Rice Meets Syrian Counterpart, Talks of Porous Border With Iraq
By ANNE GEARAN
By ANNE GEARAN
The Associated Press
SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Syria’s foreign minister of U.S. concerns about his country’s porous border with Iraq on Thursday in the two nations’ first Cabinet- level talks in years.
“I didn’t lecture him, and he didn’t lecture me,” Rice said afterward.
Prospects were dim, however, for a face-to-face discussion between Rice and Iran’s foreign minister.
“We haven’t planned and have not asked for a bilateral meeting, nor have they asked us,” she said.
The 30-minute session with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem marked a diplomatic turning point for the Bush administration, which had resisted talks with Syria and Iran despite the recommendations of allies abroad as well as the Iraq Study Group and lawmakers from both parties at home.
“It’s a start,” Moallem said afterward.
Until now, Rice and President Bush had said that Syria knew what it could do to help Iraq – namely tighten its border – and that it did no t need the United States to point it out. The United States claims that Syria looks the other way while fighters from many countries cross its border to join the ranks of al-Qaida and other insurgent or terror groups in Iraq.
Ahead of the meeting, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said Syria had somewhat stemmed the flow of foreign fighters.
“There has been some movement by the Syrians,” Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said.
The Bush administration also has said it worries that Syria will use any contact with the United States as leverage in a dispute over alleged Syrian meddling in fragile Lebanon. Rice said that subject did not come up Thursday.
Rice’s meeting with Moallem marked the first such high-level talks since the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The United States yanked its ambassador from Damascus in protest. Syria denies it had anything to do with the killing.
Moallem asked Rice to return an ambassador, but she made no promises.
Rice said the talks were limited to Iraqi security.
L ast month the White House blistered House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a diplomatic trip to Damascus, and administration officials suggested afterward that Syrian President Bashar Assad had played the California Democrat for a fool.
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