretary of State to Hillary Clinton.

Obviously, all the American initiatives and messages directed at Syria are ambiguous, cautious, and shrouded in mystery. They carry hints of the new American administration’s attachment to the relationship erected by the Bush administration, where America played antagonist to Syria in every portfolio of the region, from Palestine to Lebanon to Iraq. Political divisions arose between America and Syria, leading in time to a strain in ongoing relations between the two countries.

The fulfillment of this visit alone is a tangible positive. The talk percolating out about it, both negative and positive, are statements carrying interpretations. But the personality of Ambassador Feltman, now Assistant Secretary of State, is known in Damascus. He has visited Damascus this time in the name of President Obama, the State Department, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which is a sign of the trip’s importance and the degree to which America is interested.

Despite that, Syria will not forget who Feltman was: a negative symbol of American policies begun in 2004 when the Bush administration assigned Feltman to lead its opposition to Syria’s presence on Lebanese soil, which then brought about all that was to follow for Syria and Lebanon. Feltman made short work of telling Syria the way it was with Lebanon, after first visiting Beirut and meeting with its leaders – which he considered as friends – to assure them that a new beginning for the spirit of American-Syrian relations would not come at Lebanon’s expense. The same was demonstrated with continuing support and shoring up of allied forces from Washington in Lebanon. Feltman went ahead and returned from Syria to Lebanon to be its contact, probing in the details of the Lebanese situation for a representative electoral map.

Obama is driving towards a sure assessment that Syria and all countries of the region are capable of dialogue. This is better than the collision course Bush took, but the proof will lie in the outcomes. There are realities and constants in the region, the most prominent of which is the Palestinian problem and bringing an end to the American military presence in, around and on the shores of the Gulf. There is an accumulation of experience with long-standing Western aggression that goes against any hopeful aspirations for freedoms, interests and laws in a life without dominion, meddling or control. This is what we hope for with the Obama administration, in accordance with the original slogans that were presented to Americans and to the world during Obama’s campaign and at the outset of the administration’s era.