No wonder Syrian dictator-son Bashar Assad was so happy…
Pelosi gave him the wrong message!
Bummer for Israel.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (L) chats with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (C) after a meeting in Damascus April 4, 2007. (REUTERS/SANA)
The Gulf Times reported:
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on a visit to Syria opposed by the White House, said yesterday President Bashar Al Assad was ready to hold peace talks with Israel.
But her remark that Israel was prepared to negotiate with Damascus prompted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office to underline the Jewish state’s preconditions for such talks. Democrat Pelosi is the most senior US official to visit Syria in more than two years.
President George W. Bush had said her visit sent mixed signals to Syria. A spokesman for the White House National Security Council called it “counterproductive” yesterday.
“We were very pleased with the reassurances we received from the president [Assad] that he was ready to resume the peace process. He was ready to engage in negotiations [for] peace with Israel,” Pelosi said.
“[Our] meeting with the president enabled us to communicate a message from prime minister Olmert that Israel was ready to engage in peace talks as well,” Pelosi, the third most senior official in Washington, told reporters after talks with Assad.
An Israeli government official said that was not the message Olmert had asked Pelosi earlier this week to convey to Assad, who seeks the return of the Golan Heights.
“The prime minister said Israel is interested in peace with Syria, but Syria would first have to abandon the path of terror and providing support for terrorist groups,” the official said, in reference to Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Bashar Assad was not the only one who was happy to see Speaker Pelosi this week. According to World Net Daily…
Islamic Jihad, Hamas, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and Hezbollah all endorsed the Speaker’s brave trip to Damascus!
Hat Tip Sean Hannity Listener
It looks like the Speaker muffed her free lance job.
Previously:
Pelosi in Damascus
It’s Showtime!… Pelosi Meets With Bashar Assad