WikiLeaks: Al-Muallem Urges U.S. Not to Be Linked to Lebanon, Calls for Peace Talks with Israel

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem urged U.S. not to use Syria “as a hostage for the Lebanese situation or the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” stressing that Damascus was ready to make a peace agreement with Israel.

In a WikiLeaks cable dated January 2, 2008, al-Muallem discussed with U.S. Senator Arlen Specter and U.S. official Patrick Kennedy the Syrian cooperation with France to seek a political solution in Lebanon.

“The U.S. government was wrong in linking the resumption of the peace talks between Syria and Israel, or the Syrian-U.S. relations with the situation in Lebanon and with the actions of Hamas and Hizbullah,” the foreign minister said, according to the cable.

The foreign minister urged the U.S. “not to take Syria as a hostage” for caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri or Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, saying that “once Syria completes the peace process with Israel, it can play the peace-maker role in the region.”