Word: damascus
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Unlike many U.S. embassies in the Arab world that have been forced by security concerns to move from the center of capital cities to fortress-like suburban compounds, the Damascus embassy still occupies prime real estate - just a stone's throw from the residence of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Syria's much feared state-security apparatus keeps close tabs on everyone entering and leaving the embassy; it also helps keeps the embassy relatively safe from the occasional jihadist sneak attack. In turn, living close to the Americans may help Assad sleep more easily at night, say Damascene wags, because...
...sign that the can't-live-with-'em-can't-live-without-'em U.S.-Syrian relationship is about to enter a new phase. The State Department has presented the credentials of Robert Ford, former U.S. deputy ambassador to Iraq, to the Syrian government for approval as ambassador in Damascus, according to the Syrian government. The ambassador's residence in Damascus has been empty ever since the George W. Bush Administration accused the Assad regime of orchestrating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and removed then ambassador Margaret Scobey in protest...
...Although the U.S. still accuses Syria of supporting militant groups in the region, the appointment of a new ambassador is recognition of a new spirit of partial cooperation from Damascus. Since the waning days of the Bush era, Syria has helped tighten its border with Iraq to prevent jihadists from crossing; it has for the first time recognized Lebanon's sovereignty by opening an embassy in Beirut (Damascus has traditionally regarded its neighbor as a Syrian province illegitimately turned into a separate entity by France in the wake of World War I); and it has regularly called for direct peace...
...return of an American ambassador is a much desired signal that the U.S. needs Syria to help stabilize Iraq, keep the peace in Lebanon and solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. Syrians like to think of their country as the crossroads of the Middle East; they grew worried when Damascus simply fell off the itinerary of most major world players. More worrying is the country's dismal neo-Soviet-style economy, which needs reform and foreign investment if it is to create enough jobs for the country's young, growing and restless population...
...Ford does indeed take the road to Damascus, he will want more than just Arab hospitality when he gets there. He'll expect Syria to distance itself from its old friends in Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hizballah and will hope to coax Assad away from his alliance with Iran. But the Syrians aren't in such a hurry. While Damascus might be ready to recognize Israel if it hands back the Golan Heights region captured from Syria in 1967, it reserves the right to support Palestinian and Lebanese militants as long as Israel occupies Palestinian and Lebanese territory (the latter...