Remember that time when it looked like Obama's top advisers were meeting with Assad and telling him to drag his feet on negotiations until after the Obama inauguration? Syria spent a year desperately trying to cut a deal with Israel while Olmert was still in power. Then Assad met with Malley and Brzezinski - and suddenly he announced that negotiations were impossible until after Israel's February elections. So about that:

US President Barack Obama has already used experts within the last few months to hold high-level but discreet talks with both Iran and Syria, organizers of the meetings told AFP... However, even before winning the November 4 election, Obama unofficially used what experts call "track two" discussions to approach America's two foes in the region... Meanwhile, a group of experts under the auspices of the think tank, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), announced Thursday that they met for more than two hours in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad... The United States accuses Syria of supporting "terrorist" groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, of destabilizing Lebanon and of allowing armed men to transit its territory to fight US-led forces in Iraq.

Any meetings that happened between November and the inauguration - that was merely Obama circumventing and potentially undermining a sitting Commander In Chief. But the stuff that happened before the election - that's egregious. Remember that Obama's main line of attack on Bush and McCain was that they weren't offering sufficient "strong carrots" to get Iran and Syria to change course. While he was launching those attacks, his surrogates were sitting down with those cretins and talking about all the extra concessions they could expect if they dragged their feet until Obama's inauguration. Some people might consider that a straightforward betrayal of US interests.

Though at least it's official that Obama has been sucking up to Iran for months. Iran's response thus far - not exactly salutatory:

US President Barack Obama's offer to talk to Iran shows that America's policy of "domination" has failed, the government spokesman said on Saturday. "This request means Western ideology has become passive, that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed," Gholam Hossein Elham was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency. "Negotiation is secondary, the main issue is that there is no way but for (the United States) to change," he added. After nearly three decades of severed ties, Obama said shortly after taking office this month that he is willing to extend a diplomatic hand to Tehran if the Islamic republic is ready to "unclench its fist".

Which is weird. Because given how Bill Clinton already apologized to Iran and given how Bush already offered Iran a Grand Bargain - I was thinking the mullahs would respond by sending strippers and candy. Especially strippers.

Oh - and nice scare quotes around "terrorist" from the AFP. Because Hezbollah and Hamas - they're not terrorists. They're just misunderstood sub-state militias that regularly target civilians as part of an explicitly genocidal military posture. What's so "terroristic" about that?

UPDATE: Soccer Dad emails with some super news:

FWIW, three weeks ago moonbat Helena Cobban announced that she was headed to Syria with a group. The next day SANA reported that Assad was meeting with a delegation from the US Institute of Peace. My guess is that this visit was at least semi-official.

Not as high-level as Carter or Malley or Brzezinski. Which - just to be clear - doesn't make it OK. More the exact opposite.

References and previously after the jump...