Syrian president: Obama just pushing Mideast peace for his political gain

Syria's president accused President Obama of launching the latest round of Middle East peace talks for his own political gain.

Paying a visit to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made the comments as the month-old peace process is in danger of collapsing.

"Nothing has changed in the Palestinian peace process (which) only aims to garner support for Obama inside America," Assad was quoted in news reports in his first public comments on the new direct talks.

It's not Assad's first stab at Obama, though. Earlier this year, Assad told an Italian newspapers that Obama had "raised hopes" in the region but failed to deliver in the peace process.

Obama vowed on the campaign trail to press for engagement with Damascus, but renewed sanctions against the country in May "continuing support for terrorist organisations and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and missile programmes, continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States," as stated in the president's message to Congress.

Mideast envoy George Mitchell told Assad on a visit to Damascus two weeks ago that the U.S.-brokered talks could lead to a comprehensive peace between Israel and its neighbors.

"Our effort to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in no way contradicts or conflicts with our goal of comprehensive peace, including peace between Israel and Syria," Mitchell told reporters after meeting with Assad.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) urged President Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority to give up on the peace talks in a statement Saturday, claiming that Israel's expiration of a partial 10-month settlement freeze meant that Israel bore the "full responsibility for the current impasse in the peace process" and "the collapse of negotiations."

Abbas had previously threatened to walk out on talks if the moratorium wasn't extended, but is going to meet first with Arab foreign ministers in Libya on Friday. He reportedly plans to announce at that summit whether he is abandoning the U.S.-backed talks.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Thursday that Mitchell had met with both Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"I'm not going to get into the substance," Crowley said. "We continue to do everything that we can to encourage both parties to stay in these direct negotiations."

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