Syria Archive

Engagement All Around! Syrian Rep To UNHRC: Israeli Kids Sing Merrily About Drinking Blood, Killing Victims With Their Teeth

Omri Ceren

Published: June 8, 2010Posted in: Arab and Muslim World, Diplomacy, Engagement, Human Rights, State Department, Syria, United NationsTags: Diplomacy, hillary clinton, Israel, Multilateralism, obama, sophistication, State Department, Syria, unhrc, United Nations

obama-hillary-clinton-state-department-engagement

A victory for bilateral and multilateral engagement, all wrapped up in a shiny albeit venomously Jew-hating little bow. Before I give you the punchline qua story, let’s review the the Obama administration’s obnoxious tough guy act – something that’s rapidly becoming a veritable tic with these tools – when it comes to engaging Syria and the UN Human Rights Council. Here’s Clinton defending outreach to Syria in the immediate aftermath of the Syria-to-Hezbollah SCUD revelations, which came right after Assad and Ahmadinejad publicly mocked her by name, which came right after Damascus threatened to saturation bomb Israeli population centers:

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Omri Ceren Show – 6:30pm PDT – SCUDS, Iranian Proxies, and Israeli Civilians

Omri Ceren

Published: April 28, 2010Posted in: Arab and Muslim World, Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah, Saudi Arabia, Syria, The Omri Ceren ShowTags: gaza, hamas, hezbollah, Iran, Israel, lebanon, obama, Palestinians, Syria, The Omri Ceren Show, west bank

It’s a gorgeous and sunny morning here at One Jerusalem Radio’s downtown Los Angeles studio, so naturally we’re inside with the windows closed putting together material for this week’s Omri Ceren Show. There aren’t any full-length interviews tonight, which means extra time for news segments and listener questions. Starting at 6:30pm you’ll be able to tune in live either by going to the main show page or by clicking through to tonight’s episode page. Bracketing the content, the show should follow our increasingly-standard format for TOCS shows: Iranian warmongering updates, Diker call, and then news updates interspersed with caller and chat room feedback.

Official blurb:

Omri covers the escalatng tensions between Israel and Iran’s proxies in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria. Hamas and Hezbollah, often with direct assistance from Damascus, are preparing in earnest for what could be a series of major regional wars. Buoyed by the perception that Obama has abandoned Israel and confident that even Israeli victory would trigger hypocritical Goldstone-like attacks on the Jewish State, Israel’s enemies have openly declared their intention to saturation bomb Israeli civilians. There are more weapons in Gaza and Lebanon today – and they’re more dangerous – then there were on the eves of Lebanon II and Cast Lead. Now the recent transfer of ballistic missiles from Syria to Hezbollah has threatened to ignite what’s already become an unstable powder keg. Diplomacy and media specialist Dan Diker will call in from Israel to provide an assessment of how Israel is dealing with the new threat environment, while news segments will focus on each of Iran’s proxies in turn.

This week’s Diker call is far-ranging – including a short discussion about various Iran warfighting scenarios – but focuses mainly on how Hamas is undermining stability in Gaza and the West Bank. All the Israeli goodwill in the world couldn’t create a secure and democratic Palestinian state at this point, the President’s delusions of Israeli intransigence notwithstanding.

News segments will deal – minimally – with this and this on Syria, this and this on Hamas, and this total insanity on Hezbollah. Nothing a little Hope and Change can’t solve, though. You can be quite sure, because Obama said so.

References and related after the jump…

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Compare And Contrast: Israeli And Syrian “Insults” To Clinton

Omri Ceren

Published: March 16, 2010Posted in: American Politics, Anti-Israel Diplomacy, Arab and Muslim World, Diplomacy, Israel, Jewish Politics, SyriaTags: democratic jews, democrats, Diplomacy, hillary clinton, Israel, liberals, obama, State Department, Syria

Noah Pollak already wrote the measured and reasoned version of this post yesterday so pretty much all that’s left for me is vitriol. It’s worth emphasizing, then, the unblinking, unthinking hypocrisy that this administration hides behind when they get called out on their Allies Last Enemies First diplomacy. A verifiable mix-up…

It was self-evident that Netanyahu’s “stupidity not malice” explanation for Ramat Shlomo was accurate. Just days earlier, he had moved effectively to shut down Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat’s incendiary plan to demolish dozens of Arab homes in Silwan. And yet, acting doubtless on the orders of her president, she resorted to what the ADL – no hysterical critic of the Obama administration – termed “gross overreaction.”

… constitutes a mortal “insult” to Secretary Clinton. But Assad and Ahmadinejad standing side by side and actually literally insulting her by name?

Which part of the new “positive, constructive U.S.-Syrian relationship” involves having the US Secretary of State getting publicly mocked by grinning totalitarian thugs? “President Bashar al-Assad and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signed a bilateral deal to remove travel visas and attended a Muslim ceremony in the Syrian capital… “We must have understood Clinton wrong because of bad translation or our limited understanding, so we signed the agreement to cancel the visas,” Assad said. “I find it strange that they (Americans) talk about Middle East stability and peace and the other beautiful principles and call for two countries to move away from each other,” he added. Ahmadinejad told a joint news conference: “Clinton said we should maintain a distance. I say there is no distance between Iran and Syria.” He added: “We have the same goals, same interests and same enemies.”"

Suffice to say that our outreach to Syria continues apace.

Also apropos of this nonsense, you should check out the NY Sun editorial on Clinton’s credibility as she heads into AIPAC. It turns out that the woman who smooched blood libeler Suha Arafat before becoming pro-Israel before becoming mildly anti-Israel before detonating the US-Israeli alliance – it turns out that she actually has a history of strong Arab financial connections. Strange, that.

For what its worth Shmuel Rosner thinks she’ll get plenty of applause. Presumably he imagines that she’ll mouth empty banalities – “Israel’s security” etc etc – and that the crowd will pretend to believe her. I think he’s wrong. I think she’ll go in there talking about how Israel’s future requires concessions – “difficult choices” etc etc – and that she’ll be greeted by stony silence.

Then I think that anti-Israel journalists will muse sophisticatedly about how Obama had to rough up Israel because “Netanyahu’s intransigence” was stymieing the President’s vigorous appeasement of the Muslim world (my language, not theirs). In between they’ll gloat about how the all-powerful Israel Lobby has been cut down, which after all is what Jesse Jackson promised Obama would do.

References and related after the jump…

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Syria Responds To Obama’s Engagement, Publicly Mocks Clinton And Embraces Iran

Omri Ceren

Published: February 25, 2010Posted in: Arab and Muslim World, Diplomacy, Engagement, Iran, SyriaTags: Diplomacy, Iran, liberals, obama, sophistication, State Department, Syria

Which part of the new “positive, constructive U.S.-Syrian relationship” involves having the US Secretary of State getting publicly mocked by grinning totalitarian thugs?

President Bashar al-Assad and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signed a bilateral deal to remove travel visas and attended a Muslim ceremony in the Syrian capital… “We must have understood Clinton wrong because of bad translation or our limited understanding, so we signed the agreement to cancel the visas,” Assad said. “I find it strange that they (Americans) talk about Middle East stability and peace and the other beautiful principles and call for two countries to move away from each other,” he added. Ahmadinejad told a joint news conference: “Clinton said we should maintain a distance. I say there is no distance between Iran and Syria.” He added: “We have the same goals, same interests and same enemies.”

Interesting bit about enemies at the end. If Khamenei had recently and officially emphasized that the US was an enemy of Iran, that would be even more troubling than Assad’s sneering jokes about bad translations.

In any case – very disappointing. Sure Assad rebuffed Obama’s craven obsequiousness – six high-level delegations to Syria, promises to restore relations, waivers for aircraft parts, deals worth billions in cash, and so on. And sure he’s exporting jihadism across the Middle East, financing among others the AQI cretins trying to reignite the insurgency. And sure his interference in Iraq got so severe that the Iraqis appealed directly to the UN. And sure he just threatened to saturation bomb Israeli civilians. And sure he’s reestablishing Syria’s stranglehold on Lebanon, having forced Hariri to capitulate.. And sure he’s extending his strategy of building multiple, redundant nuclear sites.

But I really thought he’d come around this time.

Guess not.

References and related after the jump…

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Syria Responds To Obama’s Engagement, Threatens To Saturation Bomb Israeli Civilians

Omri Ceren

Published: February 22, 2010Posted in: Anti-Israel Diplomacy, Arab and Muslim World, Diplomacy, Engagement, SyriaTags: Diplomacy, international law, Israel, nuclear weapons, obama, State Department, Syria

Fresh off creeping rapprochement with the US – Obama just reinstated our ambassador and State has dropped their travel advisory – Syria wants you to know that they’re ready to return to the Western fold. Or to light up the Middle East in the process of completing a decade-old genocidal war against the Middle East’s sole, beleaguered democracy. But definitely one of the two:

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem recently told Israelis that “you know that war at this time will reach your cities.” The statement bolsters the recognition that the Syrian strategy in a future war will be based on targeting population centers in Israel. It seems that after the enemy’s attempts to act through conventional military means and terrorism failed, it tried to locate Israel’s weak point. Damascus sees our cities as a weak point. The Syrian minister’s comments show the extent to which Damascus has adopted a terrorist modus operandi that is no different from that of Hezbollah or Hamas.

It must be nice to have the freedom to explicitly threaten the other side’s civilians. Israel, of course, focuses exclusively on military targets. Which isn’t something they should be rewarded for – it’s what decent countries do – but the contrast is stark. Not only does the Israeli political echelon refrain from threatening war crimes, but the IDF really does goes out of its way to limit civilian casualties. And yet for some reason, over the last year, Syria has grown closer to America while US/Israeli relations are at historic lows. Strange, that.

Syria’s also skirting their NPT obligations and refusing the IAEA access to their bombed nuclear site. Israel haters will point out that the Jewish State isn’t even a member of the NPT, so Syria is more in line with global norms than is the Jewish State. Then someone will remind them that Israel’s entire concern is that international law is politicized, and that Israel’s Arab enemies don’t live up to their treaty obligations. So this spectacle crystallizes exactly why Israel refuses to sign ostensibly balanced treaties that in practice allow totalitarian regimes to cheat with impunity. Then the Israel haters will scream about how it’s not right to accuse them of antisemitism and shoot off an email to Andrew Sullivan.

Rational debate.

References and related after the jump…

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Omri Ceren Show – 6:30pm PST – Iranian Saber-Rattling, Israel’s Military Edge, Dan Diker On Israeli/Syrian Tensions, Etc.

Omri Ceren

Published: February 10, 2010Posted in: Arab and Muslim World, Iran, Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah, Palestinians, Syria, The Omri Ceren ShowTags: Egypt, hamas, hezbollah, Iran, Israel, lebanon, obama, Syria, The Omri Ceren Show

Stan Shivell and I have been IM’ing back and forth about what Iran’s February 11 saber rattling. is all about. It’s the 31st anniversary of the Islamic takeover and both the government and the opposition will be out in force. But there’s also this other element – and the Iranians do this periodically – where they attach some kind of mystical significance to a day and predict “surprises” and “demises” and so on. Probably as good a time as any to look at how a regional war between Israel and Iran might play out.

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Iran: We’re Creating A “New World Order” With Syria And Latin America

Omri Ceren

Published: January 24, 2010Posted in: Diplomacy, Iran, Syria, VenezuelaTags: Diplomacy, Iran, liberals, nuclear weapons, obama, sophistication, State Department, Syria, Venezuela

Because this kind of rhetoric…

Iran and Syria plan to create a new world order, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday. “Iran and Syria have a joint mission to create a new world order on the basis of justice, humanity and belief in God,” Ahmadinejad told visiting Syrian Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Abrash. Syria is Iran’s main ally in the Middle East and both countries consider Israel to be their political arch-foe. “At the current juncture, the role of Iran and Syria is historic.”

… and these kinds of moves…

Iran sees Latin American nations as partners in creating a new world order. Ahmadinejad recently told the visiting Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro: “We need to establish a new systemand take measures based on that system…. Many countries will join the new system.” That Iran and Venezuela view nuclear power as part of an attempt at global hegemony was reinforced in a joint press conference this month between Maduor and his Iranian counterpart Manuchehr Mottaki: “Our experiences prompt us to generate nuclear fuel independently and even broaden the scope of our activities to meet the demands of other countries.”

… always end well.

Meanwhile China says that the proper response to Iran’s firm and seemingly final rejection of nuclear talks is more nuclear talks. Because maybe the mullahs are just kidding. Or maybe – per the faux sophistication Obama picked up from whichever experts are feeding him lines – maybe they’re just really confused. They’re not so confused that they can’t deploy three new satellites as a cover for their ballistic missile program or launch a massive anti-dissident crackdown. But to figure out their negotiating stance after a decade-plus of nuclear talks – well they just haven’t had enough time to think about it.

Is there going to be a clash between the West and Iranian’s global coalition? Of course there will be. But it will happen on Iran’s own nuclear timetable and, because of that, it will be particularly horrific. Future generations will rightly ask why the US and its allies allowed lunatics – lunatics who openly expressed their intentions – to acquire WMDs. And they’ll be told that a loose coalition of duly-appointed diplomats, self-declared intellectuals, fully-accredited journalists, and intellectually dishonest liberals cooperated to knock the knees out of the last American President who had the opportunity and intention to stop Iranian nuclearization.

Then they’ll go to college and learn that it all goes back to American settlers attacking the Indians or something.

References and related after the jump…

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Turkey Formally Enters Iranian Orbit, Plans Sanction-Busting Joint Economic Initiatives

Omri Ceren

Published: January 11, 2010Posted in: Arab and Muslim World, Economy, Iran, Syria, TurkeyTags: Diplomacy, Iran, liberals, obama, sophistication, Syria, Turkey

You can’t really blame them for betting on the strong horse:

While the West is discussing sanctions against Iran, Turkey is discussing the establishment of a joint industrial area with Iran on their shared border the Iranian state news agency, Fars, reported on Friday. Iran’s industry minister, Ali Akbar Mehrabian, met on Friday with Turkey’s trade minister, Nahat Argon to discuss increasing economic activities between the two nations. Mehrabian said after the meeting that there was a lot of potential for joint economic activities between the two countries.

These aren’t just bilateral moves either. The Turks are also boosting their ties with Syria. They’ve chosen a side and they’re making and breaking alliances accordingly:

Two factors in particular seem to have led to Turkey’s shift away from Israel and toward Syria. First, Turkey no longer needed Israeli assistance to pressure the Syrian government to change its policy of providing safe-haven to the terrorist Kurdish Worker’s Organization (PKK). Second, in the past seven years, once secular Turkish politics have undergone a profound Islamist transformation. At the same time, the dynamic between the Turkish military and the state’s civilian leadership has changed. No longer does the military have the upper hand. Today, the Turkish military can do little to impact the policies of the Islamist AKP, which promote solidarity with Islamist, anti-Western regimes while dismissing secular, pro-Western Muslim governments.

That also answers the brainteasers that were getting thrown around mid-2009, about whether Turkey can be politically moved in a secular direction. Turns out when a population keeps electing Islamists who promise to move away from the West, the country ends up moving away from the West. And I was really hoping they were just kidding about all that.

Meanwhile the State Department is trying to jumpstart Israeli-Syrian negotiations via Turkish mediation. Because apparently – at least to George Mitchell – the Turks seem like neutral and objective arbiters. George Mitchell, by the way – there’s a guy who’s really been building bridges between the US and Israel this week.

References and related after the jump…

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Lebanon Endorses Hezbollah Weapons Stockpile Despite Hezbollah Promises For A Near-Term War On Israel

Omri Ceren

Published: December 4, 2009Posted in: Arab and Muslim World, Iran, Lebanon and Hezbollah, Syria, US Security Aid, United NationsTags: Diplomacy, hezbollah, Iran, Israel, lebanon, security assistance, State Department, Syria, unifil, United Nations

So much for that vaunted UN ceasefire:

Lebanon’s new government Wednesday endorsed Hezbollah’s right to keep its weapons, the latest sign that the Iran-backed group has no intention of meeting a United Nations resolution calling for it to disarm. Lebanon’s government is a shaky coalition of Western-backed factions and the militant group Hezbollah, which has virtual veto power over the government. The group is believed to have thousands of rockets and missiles hidden in basements and bunkers throughout Shiite Muslim areas of the tiny country. The government decision came as the Lebanese army opened fire at four Israel Air Force warplanes that were flying above southern Lebanon, a Lebanese news agency reported. According to the report, the jets were forced to leave Lebanese airspace and return to Israel as a result of the anti-aircraft fire.

Shocking that a Lebanese unity government which includes Hezbollah would be pro-Hezbollah. Israel’s reaction is the logical one: if you want them, you own them. Any future attack by Hezbollah will, per Barak, be interpreted as an attack by Lebanon. I’m not sure why he thinks that’s credible.

Whether Hezbollah is considered a part of Lebanon will be – as it always is – a function of what’s best for Hezbollah and worst for Israel. If there’s a ceasefire in place and the US needs excuses for engagement then the State Department describes Hezbollah unity agreements as “positive and necessary steps.” If Hezbollah has just started a hot war and Israeli jets are destroying their facilities throughout the country then suddenly State Department officials insist that Lebanon bears no responsibility and should be insulated. It’s a rigged game but it’s not exactly a subtle game.

And there will be another war. Hezbollah isn’t bringing in hundreds of tons of Katyushas and long-range rockets and shells and bullets from Iran and Syria to let them rust. Those weapons are also coming in – thanks to Hezbollah’s global fundraising network – via the United States. Hezbollah’s pretty open about how they’ll be used:

Although the organisation denied last week that the weapons were intended for its use, senior commanders have done little to disguise the scale of rearmament. “Sure, we are rearming, we have even said that we have far more rockets and missiles than we did in 2006,” said a Hezbollah commander, speaking on condition of anonymity… “We had to blow up or leave some of our bunkers and fighting positions, but we still have plenty of capabilities in the south. We expect the Israelis to come soon, if not this winter, then they will wait until spring, when the ground isn’t too soft for their tanks.”

Unblinkingly contradictory anti-Israel diplomacy won’t be the only deja vu part of the next war. The enlarged contingent of UN peacekeepers – which has been threatening military action against Israel since day 1 and long ago started busting Israeli intel assets – will again and predictably serve as human shields for Hezbollah soldiers.

And of course ditto for civilians:

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TOCS – 6:30pm PST – Diker On Iranian Expansionism, Sweden’s Attack On Jerusalem, Etc.

Omri Ceren

Published: December 2, 2009Posted in: American Politics, Iran, Israel, Syria, The Omri Ceren ShowTags: Iran, Israel, jerusalem, lebanon, liberals, obama, Palestinians, sweden, Syria, The Omri Ceren Show

Based on polling feedback from you – suitably normalized, ala global warming science, by throwing out responses we didn’t like – One Jerusalem Radio’s Omri Ceren Show returns from Thanksgiving with a new time slot and a new duration. We’ll kick off today’s show at 6:30pm PST, allowing families in homes across America to crowd around their computer, to dial in with questions, and to participate in the chat room.

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The Omri Ceren Show – 2pm PST – Barry Rubin On Lebanon’s Crisis And Ours

Omri Ceren

Published: November 4, 2009Posted in: Arab and Muslim World, Iran, Israel, Israeli-Arab Peace Process, Lebanon and Hezbollah, Syria, The Omri Ceren ShowTags: Diplomacy, Iran, Israel, lebanon, obama, Palestinians, peace process, Syria, The Omri Ceren Show

Today’s TOCS episode goes on the air a little less than an hour, with highlights from my interview with Prof. Barry Rubin, analysis from Dan Diker, and the weekly roundup of US, Israeli, and international news. To hear the show live – and to submit questions via the chat room or get on the air through the phone lines – head over to the show’s Blog Talk Radio page at 2pm PST.

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Is Obama’s Outreach Saving The Teetering Syrian Regime?

Omri Ceren

Published: October 6, 2009Posted in: Arab and Muslim World, Diplomacy, Engagement, SyriaTags: Diplomacy, liberals, obama, sophistication, Syria

It turns out that decades of treating totalitarian cretins like totalitarian cretins is having its effect on Syria. This is coming Farid Ghadry – one of the anti-Syrian activists in Lebanon that Assad hasn’t gotten around to killing yet – so it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. On the other hand it can’t be any less credible than the wild fantasies that professional Syria watchers routinely make up about peeling Syria away from the Iranian orbit.

Plus – again in contrast to the prognostications of our liberal foreign policy establishment – it has the benefit of kind of making sense:

Between US sanctions, a severe drought in an agrarian-based economy, sustained terror that has caused the migration of over 1 million Iraqis to Syria, political risks promoting “resistance” instead of cooperation, dwindling oil revenues, an alarming increase in Syrian population and a determined new Israeli government, Assad is being squeezed like a Syrian olive for its oil. Very few people grasp the reality Assad faces now that he has systematically destroyed whatever he inherited from his father through ill-advised policies. Some Middle East analysts are aware of the economic pressure Assad is under, but the extent of the harm his policies have caused the Syrian treasury is largely unknown.

Ghadry emphasizes that delegitimatizing Iran will bring enormous pressure to bear on Assad, which would be great news except for how the Geneva talks have allowed Tehran to rehabilitate itself. I wouldn’t focus too much on the Iranian angle though, since Obama is doing his best to relegitimize the Syrian regime directly:

A senior Syrian official has been invited to Washington for talks, a U.S. Embassy official said Monday, in the latest signal of the Obama administration’s efforts to improve relations with a country deemed a state sponsor of terrorism. The upcoming visit by Syria’s deputy foreign minister, Fayssal Mekdad, is the first in about five years and is part of U.S. efforts to improve strained relations with Damascus. Mekdad, who is currently in New York as part of the Syrian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly meetings, will fly to Washington on Monday for talks with U.S. government officials on a range of issues, the embassy official said.

I wonder if we brought up the thing about how Syria refuse to budge on their ongoing incitement of violence in Iraq. Probably not. Wouldn’t want to spoil the mood.

References and previously after the jump…

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Syria Responds To Obama Outreach By Lighting Up Iraq

Omri Ceren

Published: August 31, 2009Posted in: Arab and Muslim World, Diplomacy, Engagement, Iraq, SyriaTags: Diplomacy, Iraq, liberals, obama, sophistication, Syria

You know what’s so weird about this? There were a whole slew of foreign policy experts who predicted that engagement by newly inaugurated President Obama would moderate Assad and peel Syria away from Iran. And now the exact opposite is happening. Not only is Assad – by his own admission – closer to Iran than ever, but the Syrians have even returned to destabilizing Iraq and directly endangering American lives:

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Syria And Iran Pretty Psyched About Renewed Alliance, “Resistance Front” Against US And Israel

Omri Ceren

Published: August 24, 2009Posted in: Arab and Muslim World, Diplomacy, Engagement, Iran, SyriaTags: Diplomacy, Iran, liberals, obama, sophistication, Syria

Pressure on Israel to give up the Golan, reinvigorated US-Syrian diplomatic ties despite Assad’s continued interference with the Hariri tribunal, and a generous offer by Obama to look the other way while Damascus continues to develop WMDs – smart power is very smart:

Iran’s supreme leader called his country’s alliance with Syria a symbol of resistance in the Middle East on Wednesday, seeking to reinforce a key relationship as Tehran fends off continued criticism over its response to post-election unrest. Visiting Syrian President Bashar Assad exemplified that resistance by criticizing foreign countries for provoking the massive protests that followed Iran’s disputed June presidential election. His comments will likely disappoint the Obama administration, which has stepped up diplomatic efforts to pull Syria away from Iran. “I’ve come here today to personally convey my warm congratulations to you and the Iranian nation,” Assad was quoted.

Not only has Obama “stepped up efforts” to suck up to Syria: he’s gone so far as to repeatedly trot out surrogates to announce that his oh-so-sophisticated strategy was paying dividends. Turns out not so much.

Iranian press spun Assad’s visit as a veritably divine signal that regional actors need to open up a “resistance front” because Israel and the US have become “weak.” Terrific:

In a telephone conversation, the Iranian and Syrian Presidents have stated Israel and its allies are getting “weaker” and instead the tide is turning in favor of regional Muslim nations, the Presidential office said in a press report on Friday. According to Mehr News Agency, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said “the enemies of regional peace are losing the ground but the formidable alliance of friendly countries like Iran and Syria are getting more powerful.” The Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad also insisted that regional developments “are turning in favor of Muslim countries and to the detriment of the Zionist regime and its allies.”

No worries though – I’m sure that our renewed promise to deliver Israel and the security team we’re sending to Damascus will cause Assad to like us the bestest.

References and previously after the jump…

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