Americans Ask Assad to Stop Arming Hizbullah and Hamas

Amid aggressive efforts to reconcile with Syria, Obama administration officials have reportedly asked Syrian President Bashar Al-Asad to stop sending arms to Hizbullah and other Palestinian terrorist groups. According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, the request was made to Syria’s Ambassador to the United States in a Friday meeting in Washington with Assistant of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman. Feltman’s appeal followed a direct request made to Al-Asad by Undersecretary of State William Burns in Damascus on February 17 at which time, according to Haaretz, Al-Asad’s reply was essentially, “What arms?” In between the two American-Syrian meetings, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited Washington and apparently provided intelligence information indicating that both the quantity and quality of arms being provided by Syria to terrorist groups is increasing. Barak reportedly raised the issue of Lebanon allowing an armed non-governmental group – Hizbullah – to retain its arsenal consisting of more than 45,000 missiles and having government ministers and members of Parliament. As a member of the United Nations, Barak called it a “bizarre anomaly.”