Bush Will Meet Syria’s Assad on Gulf Crisis

President Bush will meet Friday with Syrian President Hafez Assad, a man whose government has been denounced by the Administration as a supporter of terrorism and an oppressor of human rights.

The two-hour meeting focusing on the Persian Gulf crisis will be held in Geneva as Bush heads home from Saudi Arabia and talks in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The United States still considers Syria a sponsor of international terrorism, said White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, and “I don’t think it (the meeting) implies any change in our overall relationship.”

Still, there are clear advantages for Bush in becoming the first U.S. President to meet Assad since Jimmy Carter in 1977--not the least of which is solidifying Syrian support for the coalition against Iraq.

The meeting’s main purpose is to discuss the coalition, to which Syria has committed 15,000 troops, Fitzwater said.

The two leaders will also discuss the plight of 13 Western hostages, among them six Americans, held by pro-Iranian extremists in Lebanon, he said. Syria is the main power broker in Lebanon, with 40,000 troops who control large parts of the country.

Taking advantage of its new alliance with Syria, the United States asked Assad to use his good offices with Iran to press for the hostages’ release and for Iranian compliance with the international trade embargo against Iraq.

Assad went to Tehran in late September after Secretary of State James A. Baker III had met him in Damascus but reportedly came away empty-handed on both counts.

Assad also has much to gain from easing his hard-line anti-U.S. policy and joining the anti-Iraq coalition. An immediate dividend is the rage of his bitter foe, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

By gaining points with the United States, Syria hopes that it will eventually be removed from the State Department’s list of seven countries that support terrorism and become eligible for aid or other economic benefits.