What Condi Rice Really Told the Syrians

That's the press for you. At the Iraq conference in Sharm el Sheikh, Condi Rice spoke in almost apocalyptic terms about that country's future. "What happens in Iraq has profound consequences," she warned, "which will affect each and every one of us: the nation of Iraq, its regional neighbors, and indeed, the entire international community." But the biggest media scrum of the day, a bit of which you can see in the photo below, involved Rice's meeting with a Syrian official, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem.

The excitement, of course, was because the 30-minute discussion on the sidelines of the Iraq conference amounted to the highest-level exchange between the U.S. and Syrian governments since well before 2005, when the U.S. withdrew its ambassador from Damascus after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. As a Syrian friend likes to joke, Syria is an honorary member of Bush's "axis of evil" and many have suspected that his administration wanted to take down Bashar Assad's regime after the fall of Saddam.

Why the change of heart? Evidently because Bush needs all the help he can get in Iraq and believes that the Syrians are showing a fresh willingness to cooperate. In describing the 30-minute meeting, Rice and other U.S. officials say that it focused on Iraq and particularly on Washington's continuing concern about the flow of Arab jihadists through Syria to Iraq. For his part, al-Moallem raised the issue of Washington returning its ambassador to Damascus, to which Rice apparently replied that it was better to keep the focus on Iraq. Afterwards, al-Moallem expressed satisfaction. "It was a meeting, open, transparent," he told me, speaking in English. "We discussed Iraq, security and stability in Iraq. We discussed how to tackle our bilateral relations. We agreed to continue communications." The atmosphere? "Positive, constructive. Professional, professional." What did Rice ask for? "Cooperation, cooperation."

According to al-Moallem as well as U.S. officials, the issue of Syria's involvement in Lebanon was not brought up. Nonetheless, many Lebanese will now be wondering whether Rice is contemplating improved relations leading to an eventual deal: Syria will help Bush in Iraq, in return for the U.S. using its influence to squash a proposed international tribunal that the Assad regime fears will be used to convict senior Syrian officials for the Hariri assassination.

When I asked State Department spokesman Sean McCormack about this, he could not have been more categorical in saying that such a deal was not in the cards.

"The issue of Lebanon did not come up during the meeting with the Foreign Minister," McCormack said. "If it had, the Secretary would have reiterated our position, which is that Lebanese sovereignty, Lebanese independence, the Hariri tribunal, are not bargaining chips. They are not up for discussion. The Lebanese people can be assured that the United States is fully behind Lebanese democracy, Lebanese sovereignty and Lebanese independence. It's not something that we or others are going to compromise on."

When I asked McCormack what, then, was in it for the Syrians to help end the conflict in Iraq, he replied: "We're not asking the Syrians to do us any favors. This is in their interests. There is a tendency if you look at other countries that have served as a transit point for foreign fighters that the foreign fighters didn't always continue on or go home. It is in their interest not to have that happen. And it's also in their interest to have an Iraq that is more secure."

That's a reasonable view. It remains to be seen whether Syria will be motivated to help in Iraq without getting a more tangible, immediate reward for doing so.

--By Scott MacLeod/Sharm el Sheikh