White House Split
On Clinton Jaunt
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President is warned that his Mideast trip, especially
his Syria stop, might boomerang abroad and
domestically.
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JAMES D. BESSER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
resident Bill Clinton's de-
cision to visit Syria as part
of his busy Middle East
swing this month was a
controversial one in the inner
sanctums of the administration.
The backstage controversy was
intensified by the deadly bomb-
ing in Tel Aviv, which focused
new attention on support for Is-
lamic extremists from nations
such as Syria and Iran — and
from Palestinian groups in this
country.
At a series of meetings, the po-
litical side of the White House
staff counseled against the Dam-
ascus stopover. His advisers were
concerned that the president
would be criticized for giving Syr-
the idea, but was quickly per-
suaded that the demands of the
peace process outweighed the po-
litical risks.
News leaks about the internal
discussions helped seal the de-
cision. After the first public re-
ports that a Damascus stop was
under consideration, White
House officials felt that a decision
not to proceed would have been
a diplomatic slap in the face for
Mr. Assad. And Israeli officials
sent clear signals that while they
were not interested in arranging
the president's itinerary, they re-
garded a visit to Damascus as an
"investment" that might increase
Mr. Assad's flexibility in the
peace talks.
ANS/REUTERS
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ian president Hafez al-Assad
what he wants the most — good
relations with Washington —
without extracting any conces-
sions on the peace process or Syr-
ia's support for terrorism.
There also were worries that a
major foreign trip just before the
Nov. 8 congressional elections
could add to the Democrats' po-
litical woes.
But the president's foreign pol-
icy advisers argued strongly in
favor of the Damascus visit, even
if there were no assurances of a
breakthrough in the Syrian-Is-
raeli talks. American efforts to
break the impasse in those ne-
gotiations, they argued, required
direct contact between Mr. Clin-
ton and Mr. Assad. And the sign-
ing of a Jordanian-Israeli treaty
provided an unexpected oppor-
tunity for personal diplomacy.
Secretary of State Warren
Christopher was initially cool to
There was a subdued reaction
from Jewish groups and pro-Is-
rael members of Congress to the
Syrian trip.
"With the treaty signing in
Jordan, nobody wanted to throw
cold water on the trip, despite our
queasiness about Assad," said the
leader of a major pro-Israel group.
But the Zionist Organization
of America denounced the trip.
And Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.,
said, "There is no justification for
the president to visit Hafez As-
sad in Damascus."
The bombing in Tel Aviv, said
Rep. Lowey, highlighted the dan-
gers posed by such groups as
Hamas and the foreign interests
that support them.
Jewish groups in this country
expressed anger and helplessness
over the bombing by seeking
ways to limit Hamas fund-rais-
ing in this country and cut the
flow of money from other nations