16 August 2006
Germany's foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has canceled a meeting with Syria's president Bashar al-Assad on short notice because of a speech Assad gave on Tuesday blaming Israel and the US for tensions in the region. Steinmeier, who is currently on his third Middle East visit within a month, called off his planned meeting with Assad shortly before he was due to fly to Damascus from Amman. He said a speech given by Assad earlier on Tuesday was "a negative contribution that does not do justice to the present challenges and opportunities in the Middle East." Through positive, constructive action, Syria could regain the lost trust of the international community, he added. "But the basic prerequisite for this is a clear and unmistakable commitment to putting regional differences in interests aside," Steinmeier said while at Amman airport. "President Assad's speech today is a step in the opposing direction. That is why I have decided not to travel to Damascus." In his speech, the Syrian leader praised Hezbollah for its fight against Israel, describing resistance against the "enemy" as legitimate. "I say to all those who accuse Syria of taking the side of the resistance that this is, for the Syrian people, an honor," Assad said in a wide-ranging speech that also took aim at Washington and anti-Damascus figures in Lebanon. "This resistance is a medal to pin on the chest of every Arab citizen, not only Syria," he said, adding that the Lebanese guerrillas had "shattered the myth of an invincible army."
Meanwhile, two-thirds of Israeli Jews are in favor of setting up a commission to examine the government's handling of the war in southern Lebanon, two opinion polls published on Wednesday have found. Between 67 and 69 per cent of respondents said they supported a commission of inquiry, according to surveys carried respectively by the country's leading dailies "Maariv" and "Yediot Ahronot". According to the poll in "Yediot Aharonot", only 40 per cent of Jews living in Israel are satisfied with prime minister Ehud Olmert's handling of the war, compared to 77 per cent just after the offensive was launched last month. Both opinion polls were conducted on a sample of Israel's Jewish population and have a margin of error of 4.5 per cent. Olmert and the defense establishment have been accused of badly planning the land, sea and air offensive launched in Lebanon following a 12 July attack on Israel's northern border in which the Hezbollah militia killed eight soldiers and captured two.
