By Stan Goodenough
Oct 06, 2008
Israel Today reported Monday that Syrian President Bashar el-Assad is reaching out to US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama "and is pegging its future on the latter winning the upcoming American election."
The Israeli news site based its report on a recent Forbes article by the editor of a Syrian news website, All4Syria.
According to the article author, Ayman Abdel Nour, Assad is banking on Obama becoming president and lifting US sanctions against Syria.
"To show his support for Obama, Assad has reportedly been reaching out to former and current advisors to the Illinois senator, including Robert Malley, Daniel Kurtz and Hernando de Soto, all of whom have visiting Damascus in an official capacity."
Nour said Assad's political future could depend on a President Obama looking more favorably on Syria, where anti-government forces have been gaining strength in light of the perceived failures of the Alawite regime.