Syria just got tagged for trying to build a nuke site and had to hide behind a conspiracy theory so stupid that only the IAEA will entertain it. It's such a scandal that even the incoming pro-Hezbollah, anti-Israel Obama team will have to pretend to reconsider engagement. So obviously the UK just upgraded its ties with Syria...

Britain re-established high-level intelligence links with the Syrian authorities as David Miliband made his landmark visit to Damascus yesterday, according to senior Syrian officials. The move, first raised earlier this year at a meeting in New York between the Foreign Secretary and his Syrian counterpart, Walid Moualem, was a key objective of the Syrian visit... Mr Miliband's visit, the first by a British foreign secretary for seven years, was touted as an opportunity to test Syria's willingness to engage with the West, lifting it out of its current isolation.

... while going out of its way to degrade relations and increase tensions with Israel:

Israel accused Britain of a "painful attitude" on Wednesday for urging the European Union to make sure that goods made in Jewish settlements are not allowed into the bloc on preferential terms. "It may make some people suffer, but the political value is more negative ... than anything else. It's not a serious move, but a painful attitude," Israeli President Shimon Peres told a news conference in London.

So much for opposing collective punishment. At least Britain's chances for peeling Syria away from Iran and Hezbollah - something even Noble Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres thinks has to be a priority - stand at about zero.

References and previously after the jump...