Syrian President Assad: Talks With U.S. Iraq's Only Hope

CAIRO, Egypt -- Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview aired Monday that the Bush administration does not have the vision to bring peace in Iraq and that his country could help calm the crisis if approached. Assad told ABC's "Good Morning America" that U.S.-Syrian cooperation was the "last chance" to avert a civil war in Iraq -- but he said he wasn't optimistic that President Bush would seize the opportunity and talk to Damascus.

"This (Bush) administration is not willing to achieve peace, they don't have the will and they don't have the vision," Assad said in the interview in Damascus.

In contrast, he praised Bush's father, who sponsored a 1991 Arab-Israeli peace conference that included Syria. Assad said George H.W. Bush had the "will to achieve peace."

Read the rest at the Washington Post

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