Foreign Policy Blogs

Bashar al Asad asserts his own importance in the peace process

… in an interview with the Guardian. He will meet with Senator John Kerry next week, and looks forward to the possibility of a future meeting with General Petraeus.

One of the effects of the Gaza incursion of this December/January has certainly been the catapulting of the peace process to the front of everyone’s minds. Asad likely sees this as a moment when the United States needs Syria’s cooperation in order to reach any kind of sustainable agreement with respect to the Israel/Palestine issue, and we can expect that he will attempt to leverage this in order to resume relations with the White House on terms more agreeable to him.