July 27, 2006, 3:16PM
Iran negotiator reportedly in Syria talksAP
DAMASCUS, Syria — A top Iranian negotiator reportedly visited Damascus on Thursday for talks on the Lebanese crisis with the Syrian and Hezbollah leaders, highlighting the three-way alliance arrayed against Israel.
The reported meeting underscored the Israeli and U.S. insistence that Syria and Iran have a powerful influence with the Shiite Hezbollah organization and its guerrillas.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said Syria and Iran "are playing leading roles" in the conflict in Lebanon "and need to step up" to the task of finding a solution.
"We have already made it clear to both parties what is necessary, and what is necessary is for Hezbollah to lay down arms and choose a political rather than a military track," he said Thursday.Snow's remarks reinforced those of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice after the Syrians held out their diplomatic hand to the United States this week. But Rice said there already were sufficient contacts with Damascus and the Syrians were aware of what they need to do _ stop supporting Hezbollah and press it to disarm.
Thursday's meeting in Damascus was reported by Iranian news agencies as well as Kuwait's Al-Siyassah newspaper, known for its opposition to the Syrian regime.
Al-Siyassah said the talks were to discuss ways to maintain supplies to Hezbollah with "Iranian arms flowing through Syrian territories."
Citing "well-informed Syrian sources" it did not identify, the newspaper said Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah was moving through Damascus with Syrian guards in an intelligence agency car. He was dressed in civilian clothes, not his normal clerical garb, it said.
The Mehr news agency in Iran said Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, was in Damascus for the meeting. Similar reports were carried by the Iranian Labor News Agency and the Fars agency. Al-Siyassah said Larijani was to have met Syrian President Bashar Assad and Nasrallah.
Hezbollah officials reached by The Associated Press in Beirut on Thursday said they did not know if Nasrallah had traveled to Damascus.
Iranian state-run media did not mention Larijani's travels. A spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said there "was no information" on a trip.
In Damascus, Iranian Embassy No. 2 Ghazanfar Rokn-Abadi would neither confirm nor deny the reported meetings, telling The Associated Press: "We, too, heard and read in the media this report."
Syrian Foreign Ministry officials did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki made a hastily arranged visit to Malaysia for talks on the Lebanese crisis with other foreign ministers in Kuala Lumpur.
Rice was also in Kuala Lumpur, but a U.S. official rejected any possibility Rice would meet him.
Because of its strong alliance with Tehran and Hezbollah, Damascus can serve as a link through which the Bush administration could talk to Hezbollah and Iran about ending the Lebanese crisis.
Rice said this week that America's poor relationship with Syria had been overstated, noting the U.S. still has a diplomatic mission and State Department officials working in the Syrian capital.
"The problem isn't that people haven't talked to the Syrians. It's that the Syrians haven't acted," Rice said. "It's not as if we don't have diplomatic relations. We do."
The U.S. ambassador to Syria was recalled last year after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Syrian officials have been blamed for the murder; Damascus denies any role.
The U.S. has also imposed sanctions on Syria, blaming it for fueling the insurgency in Iraq and supporting Islamic militant groups in the Palestinian territories, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Syria denies the charges but hosts exiled leaders of those groups in Damascus.
Regardless, Syrian officials have said they are ready to talk with Washington.
"If the United States wants to involve in Syria's diplomacy, of course Damascus is more than willing to engage," Syria's ambassador to Washington, Imad Moustapha, said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation."
But Syrian officials said Damascus would cooperate only within the framework of a broader Middle East peace initiative that includes a return of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967 and annexed in 1981.
Analysts said Syria's role could not be ignored if a solution to the crisis is to be found.
"Syria is a major player in regional politics. After being sidelined and isolated for a long time, it now holds the keys to many of the region's crises," said Amin Kammouriyeh, a political analyst with Lebanon's leading An-Nahar daily.
At a meeting Wednesday of key Mideast players in Rome, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said a lasting end to the conflict would "require the constructive engagement of the countries in the region, including Syria and Iran."