Condi Rice is the only Secretary of State who has not visited Syria

[sabra]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/30/world/main2413913.shtml

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<snip>

EP: I was told that the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, had wanted to come to Damascus on her Middle East trip a couple of weeks ago, but crossed it off at the last minute. Did you hear of that?

FS: No not really, but though it's not a something of a surprise if she comes because her colleagues before she had this assignment, all of them came to Damascus. Colin Powell came to Damascus before the war on Iraq, he came to Damascus after the war on Iraq. Christopher Warren, Warren Christopher, Marilyn Albright, Jim Baker, Henry Kissinger, all of them came to Damascus. Even Scholtz came to Damascus. No secretary of state, U.S. secretary of state who hasn't visited Damascus.

EP: She is the only one?

FS: She's the only one.

EP: She says she doesn't want regime change here, she wants the regime to change its behavior.

FS: If she doesn't know Syria, if she hasn't come to Syria yet, if she, this is my personal assessment, she doesn't know much about Syria because her past knowledge focused on the former Soviet Union, East Europe and some other countries but not Syria and the Middle East.

EP: Why should she come to Syria?

FS: To know what's going on. To exchange views. I mean coming to Syria is not a concession. Coming to Syria is an added value to the knowledge that you have.

[hippiechick]

1. Well, why should she ?

I've heard that there are simply NO trendy shoe stores there ....

:evilfrown:

[ShortnFiery]

2. We only trust Syria to torture our CIA extradicted terrorist suspects,

NOT to practice diplomacy. Heavens NO! We've convinced "the chattering classes" that the Syrians are savages - why else do we outsource our torture to them? :shrug: :sarcasm:

[Laura PourMeADrink]

3. they must not have good shoes there. n/t