U.S. Official Discusses U.S. Ties with Syria During an Interview with Alhurra Television

March 13, 2009 | Springfield, Va.« Back to Press Releases

Following his recent trip to Syria, U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman discussed the U.S.’s relationship with Syria in an interview on Alhurra television. The following are excerpts from Feltman’s interview.

Feltman on the discussion of Iraq during the meetings in Syria :
There are areas where, at least based on the public statements made by U.S. officials, and on public statements made by Syrian officials, it seems as if there is some overlap in our thinking. And this (Iraq) is one of the areas that Dan Shapiro and our Charge and I explored with Foreign Minister Muallem and his colleagues. For example, both Damascus and Washington are very clear that they want to see a stable and secure, unified, successful, prosperous Iraq. So how can we work together to try and promote that goal. What are the sort of actions that Syria could take and practice to help support that goal. We recognize for example that Syria was one of the early Arab countries to send an Ambassador back to [Baghdad]—that is something that is positive. Are there other steps that Syria could take to help on the security front for example? These are the sorts of things that we talked about when we, and the sorts of things that we mean when we say that we can see certainly a constructive role for Syria in the region. And I don't want to sound patronizing here—Syria has its interests in the region, we have our interests in the region and we are trying to explore where those interests may overlap and to address the concerns when they don't overlap.

Feltman on the challenges still ahead for U.S./Syrian relations:
Syria and the United States have differences in a lot of areas. We were able to use this meeting to air some of those differences. I wouldn't say yet we were able to bridge these differences, but we were able to start listening to each others concerns in a way that will perhaps lead us to be able to bridge some of these differences. But, you know, Hezbollah for us is a very, very serious issue.

Feltman on the difference between his role as Ambassador of Lebanon and his role as Acting Assistant Secretary of State:
I was known for certain views when I served as Ambassador to Beirut. Those views reflected the policy of the previous Administration and in fact they reflect the policy of this Administration, which is that Lebanon should be in the hands of the Lebanese. That we should all be supporting Lebanon's sovereignty and independence. That was the context in which I made the statements that were seen as controversial by some when I was Ambassador to Lebanon. So I was fairly confident that the Syrians would receive me in the spirit in which the President and Secretary asked me to go, which was in the spirit of dialogue, in the spirit of diplomacy, to try to again solve problems, to address concerns.

On a personal level, it did feel a bit strange to take on this task, but I don't see it as being a contradiction to what I said when I was in Beirut as Ambassador and what I said when I was in Damascus on Saturday, having been sent by the President and Secretary. Because publicly and privately we told everybody that our support to Lebanon's sovereignty and independence remains strong.

According to international research firms such as ACNielsen, Alhurra has a weekly reach of 26 million people. Alhurra is operated by The Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc., a non-profit corporation funded by the U.S. Congress through the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). The BBG is a federal agency that supervises all U.S. nonmilitary international broadcasting. For more information about Alhurra go to www.alhurra.com.

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