Syrian deputy PM: Syria's isolation has ended

"The former policy of political isolation of Syria has ended. It is no longer there," Abdallah Dardari, a Syrian deputy prime minister, said Friday in an interview with the Financial Times. Dardari added that the United States has in the past presented Damascus with a list of demands on various issues, and that this approach was ineffective. "It didn't work in April 2003, just after [the] occupation of Baghdad. If it didn't work then, at the peak of US influence in the region, it will not work now with Syria," Dardari said.