http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...UKOC_0_US-SYRIA-USA-PELOSI.xml&src=rss&rpc=22
EXCERPT
"We were very pleased with the reassurances we received from the president (Assad) that he was ready to resume the peace process. He was ready to engage in negotiations (for) peace with Israel," Pelosi said.
"(Our) meeting with the president enabled us to communicate a message from prime minister Olmert that Israel was ready to engage in peace talks as well," Pelosi told reporters after talks with Assad.
An Israeli government official said that was not the message Olmert had asked Pelosi earlier this week to convey to Assad, who seeks the return of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
"The prime minister said Israel is interested in peace with Syria, but Syria would first have to abandon the path of terror and providing support for terrorist groups," the official said, in reference to Palestinian group Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Pelosi Blows It
Discussion in 'Political Debate & Discussion' started by carpro, Apr 4, 2007.
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Looks more like Carpro has blown it. Apparently Pelosi delivered exactly the message she got from Israel, with Olmert's blessing as well as that of his chief deputy.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070401/pl_nm/israel_usa_pelosi_dc
I'm glad she's there. Aside from balancing the publicity key Republicans are getting from making the same kind of visits, she seems to be the first one in a while to get a glimmer of interest and a positive response from Syria. I think Bush ought to replace Rice with her, Pelosi seems to be much more effective. Maybe that's because she understands the situation in the middle east a bit better than Bush, Rice, or biased right wingers do. -
Not according to the Israelis.
It was a simple message and she blew it, according to Reuters. -
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Bro. Curtis <img src =/curtis.gif>Site Supporter
I'm quite sure being a San Fransisco rep has NOT made her an authority in mideastern policy. -
Bro. Curtis <img src =/curtis.gif>Site Supporter
It is apparently your biased interpretation that is wrong....
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to be considered as a serious leader. The California Democrat was hoping her trip to the Middle East would boost her image on the world stage as she ignored a White House request not to make the trip. Now, almost right on cue, the Speaker has already made a diplomatic snafu as she tried to encourage peace talks between Syria and Israel.
Nancy Pelosi Diplomacy Snafu: Israel Says No Policy Change
"We were very pleased with the reassurances we received from the president (Assad) that he was ready to resume the peace process. He was ready to engage in negotiations (for) peace with Israel," Pelosi said "(Our) meeting with the president enabled us to communicate a message from Prime Minister Olmert that Israel was ready to engage in peace talks as well," Pelosi told reporters after talks with Assad.
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That infuriated Israel, reports Fox News. According to Reuters, an Israeli government official said that was not the message Olmert had asked Pelosi earlier this week to convey to Assad, who seeks the return of the Golan Heights , a strategic plateau Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
"The Prime Minister said Israel is interested in peace with Syria, but Syria would first have to abandon the path of terror and providing support for terrorist groups," the official said, in reference to Palestinian group Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah. "Comments (Olmert) made to the speaker of the House did not represent any change in a policy Israel has expressed to all international figures dealing with the (Syrian) issue," a statement from Olmert's office said....
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I'm proud of what Speaker Pelosi did.
Any success Speaker Pelosi has in starting a dialog with any country in the Middle East just highlights another Bush blunder, foreign diplomacy. -
Bro. Curtis <img src =/curtis.gif>Site Supporter
....Pelosi just reversed the work of the Syrian civil society and those who aspire for women's freedom in the Muslim countries many years back with her visual statement. Her lack of experience of the Middle East is showing.
Assad could not have been happier because Syrian women, seeing a US official confirming what their husbands, the Imams in the Mosques tell them, and the society at large imposes on them through peer pressure will see in her wearing a Hijab as a confirmation of the societal pressures they are constantly under. No one will ever know how many women took the Hijab on after seeing Pelosi wearing it. The damage Speaker Pelosi is causing with her visit to Syria will be felt for many years to come. -
I don't know what she hoped to accomplish by going, but the trip now seems to have ticked Israel off.
I don't call that a success.
Regardless of who goes to visit these countries, there will never be any peace, or even talks of peace, until these governments stop backing terrorist organizations and begin prosecuting them. -
Bro. Curtis <img src =/curtis.gif>Site Supporter
That's what the Clinton presidency proved, and he tried harder than any other president. To me, that's his legacy. Arafat walking out.
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At least she's trying to work for peace, something GW and his crowd hasn't done in 6 years. All they know how to do is to promote war. -
With you the glass is always half empty, right?
:laugh: -
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Pratfall in Damascus
Nancy Pelosi's foolish shuttle diplomacy
Thursday, April 5, 2007; A16
HOUSE SPEAKER Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offered an excellent demonstration yesterday of why members of Congress should not attempt to supplant the secretary of state when traveling abroad. After a meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Ms. Pelosi announced that she had delivered a message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that "Israel was ready to engage in peace talks" with Syria. What's more, she added, Mr. Assad was ready to "resume the peace process" as well. Having announced this seeming diplomatic breakthrough, Ms. Pelosi suggested that her Kissingerian shuttle diplomacy was just getting started. "We expressed our interest in using our good offices in promoting peace between Israel and Syria," she said.
Only one problem: The Israeli prime minister entrusted Ms. Pelosi with no such message. "What was communicated to the U.S. House Speaker does not contain any change in the policies of Israel," said a statement quickly issued by the prime minister's office. In fact, Mr. Olmert told Ms. Pelosi that "a number of Senate and House members who recently visited Damascus received the impression that despite the declarations of Bashar Assad, there is no change in the position of his country regarding a possible peace process with Israel." In other words, Ms. Pelosi not only misrepresented Israel's position but was virtually alone in failing to discern that Mr. Assad's words were mere propaganda. -
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1173879247562&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
Apr. 5, 2007 0:34 | Updated Apr. 5, 2007 0:52
PMO denies peace message to Assad
By HERB KEINON
The Prime Minister's Office issued a rare "clarification" Wednesday that, in gentle diplomatic terms, contradicted US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's statement in Damascus that she had brought a message from Israel about a willingness to engage in peace talks.
According to the statement, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert emphasized in his meeting with Pelosi on Sunday that "although Israel is interested in peace with Syria, that country continues to be part of the Axis of Evil and a force that encourages terror in the entire Middle East."
# Pelosi tells Assad: Israel ready to talk
Olmert, the statement clarified, told Pelosi that Syria's sincerity about a genuine peace with Israel would be judged by its willingness to "cease its support of terror, cease its sponsoring of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations, refrain from providing weapons to Hizbullah and bringing about the destabilizing of Lebanon, cease its support of terror in Iraq, and relinquish the strategic ties it is building with the extremist regime in Iran."
The statement said Olmert had not communicated to Pelosi any change in Israeli policy on Damascus. -
Pelosi has made a big mistake. The issues in the middle East are very sensative and we do not need to be misrepresenting one side or the other. However I imagine Whitehouse aspirations are the bigest motivation here.
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Bro. Curtis <img src =/curtis.gif>Site Supporter
Like I said, the "constitutional experts" here only throw the word around when it makes Bush look bad.
This trip was a huge success for the enemy. -
Pelosi is so caught up in herself that she is like a loaded cocked gun rolling down some stairs, and she is bound to cause great grief.
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