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Syria Courts a Cool U.S. Amid Threat of Sanctions
(Los Angeles Times) Syria has launched a diplomatic campaign aimed at canceling its membership in the Bush administration's "rogue" nations club. But the U.S. and its key allies remain cool, unconvinced that the overtures amount to anything more than lip service from a government that remains fundamentally hostile to U.S. interests. "There's a lot of frustration with the Syrians," said one State Department official. "Basically, there's the feeling that the clock is ticking on Syria and they need to heed the wake-up call." "We have the feeling that [Assad] is...paralyzed by the apparatchiks who are around him," a French diplomat said. Assad has not realized the geopolitical implications of the Iraq war, he added.