Israel Matzav

How's that 'engagement' going Barack?

Days after the United States announced the return of an ambassador to Syria for the first time in five years, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hosted a dinner meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and de facto Lebanese leader and Hezbullah chairman Hassan Nasrallah. The three discussed the 'Zionist threat' at their meeting in Damascus on Thursday night.

The meeting was not reported until after it took place due to 'security reasons.' It's been quite a while since Nasrallah was out in the open....

On Thursday Ahmadinejad and Assad together unleashed vicious rhetoric against Israel, with Ahmadinejad declaring that the “criminal” state of Israel is doomed, and Assad charging that Israel “is capable of aggression at any point.”

Visiting Damascus, Ahmadinejad vowed that Arab nations will usher in a new Middle East “without Zionists and without colonialists.”

In remarks that extended to vicious criticism of the US, and made a mockery of Washington’s efforts to engage his Syrian hosts, Ahmadinejad said the United States should leave the Middle East and stay out of regional affairs.

“[The Americans] want to dominate the region but they feel Iran and Syria are preventing that,” Ahmadinejad said during a news conference with Assad. “We tell them that instead of interfering in the region's affairs, to pack their things and leave.”

He added that “if the Zionist regime wants to repeat its past mistakes, this will constitute its demise and annihilation.”

Assad, for his part, said Syria was “facing an entity that is capable of aggression at any point, and we are preparing ourselves for any Israeli aggression, be it on a large or small scale.”

He added that America should not dictate relationships in the Middle East.

"I find it strange how they talk about Middle East stability and at the same time talk about dividing two countries," Assad told reporters when asked about US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's call Wednesday for Syria to move away from Iran.

Assad took a swipe at Clinton for making such a suggestion, saying he and Ahmadinejad "misunderstood, maybe because of translation error or limited understanding." In a show of unity, the two signed an agreement canceling travel visas between the their countries.

US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, speaking to reporters in Washington on Thursday, said Assad "need only look around the region and recognize that Syria is increasingly an outlier."

"We want to see Syria play a more constructive role in the region and one step would be to make clear what Iran needs to do differently. And unfortunately, there was no evidence of that today," he said.

Crowley and his bosses are dreaming. The real Assad was on display in Damascus Thursday night. Washington is being run by a bunch of dreaming morons.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:44 PM