French President, on Visit to Syria, Calls for Improved Ties Between Nations

DAMASCUS, Syria, Sept. 3 -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed Wednesday to pursue improved relations with Syria, speaking during a visit that ended more than three years of Western isolation of the country.

"This is how we're going to rebuild our new relations with Syria, by trying to understand each other, by not compromising our principles and by reestablishing trust," Sarkozy said at a joint news conference after talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Sarkozy's visit was the first by a European leader to the Syrian capital since the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. U.N. investigators have implicated Syrian officials in the attack, although Damascus denies involvement.

Assad never mentioned Lebanon in his remarks Wednesday, and Sarkozy said only that he was pleased that Syria had honored commitments it had made that helped the Lebanese resolve an impasse over the election of its president.

The Syrian leader effusively welcomed Sarkozy. "We're very happy to see Europe recuperating its role after an absence of years, and this is the result of French dynamism," Assad said.

Sarkozy, who holds the six-month presidency of the European Union, is seeking a more assertive role in Middle East affairs. On Thursday, he and Assad, who is chairman of the Arab League, will meet with Qatari ruler Sheik Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani, leader of a grouping of Persian Gulf nations, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government is brokering indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria.

Sarkozy said he hoped the negotiations with Israel, made public in May, would soon become direct, but Assad said trust needed to be built between the countries.

Sarkozy also urged Syria to play the role of a mediator with Iran, which Western nations suspect is enriching uranium to produce nuclear arms. "Iran must not have a nuclear weapon," Sarkozy said.

Assad countered that his government shares Iran's view that the Middle East should be free of nuclear weapons, a reference to Israel's undeclared arsenal. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful.

Assad warned against a military strike on Iranian nuclear sites. "Nobody in the world will be able to bear the consequences of any action that is not peaceful, because it would not result in a solution but in a disaster," he said.

Syrian officials and analysts said Sarkozy's visit is a victory for Assad, who became president after his father died in 2000. The younger Assad has since been overwhelmingly endorsed by voters in two single-candidate referendums.

"It is certain that the Middle East crisis could be solved only with direct American intervention. But it is also true that there is a European role being played now, and that Europe is not that far politically from the U.S. and that the United States is not very strong right now because it is busy with its elections, " said Mahdi Dakhlalla, a former Syrian information minister.

There were times when "people were betting the regime was living its last days," he said. "Now, the regime has proved how strong it is. It is the French who changed their policy, and not Syria."

Assad's visit to Paris last month to attend a French-sponsored summit of Mediterranean leaders provoked controversy in light of Syria's record of imprisoning political dissidents.

"Every country has its history, its culture and its laws. We in France believe in the total respect of the freedom of speech, and we have discussed this matter with President Assad," Sarkozy said.