Two interviews with Syrian Foreign Minister “Moallem”

Two inter­views with the Syr­ian For­eign Min­is­ter Walid Al-Moallen today:

In Eng­lish — Spiegel:

Moallem: Just six weeks ago I sat with Sec­re­tary of State Con­doleezza Rice in New York. It was a very pos­i­tive dis­cus­sion and we agreed to fol­low up. But cer­tain peo­ple in this [U.S.] admin­is­tra­tion dis­liked this open­ing and they wanted to block it — with this air raid on Syr­ian territory.

In Ara­bic — Al-Sharq:

Moallem: The re-opening of the Amer­i­can school and the Amer­i­can Cul­ture Cen­ter in Dam­as­cus depends on the will of the new U.S. admin­is­tra­tion. If it decides to pur­sue a dif­fer­ent pol­icy from Bush’s admin­is­tra­tion, with seri­ous and sub­stan­tive dia­logue with Syria, it would be possible.