Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

The United States probably knew something was up with the ‘terrorists’ and that 'something' is now being seen as increased insurgency attacks in Iraq and the rampage in Central Asia. It is very very possible Rumsfeld did make some kind of offer to Saddam in light of what is now transpiring. What is taking place at present would explain the dialogue and meeting.

Was Washington worried about a united offensive on different fronts?

-Am

Rumsfeld: Enough of the past. We are reassessing our positions towards you and towards a number of powers that have been hostile to us in the past. We have decided to hold dialogue with moderate Islamicists and we have no objection to their coming to power through the ballot box. More important than that we have decided to open channels for dialogue with ‘terrorist’ organizations like Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and Hizb Allah, which is pro-Iranian, and also with other fundamentalist organizations in the whole world. We even have a plan for contacting the Taliban movement in Afghanistan to study the possibility of their participation in power, in exchange for their giving up arms.
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Western officials secretly met with Arab opposition
4/29/2005 2:00:00 PM GMT

Secret meetings between Arab opposition groups and U.S. and EU officials were held in Morocco

U.S. and European officials held secret meetings with opposition groups from eastern Arab countries in Morocco, official sources said.

The meetings started on April 17 and ended on April 21, the sources said, adding that the media was banned from covering the talks.

The sources, who demanded anonymity, refused to identify the U.S. or the European officials who participated in the talks, but said that they are influential figures, including researchers, politicians and reporters.

"This Arab-American-European dialogue was attended by men of integrity from the two sides with the objective of building bridges and pushing forward dialogue among civilizations, besides making efforts to ease the tense atmosphere between the East and the West," one source said.

The official added that the talks were also aimed at trying to understand the decision-making process of the two parties.

"This does not mean that either side accepts the decision," he said.

The sources said that both sides discussed a number of regional and international issues, including the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the situation in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.

They also discussed issues related to culture and human rights, according to the sources.

Last week, reports said that the Bush administration is trying to reach out to the Syrian opposition over the growing fears that the political unrest in Lebanon could spill over and suddenly destabilize Syria, which borders four countries pivotal to U.S. Middle East policy -- Israel, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey, U.S. and Syrian sources said.

In a recent interview Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the U.S. is talking to "as many people as we possibly can" about the situation in Syria, as well as in Lebanon, to ensure that Washington is prepared in the event of yet another abrupt political upheaval.

"What we're trying to do is to assess the situation so that nobody is blindsided, because events are moving so fast and in such unpredictable directions that it is only prudent at this point to know what's going on," Rice said.

Rice also cited "the possibility for what I often call discontinuous events, meaning that you were expecting them to go along like this and all of a sudden they go off in this direction, in periods of change like this.

“So we're going to look at all the possibilities and talk to as many people as we possibly can,” she said.


http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_ID=8132