Well it's only fair. Obama's lifted sanctions on Syria's airline industry, all but explicitly promised to deliver Israel, and has dispatched envoy after delegation after envoy to suck up to Assad. Why shouldn't they dig him?

Al Jazeera's Zeina Awad, reporting from Damascus, said: "If you read the Syrian press and you speak to Syrian officials, there is generally a real respect for Barack Obama and a real appreciation for this on going engagement with Syria and with the Syrian regime." In June, Washington announced its decision to send an ambassador back to Damascus to replace the envoy who it recalled in 2005 after the assassination in Beirut of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister. However, the promised ambassador is yet to arrive.

Oh I'm sure the WH will get around to sending him eventually. I assume it'll be a him because, you know.

In the meantime, all this appreciation and respect isn't doing much to stop the Syrians from turning their country into a Russian naval outpost, plans for which have been in the works for months. But since Obama is so smitten with Putin that's probably not a problem either.

Although there's also no word yet on whether this Syrian official has been won over by The One's charm:

Following are excerpts from an interview with Syrian Minister of Religious Endowment Muhammad Abd Al-Sattar, which aired on Iqra TV on June 25, 2009.

Muhammad Abd Al-Sattar: [I] am even convinced - and the Arab and Islamic world is convinced - that... Jewish extremism is what generated an atmosphere of extremism in this region, by means of this widespread hostility, about which we were told by the Koran. Unfortunately, we are trying to deal with the phenomena of extremism and terrorism, without considering the real reasons that gave rise to this extremism. Just imagine Arab and Islamic society without Israel in the heart of the nation. Do you believe that there would still be extremism?... the source of all terrorism is the Jews.

Which brings us all the way around and finally gives me a place to dump this current Ha'aretz story about Israel passing around photos of Arab religious leaders collaborating with Hitler. Because anti-Semitic extremism in the Arab world is caused by the existence of Israel, you see.

These talks are going to go awesome.

References and previously after the jump...