Rice: Meeting with Syrian FM 'professional'

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a much anticipated first high-level meeting in years between the United States and Syria was "professional and businesslike" and was focused on how to improve security in Iraq. Rice met with her Syrian counterpart Walid Moallem for a half hour and on the sidelines of a two-day conference about Iraq's future. She said she took the opportunity to air US concerns about Syria's notoriously porous border with Iraq. "I didn't lecture him and he didn't lecture me," Rice told reporters afterward. "I would say it was professional. It was businesslike." The top US diplomat said she was not seeking a similar meeting with Iran's foreign minister.