US politicians call for reaching out to Syria

Republican Senator Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record) said that Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, was right to travel to Syria, where she met with President Bashar al-Assad.

President George W. Bush however said that Pelosi's trip last week undermined US-led efforts to isolate Assad, and Vice President Dick Cheney said it rewarded Assad's alleged backing for violent extremists.

"I believe in the maxim of 'hold your friends close and your enemies closer,'" said Specter, speaking on CNN. "Look, Assad is not a Boy Scout, but we have to deal with him."

Specter said he believed "that Assad can be negotiated with ... Opening discussions with Syria are very, very important."

Washington slapped economic sanctions on Syria in 2004 for its alleged ties to terrorism and withdrew its ambassador from Damascus after the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. Syria has been implicated in the killing.

US officials have also accused Syria of providing a base for fighters attacking US-led forces in Iraq, and of supporting Palestinian militants and the Hezbollah group in Lebanon, which has fired rockets into Israel.

Madeleine Albright, secretary of state under Democratic president Bill Clinton, also favored talks with Damascus.

The United States "should be talking to people that we don't like," she said.

"It is much more important, frankly, than talking to just people who agree with us. And so I think she had every right to go," said Albright, also speaking on CNN.

However Joseph Lieberman (news, bio, voting record), an independent Senator who supports the Democrats on virtually all issues except Iraq, was unhappy with the Pelosi trip.

"I believe her visit to Syria was a mistake, that it was bad for the United States of America and good for the Syrians," he told CNN. "Syria is a state sponsor of terrorism."

"The (US) administration has been trying in many ways ... to get Assad to change his behavior and he has not," Lieberman said. "When Nancy Pelosi goes there, she sends a message of disunity. She legitimizes the Syrian government."

Specter himself has made several trips to Syria, including one in December in which he met with Assad. "I would rather (Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice did it, but if not, it's up to Speaker Pelosi ... and others," he said.

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