Sarkozy Syria trip seen as break with past

DAMASCUS, Syria, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy is breaking new diplomatic ground in the Middle East with his two-day visit to Syria, an analyst said.

By acknowledging Syria's key role in the region's political equation, Sarkozy is making a sharp break with the foreign policy of his predecessor Jacques Chirac, the Voice of America reported Wednesday.

Where Chirac would have nothing to do with Damascus and Syrian President Bashar Assad after the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Sarkozy is bowing to Syria's vital role in negotiating with Israel to produce a Middle East peace agreement, said Judith Cahen, a Middle East analyst for the French Institute of International Relations.

"The message is that France is back in the Middle East and with a new policy. And, Nicolas Sarkozy wants to say that the former politics of France are now over. That means Jacques Chirac's policy is now over," Cahen told VOA.

Sarkozy invited Assad to Paris in July, a trip during which Syria and the pro-Western Lebanese government agreed to establish embassies in each other's countries.