The director of the Syrian Foreign Ministry’s Foreign Press Department
yesterday expressed disappointment with the outcome of the Arab-Israeli
peace conference held in Annapolis, Maryland, in late November. Syria
had sent its deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mikdad, to participate in
the conference. But the Foreign Press department head, Ms. Bushra
Kanafani, told me in an exclusive interview yesterday that she was not sure where the process launched at Annapolis
was now headed.
Ms. Kanafani expressed pessimism that the Palestinian-Israeli
negotiating track that was re-launched there was headed for success.
“As we see it” she said, “the priority for Palestinians is not in these
peace talks
but to make a reconciliation among the Palestinians themselves.”
At the time of Annapolis, Syria had scrapped plans to host a “summit
conference” involving Hamas and many other anti-Fateh Palestinian
movements. That conference has now been rescheduled for January
23-25. Ms. Kanafani was at pains to point out, though, that “its
aim is to rebuild Palestinian national unity… Mr. Abbas has
been invited.”
Regarding the Syrian-Israeli track, she expressed no expectation that
anything would be happening in it any time soon. A follow-up
session that the Russians– who are members of the US-led “Quartet”,
along with the UN and the EU– had considered holding in Moscow in
mid-January has not eventualized, and there are no other current
prospects for any activity on the Syrian-Israeli track.
At the time of the Annapolis talks, government leaders and
pro-government media in Tehran openly criticized the decision of the
Syriuan government– a long-time Tehran ally– to participate.
Several analysts in the west meanwhile expressed the hope that
including Syria in the Annapolis process could succeed in “flipping”
Syria away from its relationship with Tehran. But despite
those Iranian criticisms of Damascus in November, that seems not
to have happened. Ms. Kanafani noted in the interview that
throughout the whole period in the 1990s when Syria was actively
involved in peace negotiations with Israel, Damascus’s ties with Iran
were never broken, and she indicated she saw no reason for them to
suffer now.
Ms. Kanafani also discussed some intriguing aspects of
Syria’s burgeoning security relationship with the US-installed Iraqi
government. She expressed Syria’s hope that the Arab League’s
attempt to resolve Lebanon’s lingering government crisis could soon be
successful. She discussed Syria’s current views of its
relationships with Turkey (good) and Saudi Arabia (not so good.)
She also expressed a view of the importance that Syria sees for the US
role in the peace process that would be surprising to those Americans
who consider Syria an implacable foe of US interests and influence in
the Middle East.
Less than two miles away from Ms. Kanafani’s office in the Foreign
Ministry, hundreds of Iraqi refugees were lined up in a large, well-run
reception facility the Syrian Red Crescent Society (SRCS) runs to
process their claims for the food boxes and other support the SRCS has
been giving to then regularly. Large numbers of Iraqis– perhaps
more than one million– have found refuge in Syria from the turmoil and
sectarian killing that has plagued their homeland over the past three
years. Syria has also hosted hundreds of thousands of refugees from
Palestine for 60 years now, and in summer it 2006 hosted half a
million refugees from Israel’s assault on Lebanon. The violence,
instability, and suffering in these neighboring Arab countries feels
very real indeed in Syria.
The text of Ms. Kanafani’s interview will follow. It is now here.
Thanks Helena. Joshua