Democrat Senator Runs Own Foreign Policy with Syria
Jim Kouri, CPP
December 14, 2006
With the Democrat Party feeling their oats after gaining control of both houses of congress, Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus.
In a direct affront to the Bush administration he spent an hour Wednesday with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus, asking him to do more to stabilize Iraq, according to AP.
Sen. Nelson, a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, met with Assad after the State Department said that it disapproved of his trip. The United States has limited diplomatic ties with Syria because of its support of Hezbollah and Hamas, which the U.S. deems terrorist organizations, and President Bush has expressed reluctance to seek help from Damascus on Iraq until the Syrians curb that support and reduce their influence in Lebanon.
Nelson said he reported the information to embassy officials and will brief his congressional committees on the trip. He said he expects Sens. John Kerry , D-Mass., Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., to also visit Syria.
The diplomatic push from Congress comes on the heels of a recommendation by a bipartisan panel that the U.S. engage Iran and Syria on the war in Iraq. Bush has remained cool to the proposal by the Iraq Study Group, which was led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind.
Nelson said he was not interested visiting Iran "at this time" and did not say why.
The senator said he also expressed to the Syrian leader the problems caused by Hezbollah and Hamas and urged Assad to support the release of captured Israeli soldiers. Nelson said the Syrian president responded by saying Israel had 20 Syrians in captivity, one of whom died recently from leukemia, according to AP.
"I have a constitutional role as a member of Congress," Nelson said.
But conservatives view Nelson's trip as pandering to a sworn enemy of freedom. While using the the cover of the Iraq Study Group recommendation that the US "talk" with Syrian and Iranian officials, Sen. Nelson and others are running their own foreign policy.
One observer said Nelson's trip reminded her of when Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) visiting the Syrian president to warn him about Bush's invasion plan for Iraq.
"These liberal-left politicians believe that the November 7 elections gave them a mandate to undercut US policy with Muslim dictators. That's just not so and these men should be condemned," she said.
In a direct affront to the Bush administration he spent an hour Wednesday with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus, asking him to do more to stabilize Iraq, according to AP.
Sen. Nelson, a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, met with Assad after the State Department said that it disapproved of his trip. The United States has limited diplomatic ties with Syria because of its support of Hezbollah and Hamas, which the U.S. deems terrorist organizations, and President Bush has expressed reluctance to seek help from Damascus on Iraq until the Syrians curb that support and reduce their influence in Lebanon.
Nelson said he reported the information to embassy officials and will brief his congressional committees on the trip. He said he expects Sens. John Kerry , D-Mass., Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., to also visit Syria.
The diplomatic push from Congress comes on the heels of a recommendation by a bipartisan panel that the U.S. engage Iran and Syria on the war in Iraq. Bush has remained cool to the proposal by the Iraq Study Group, which was led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind.
Nelson said he was not interested visiting Iran "at this time" and did not say why.
The senator said he also expressed to the Syrian leader the problems caused by Hezbollah and Hamas and urged Assad to support the release of captured Israeli soldiers. Nelson said the Syrian president responded by saying Israel had 20 Syrians in captivity, one of whom died recently from leukemia, according to AP.
"I have a constitutional role as a member of Congress," Nelson said.
But conservatives view Nelson's trip as pandering to a sworn enemy of freedom. While using the the cover of the Iraq Study Group recommendation that the US "talk" with Syrian and Iranian officials, Sen. Nelson and others are running their own foreign policy.
One observer said Nelson's trip reminded her of when Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) visiting the Syrian president to warn him about Bush's invasion plan for Iraq.
"These liberal-left politicians believe that the November 7 elections gave them a mandate to undercut US policy with Muslim dictators. That's just not so and these men should be condemned," she said.
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