TEHRAN // The Syrian president, Bashar Assad, expressed little hope for success in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks yesterday, saying the US administration was only interested in boosting President Barack Obama's domestic popularity. "There has been no change in the Palestinian peace process. The main objective of the talks is to garner support for Obama inside America," Mr Assad was quoted by the official government news agency IRNA as saying after his meeting yesterday with the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mr Assad was on a one-day trip to Tehran where he met Mr Ahmadinejad to discuss regional and international issues as well as the two countries' economic ties. Few details were released on what the two leaders discussed, but analysts believe the US rapprochement with Syria and the political stalemate over the formation of a new government in Iraq were at the top of the agenda. Mr Ahmadinejad praised the Syrian president's role in "resistance" against Israel at the start of their meeting. "America's facade has crumbled and the Zionist regime has been exposed," he said.
Iran does not recognise Israel and has strongly opposed and condemned the US-sponsored talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Speaking about the peace talks before his meeting with the Iranian president behind closed doors, Mr Assad seemed to be reassuring Iran about Syria's stance towards Israel in light of his country's recent rapprochement with the US. After a meeting between the Syrian foreign minister, Walid al Moualem, and Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, at the UN last week, a US official was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying Syria was "very interested" in renewing its peace talks with Israel as part of a Middle East settlement. Iran has not had any public reaction to that report.
Washington says it is concerned about Syria's relationship with the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah, an ally of Iran, and wants Damascus to resume its Turkey-brokered peace talks with Israel and lend its support to peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. "Mr Assad needs to reassure Iran because the US rapprochement towards Syria can be a cause of concern for Iran at a time when Iran's own relations with the US seem to be moving towards a head-on collision over Iran's nuclear case and now its human-rights issues," a Tehran-based political analyst who requested anonymity said.
"Iran wouldn't want to lose Syria, and subsequently Lebanon, to the US." But it was not clear if Iraq's political impasse, on which the two countries have diverging views, was discussed. Iran backs the Shiite incumbent, Nouri al Maliki, while Syria supports the secular Iraqiyya bloc of the former premier Ayad Allawi. Before Mr Assad's visit, sources in Iraq said the Syrian president was delivering a message from Mr Allawi to Mr Ahmadinejad. In Beirut on Wednesday, Mr Allawi accused Iran of meddling in Iraqi politics by supporting Mr al Maliki.
"We have been asking leaders who have good relations with Iran to ask it not to interfere in Iraqi affairs and we have discussed this with President Assad," Mr Allawi said after a meeting with the Syrian president on Wednesday. During his trip to Tehran, Mr Assad also met Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who praised Iran-Syria relations. "There are no two countries in the region that enjoy such excellent and well-built relations for 30 years," Ayatollah Khamenei said, according to the official website of his office.
The Iranian leader also expressed hope that all Iraqi political groups would cooperate "to solve the country's problems and to drive out the occupation forces". Mr Assad headed a high-ranking delegation that included his vice president, Farooq al Sahara, Mr al Moualem, the foreign minister, and an assistant vice president, Brig Gen Muhmmad Nassif. This was Mr Assad's eighth state visit to Iran since 2000 and his fifth since Mr Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005.
Mr Ahmadinejad visited Damascus in February and on his way to the UN General Assembly last month.
