Syrian culture minister solidifies rapprochement with visit to France

Source: AFP, 11-06-2008
Syria's culture minister arrived in Paris on Tuesday on the first visit by a Syrian government member in three years, confirming a thaw in Franco-Syrian ties following the political breakthrough in Lebanon and one day after the US State Department reacted with caution to French plans to renew relations with Damascus.

France's Foreign Ministry said the official visit by Culture Minister Riad Naassan Agha marked a "new page" in relations with Damascus, coming in the wake of a decision by President Nicolas Sarkozy to renew top-level ties.
Sarkozy has also invited President Bashar Assad to Paris to attend a Mediterranean summit next month.
"This visit is part of a new page we hope will be turned and written in relations between France and Syria, insofar as recent positive developments continue," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani said.

Agha was to meet his French counterpart Christine Albanel later on Tuesday, she said.
Syria for almost three decades was the powerbroker in Lebanon, a longtime focal point of French interest in the Middle East.
Visiting Beirut on Saturday to meet Lebanese President Michel Sleiman, whose election calmed months of political strife, Sarkozy said a "new page may be opening in relations between France and Syria."

Antoine Basbous, of the Observatory of Arab Countries in Paris, said the minister's visit was "a Syrian sign of good will after Sarkozy's announcement."
"The Syrians have jumped at the opportunity offered to them" by France, he added.
Paris broke off contacts with Syria in 2004 under Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac.
Relations were further harmed by suspicions of Syrian involvement in the February 2005 assassination in Beirut of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was a personal friend of Chirac.

Sarkozy moved to resume relations after taking power in May last year, and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner met in November with his Syrian counterpart Walid Moallem in the first such contacts since 2004.
But Paris suspended top-level ties again in December as the crisis between western backed political camp in Lebanon and the Lebanese opposition took a turn for the worse, degenerating into violence that killed at least 65 people last month.
The two sides finally reached agreement on May 21 in Doha, leading to the election of then army chief and consensus candidate Sleiman after a six-month power vacuum.

Sarkozy immediately called Assad, arguing that France's conditions for renewing dialogue - "positive, concrete developments" toward ending the Lebanese crisis - had been met.
The French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said the meeting between Albanel and Agha was a logical next step.
The choice to invite the culture minister - rather than Syria's foreign minister - shows Paris is still treading carefully with Damascus, Basbous said.
In the short term, Basbous said Sarkozy hoped to secure Assad's presence at a July summit in Paris to launch a new Mediterranean Union, a project he has championed despite a lukewarm welcome from some European and Arab states.

Kouchner said on Tuesday that Assad's reaction to the Mediterranean project "seemed positive" so far, even as Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi came out publicly against it.
"Sarkozy's main concern is the meeting of July 13. He wants his summit to be a success," said Basbous.
Sarkozy's move to resume ties with Syria received a cautious reaction from the US State Department, which said Monday that Washington would discuss the issue with Paris.
"France and the US share the same wish for peace and stability in the region," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. "We both want to see a Lebanon that is peaceful, prosperous and free of foreign interference."

"We look forward to continuing discussions with France on how to best support the Lebanese people to achieve their goals for a better future," McCormack added, saying the US will ask Paris for clarification.
Sarkozy plans to send two senior envoys to Syria as ties start to thaw, a source close to the French president's office said on Saturday.