Decision time for Syria

By Olivier Guitta

Syria is one of the most difficult countries to read, especially when the man in charge president Bashir al Assad is sending different signals to different countries.
I just wrote a piece for the Middle East Times on that topic.
You can read the full article here.

Here is an excerpt:
Time is running out for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He will have to decide in the next few weeks whether his overture to the West is genuine or not. To Assad's credit a slew of events are pointing to his good faith, but he is still afraid to totally break loose from Iran's grip. Whatever decision the Syrian president makes will have a great impact on the region.

Assad has been opening to both the European Union and Israel. But Syria's main prize would be to get a clear relationship with Washington established. And it seems that after a long silence, Washington is more inclined to talk.

In fact, last week the Kuwaiti daily Al-Jarida reported that U.S. President George W. Bush apparently offered his Syrian counterpart to pressure Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights if Damascus promises to cut its ties with Tehran. Bush allegedly made this proposal in a letter recently presented to Assad by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during his visit to Damascus.

If Assad accepts the American deal, he will have to implement the agreement in the coming weeks. Time is of the essence since the Bush administration would like to ink such a deal before leaving office in January.

But what is really at the center of it all is the risk of the international tribunal to go ahead and try the culprits of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. In fact, the final report of Canadian judge and future prosecutor of the tribunal, Daniel Bellemare, should be published in Lebanon in December.

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