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America in the Middle East

Olmert: We sent no message with Pelosi


Source: The Jerusalem Post
April 05, 2007

Contrary to claims made by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Israeli government did not ask her to message Syrian dictator Bashar el-Assad that Jerusalem was willing to reopen peace talks with Damascus.

This is according to a "clarification" issued by the Prime Minister's Office immediately after Pelosi, who visited with Assad Wednesday, said Olmert had given her such a message for the Syrian dictator.

Before the rare rebuttal was released, however, Arabist CNN reporter Brent Sadler gave a push to Pelosi's "mediation" effort by claiming that, just as Olmert had given her a message for Assad, "likewise Damascus has now sent a message to Israel via Pelosi that Syria is willing to resume talks with Israel."

What Olmert actually told Pelosi, according to the PMO statement, was that Syria's sincerity about making 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 Hizb'allah 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."

Notwithstanding its content, the official denial will likely be portrayed by the hostile press Israel routinely receives as "yet another example of the Jewish state's unwillingness to make peace with its neighbors."

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