White House fury as Pelosi meets Syrian leader

US House of Representatives leader Nancy Pelosi again enraged President Bush, challenging the White House on Middle East policy in a meeting with Syria’s leader and insisting “the road to Damascus is a road to peace”.

The Democrat’s comments brought a sharp attack from the Bush administration, which has rejected direct talks with Damascus until it changes its ways.

“Unfortunately that road is lined with the victims of Hamas and Hezbollah, the victims of terrorists who cross from Syria into Iraq,” said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for Bush’s National Security Council.

“It’s unfortunate that she took this unilateral trip which we only see as counter-productive.”

Washington accuses Syria of backing Hamas and Hezbollah, two groups it deems terrorist organisations. It also says Syria is fuelling Iraq’s violence by allowing Sunni insurgents to operate from its territory and is destabilising Lebanon’s government.

Syrian security officials have been implicated in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri in Beirut, a role denied by Damascus.

Pelosi is the highest-ranking American politician to visit Syria since relations began to deteriorate in 2003. The then US secretary of state Colin Powell went to Damascus in May 2003.

The visit heightened tensions between the Bush administration and congressional Democrats, who have stepped up their push for change in US policy in the Middle East and the Iraq war. But Democrats – and some Republicans – say the refusal of dialogue has closed doors to possible progress in resolving Middle East crises.

Pelosi’s visit yesterday coincided with Iran’s announcement that it would free the 15 British marines and sailors captured in the Persian Gulf last month. Syrian officials claimed their country, an ally of Iran, played a key role in resolving the stand-off but they did not offer any specific details.

“We came in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace,” said Pelosi, who met for three hours with Syrian president Bashar Assad.

She said she expressed to Assad “our concern about Syria’s connections to Hezbollah and Hamas” and militant fighters slipping across the Syrian border into Iraq.

She said that despite differences over whether to talk with Syria, “there is absolutely no division between this delegation and the president of the US on the issues of concern”.

Pelosi also said she brought a message to Assad from Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert that Israel was ready for peace talks with Syria, but Olmert’s office said in a statement later this would only be possible if Syria abandoned terror and stopped assisting terror groups.

Syria hosts the exiled leadership of Hamas, as well as other Palestinian radical groups, and is a major patron of Hezbollah. Its government insists Hamas is a legitimate resistance movement working for Palestinian freedom and Hezbollah is a regular Lebanese political party.

Assad has repeatedly said over the past year that Damascus is willing to negotiate with Israel, insisting the talks must lead to the return of the Golan Heights, seized by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

In an interview with ABC News, US vice president Dick Cheney said Assad has “been isolated and cut off because of his bad behaviour and the unfortunate thing about the speaker’s visit is it sort of breaks down that barrier”.

Pelosi’s spokesman Nadeam Elshami responded to Cheney by saying Pelosi pressed Assad on issues of concern.

“The administration has rejected the bipartisan recommendations of the Iraq Study Group to engage Syria and instead continues to engage in a war of words with Republicans and Democrats on this issue,” he said from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, where the delegation later met Saudi’s King Abdullah.