U.S. Senators Demand Peaceful, Sovereign Lebanon

Influential U.S. Senator Patrick Kennedy has expressed hope to see a new head of state in a peaceful and stable Lebanon.

 

Kennedy said following a meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem along with his colleague senator Arlen Specter, that he looks forward to discuss promoting peace and stability in Lebanon with Syrian president Bashar Assad.

 

He said he wants to see “free and fair elections in Lebanon” and “full sovereignty for Lebanon.”

 

Kennedy along with his colleague senator Arlen Specter discussed later the situation in Lebanon and the peace process in the middle east with Assad, and said that he is ready for peace with Israel.

 

Specter, said after talks with the Syrian leader, that the political atmosphere in both Syria and Israel was different now and that the time was “positive” for resuming peace talks between the two countries, halted since 2000.

 

“We had a very productive meeting with Assad,” Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania, told The Associated Press after talks with Assad.

 

He added that he got the impression after the meeting with Assad that the time was very “positive for productive talks between Israel and Syria.”

 

“There is a sense that he (Assad) is ready and the Syrian public opinion is ready (for peace),” Specter said. The meeting with Assad was also attended by Kennedy who is a Rhode Island Democrat.

 

Specter said the United States has the potential to “bridge the gap” between Israel and Syria. He added that the atmosphere is “very different in Damascus today and is very different in Jerusalem today” in part because of last month”s U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, which Syria attended.

 

In 2000, formal U.S.-sponsored Israel-Syria talks neared agreement but broke down over final border and peace arrangements. Syria demands the full return of the Golan Heights, the territory seized by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.

 

The two Congressmen arrived in Damascus Saturday on a two-day visit for talks on the stalled Middle East peace process and strained U.S.-Syrian relations.

 

Specter, after holding talks with Muallem, declined to confirm reports that he would convey a message to Assad from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on resuming peace talks between the two countries.

 

Relations between Syria and the U.S. appeared to warm briefly following Syria”s attendance at the Annapolis conference, which was widely seen as an attempt to gain favor with Washington.

 

But both sides have since lashed out at one another, each accusing the other of meddling in Lebanon, where the Western-backed government is locked in a political standoff with the pro-Syrian opposition. The U.S. also disapproves of Damascus” support for anti-Israel militant groups and its alliance with Iran.

 

Last week, U.S. President George Bush rejected dialogue with the Syrian leader, saying his “patience ran out on President Assad a long time ago.”

 

A Syrian government newspaper urged Sunday the United States to work seriously for peace in the region.

“What is the problem of the U.S. Administration with Syria so long as U.S. delegations, Republicans and Democrats, have not stopped visiting Damascus and confirming the importance of its role in solving the region”s problems?” Al-Baath, the ruling party newspaper, said in an editorial.

 

“Where is the courage and daring that Bush urged all parties to display to achieve peace in the Middle East?” it added.

 

Picture: Senator Arlen Specter ( R) , an influential U.S. lawmaker, and Rep. Patrick Kennedy, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, speak to reporters upon their arrival at Damascus airport on Saturday, Dec. 29, 2007