Pittsburgh: Syria's ambassador to the United States said on Monday there will be no Israeli-Palestinian peace deal this year, and added that a recent Mideast peace conference in Maryland was only "an exercise in public relations."
Emad Mustafa said President George W. Bush has no real desire to broker a peace deal and blamed powerful forces within his administration who believe "chaos is constructive" in the Middle East. He declined to mention names.
Palestinian officials also are pessimistic and have told him no progress has been made in one-on-one negotiations with Israel, Mustafa added.
The White House accuses Syria of harbouring terrorists, supporting Hezbollah and of allowing insurgents to cross its border freely into Iraq. Mustafa said Hezbollah leaders will remain active in Syria despite the mysterious killing earlier this month of one of the group's top commanders, Emad Mughnieh.
Mustafa represented Syria at the Annapolis conference in November, and later expressed optimism that the talks could ease tensions between Washington and Damascus. But in an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday, hours before he was scheduled to speak at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Mustafa said the United States only makes positive statements about Syria when it serves a political purpose.
"We believe that the whole Annapolis thing was an exercise in public relations," Mustafa said. The only thing that happened there were "people were smiling and saying cheese." Mustafa added, "I don't think there is a unanimous belief among the administration, across the departments of this administration, that peace should be the path forward in the Middle East."
The US State Department dismissed Mustafa's claims that members of the Bush administration favoured instability in the Middle East.
"I don't know who he is referring to. I certainly know that we have serious and ongoing concerns about Syria's unconstructive role in the region," US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.
"I think if anyone has to answer for their promotion of chaos and instability in the region, it is most likely the Syrian government."
Bush announced in Annapolis that Israel and the Palestinians would relaunch long-stalled peace talks with the goal of reaching a deal by the end of this year.
Since then, high-level talks have been held, including several meetings between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
