U.S. Woos Syria in Mideast Peace Push
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton intensified American efforts to woo Syria into backing the U.S.'s Middle East strategy, holding her first direct meeting with her Syrian counterpart in a bid to find common ground on
however Iran, Lebanon and the Arab-Israeli dispute.
But Damascus's top diplomat, Walid Moallem, in an hourlong interview Monday, voiced opposition to many of the Obama administration's top regional initiatives, and expressed skepticism about the prospects for renewed Syrian-Israeli peace talks.
Mr. Moallem said Damascus would oppose United Nations efforts to issue indictments to support the U.N. investigation into the 2005 murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a crime some Lebanese officials have blamed on Syria.
The Syrian diplomat ruled out any further cooperation with a U.N. probe into evidence that Damascus had been covertly developing a nuclear reactor along the Euphrates River before Israeli jets bombed the site in 2007.
