Washington Post: Rice plans to isolate President al-Assad in New York
Syria-USA, Politics, 9/3/2005

The USA is planning to intensify pressure on Syria in order to prevent it from interfering in the Lebanese affairs. Towards this end, the US intends to convene a conference for the Middle East and European leaders on the sidelines of meetings of the UN General Assembly in New York in mid September.

One American official said on Friday that the US Department Of State secretary Condaleezza Rice decided to host this conference to which the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will not be invited.

The Washington Post said yesterday that the US diplomats consider that the international interest in the file of Syria and Lebanon entered a new phase under unprecedented international Pressures on al-Assad. According to the paper, officials in the US administration consider that the American president George W. Bush seeks relentlessly to recruit the UN to pressure Syria, and for supporting Lebanon to re-construct its political institutions.

The Washington Post reported that "The plan's two steps are part of parallel international efforts to hold the government of President Bashar Assad of Syria to account for its current and past meddling in Lebanon, and are bolstered as the U.N.-led investigation into the Feb. 14 assassination narrows its focus on Syria's allies and agents in Lebanon. The goal is to 'juxtapose' greater pressure on Syria with international help for Lebanon as it works to regain sovereignty, particularly because the Syrians have not pulled out all of their intelligence agents, said a senior administration official."

One American official told the paper "If I were in Bashar's shoes, I'd look again about coming to New York. It's not going to be the spotlight he expected."

Previous Stories:
  Syria's representative at UN reacts to US and British statements on Iraq border controls   (8/6/2005)
  Rice's visit, Syria, and the Lebanese resistance   (7/23/2005)
  Syria accuses US forces of killing two Syrian security guards   (7/22/2005)

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