DAMASCUS: US State Department official William Burns met Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad on Wednesday a day after Washington named its first ambassador to Damascus in five years in a bid to engage a former foe. Burns, the US under secretary for political affairs, met the Syrian leader against a barrage of domestic opposition to the engagement of one of Israel s bitterest enemies. But he described the appointment of a new ambassador as a positive signal of intent by the administration of President Barack Obama. This is a clear sign after five years without an ambassador in Damascus of America s readiness to improve relations and to cooperate to pursue a just and comprehensive peace between Arabs and Israelis, said Burns. The White House was keen to make progress on all tracks in the peace process and to pursue regional peace and stability, the US diplomat told reporters after meeting Assad. There are challenges on the road but my meeting with President Assad leaves me hopeful that we can make progress together in the interest of both our countries. I had quite productive and extensive discussions with President Assad. We talked about areas on which we disagree but also we found areas of common ground on which we can build, Burns said. Washington s ties with Damascus had been strained by Syria s three-decade-old alliance with Iran and US allegations of meddling in the affairs of its eastern neighbor Iraq. Career diplomat Robert Ford will be the first US ambassador to Damascus since Washington recalled its envoy after Lebanon s former prime minister Rafiq Hariri was killed in February 2005 in a bombing blamed on Syria. Ambassador Ford is a highly accomplished diplomat with many years of experience in the Middle East, said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. If confirmed by the Senate, ambassador Ford will engage the Syrian government on how we can enhance relations, while addressing areas of ongoing concern. But the nomination ignited a festering row with Republicans over Obama s signature policy of seeking to engage governments considered hostile to Washington. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee, blasted the move as reckless engagement and a reward for a US enemy. With this nomination, our foreign policy again risks sending the message that it is better to be an intractable enemy than a cooperative, loyal US ally, she said in a statement. Despite the administration s outreach, Syria continues to sponsor violent extremist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, to undermine Lebanon s sovereignty, and to pursue unconventional weapons and missile capabilities. Obama has seen his efforts to engage Iran and broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians founder in his first year in office, and the overture to Syria may be aimed at seeking a new way to ease the deadlock. But analysts say it seems unlikely that Assad s government, with a first priority of ensuring its own survival, will be keen to sever links with Iran or make immediate concessions to Israel. US officials may be keen to increase intelligence cooperation with Syria, although its stakeholding in Lebanon through Shia militant group Hezbollah is likely to prove a long-term impediment to better ties. Ford, currently deputy chief of mission in the US embassy in Baghdad, was previously ambassador to Algeria, and has also had postings in Turkey and Egypt in a 25-year career in the US foreign service. Obama apparently paved the way for the announcement on Friday, calling Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri to tell him he strongly supports the effort to bring the killers of his late father to justice. The previous administration of president George W. Bush recalled the US ambassador from Damascus and put relations with Syria on hold in 2005, following Rafiq Hariri s killing. His death in a massive bomb blast on the Beirut seafront in February of that year was widely blamed on Syria, although Damascus has denied any involvement. An international tribunal based in The Hague was set up by a UN Security Council resolution in 2007 to try suspects in the murder. A UN commission of inquiry initially said it had found evidence to implicate Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services but there are no suspects in custody.
