"Damascus feels like it's getting a lot without giving up anything."

U.S. Woos Damascus by Easing Export Ban By JAY SOLOMON
DAMASCUS -- The Obama administration has told Syria that it will work to ease U.S. sanctions against Damascus, as Washington intensifies its pursuit of détente with a longtime Middle East rival....the latest action in a rapidly accelerating rapprochement between Washington and Damascus initiated after President Barack Obama took office this year, said officials from both countries.Messrs. Mitchell and Assad also discussed Sunday the possibility of the Pentagon dispatching to Damascus its second delegation of officers from the U.S. Central Command to discuss greater cooperation in preventing the flow of al Qaeda militants and other foreign fighters into Iraq through Syrian soil, said Syrian officials.he White House hopes to woo Mr. Assad away from his strategic alliance with Iran, in an effort to stabilize Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.****One might call this pre-emptive appeasement where Syria gets something and doesn't even promise to desist from its known actions (Hamas and Hezbollah, IEDs into Iraq, nuclear collaboration with North Korea, etc )or to do anything positive.****
..."We received assurances that the relations between the two countries should resume on the basis of mutual interests and most importantly on the basis of mutual respect," Syria's deputy foreign minister, Fayssal Mekdad, said Monday in an interview. "We really welcome such a new approach."...Bush authorized the sanctions in 2004, under legislation known as the Syria Accountability Act, specifically because of Damascus's support for the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas, which are fighting Israeli forces from Lebanon and the Palestinian territories... Obama would seek to use his waiver authority under congressionally mandated sanctions to aid purchases of U.S. products deemed important to the welfare of the Syrian people.The U.S. and Syria have clashed in recent years over allegations that Damascus was seeking to develop nuclear weapons and that it played a role in the 2005 murder of the former Lebanese President Rafik Hariri, both of which Mr. Assad's government has denied. The U.S. believes Syria was attempting to build a nuclear reactor complex, which Israeli jets destroyed in late 2007.
...The Obama administration's moves toward rapprochement with Mr. Assad, however, are raising concerns among some U.S. allies in the region, such as Israel and Egypt, as well as some Syrian democracy activists. They worry that relieving pressure on Damascus could lessen its willingness to cut ties to Hezbollah and Hamas and to open Syria politically."The regime feels very confident politically now," said Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian democracy activist based in Washington. "Damascus feels like it's getting a lot without giving up anything."...