US to invite Qatar, Syria for Nov meet

Well of course - I should think so:

Reuters - 23 September, 2007
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Washington plans to invite six Arab states including Syria to a Middle East peace conference, Abbas’s aides said. Abbas’s senior aide Nimer Hammad said yesterday that Washington would like Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, plus the Palestinian Authority to attend the US-sponsored conference, expected to be held in November.

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Condoleezza

Condy Rice sure is getting shirty about Syria lately - covering her back do you suppose? This is from Bicom:

Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State (Ynetnews, 11/5): "And so Syria is a significant problem, not just for American policy in the Middle East, but for democratic forces that are trying to take hold in the Middle East."

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Rice breaks the ice with Syria, but not Iran

· Iraq conference backdrop for high level discussion
· US praises Damascus's counter-insurgency effort

Ian Black in Sharm el-Sheikh
Friday May 4, 2007
The Guardian

Efforts to stabilise Iraq by involving its neighbours in talks brought Condoleezza Rice together with Syria's foreign minister yesterday for an ice-breaking meeting but talks with her Iranian opposite number, Manouchehr Mottaki, failed to happen.

The US secretary of state's session with Walid Moualem on the margins of an international conference on Iraq followed rare praise from the US military that Syria was doing more to seal its border with Iraq to foreign fighters joining the Sunni insurgency.

The high-profile diplomatic encounter in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh was the first of its kind since Syria, Iran's only Arab ally, was accused of being behind the murder of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005. It denies the charge and is resisting calls for a UN tribunal to investigate the killing.

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Farid Ghadry, from the Syrian opposition, has sent us the following opinion piece on the Rice meeting, posted on the Reform Party of Syria website.

A Safe Iraq is the Purpose
Farid Ghadry, RPS,Washington DC
May 4, 2007
With Iraq becoming the center of gravity of US foreign policy in the Middle East, the Syrian opposition is witnessing some disturbing events taking place that look like a reversal of the past policy by the US in its approach to dealing with the Assad regime. But a closer look may reveal a different perspective...

After the meeting yesterday, the White House spokesman Tony Snow downplayed its importance when he said: "Any conversations would not be bilateral discussions. They would not be formal negotiations." He added: "The one and only topic, again, in Sharm el- Sheikh is to say: 'It is time now to step forward and support the government of Iraq. ' That is the strong message that is being sent." It is obvious from the narrow goal that precipitated this meeting to take place that Iraq and only Iraq was the central issue...

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