The Associated Press

Wed, May 21, 2008 (3:37 p.m.)

The Bush administration, with waning influence and regional allies pursuing their own agendas, has little choice but to swallow Lebanese and Israeli talks with U.S. adversaries Hezbollah and Syria.

Washington appeared resigned to twin developments Wednesday that represent a setback and a distraction from President Bush's policy aims in the Middle East. It's not clear how either development will shake out, meaning the next American president inherits the muddle.

A deal to end a deadly political impasse in Lebanon and an announced resumption of peace contacts between Israel and Syria both lend political legitimacy to organizations and governments the U.S. shuns or distrusts.

Neither Hezbollah militants nor the dynastic government in Syria is going anywhere, however, and the developments Wednesday are an implicit reckoning by everyone, including the United States, that they cannot be ignored.

"What has happened is the United States has taken a hard-line position on all these situations, but without being able to deliver," said Marina Ottaway, director of the Mideast program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"We see countries of the region trying to find a different policy to move all these situations forward."

The United States considers Hezbollah a terrorist group and refuses any direct dealings. The Bush administration has ostracized Syria for its alleged help to terrorists and for its blind eye to the flow of anti-U.S. fighters into Iraq.

More generally, the Bush administration sees Hezbollah and its backers, including Syria, as "extremists" and "rejectionists" that block democratic change in the region and seed Islamic radicalism.

The United States would not have chosen either the terms of the Lebanon deal, which increases the power of Hezbollah militants, or the timing of the Israeli outreach to Syria. The Bush administration worries that new talks would drain energy from separate U.S.-backed talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Both developments were driven by the political imperatives of others, including close U.S. ally Israel, leaving the United States to insist that neither its objectives nor its engagement are in retreat.

"I don't think anybody, any actor that has an interest in the spread of freedom and democracy in the region would describe the U.S. interest or participation in trying to help resolve the issues in the region as lessening in any way," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"If anything, what you have is an expansion to others in taking a positive and active role in trying to spread those values throughout the region. And that's a good thing."

Arab states, including newcomers to peacemaking, banged heads to reach Wednesday's Lebanon breakthrough. The United States was on the phone, trying to make sure the deal didn't cross what Washington considered red lines of concession to Hezbollah, but was not in the room.

Turkey is acting as a go-between for Israel and Syria. Turkey and Israel, but not estranged Syria, have been keeping the U.S. informed of back-channel talks.

U.S. spokesmen were matter-of-fact in acknowledging that Washington was not calling the shots.

"It's not for us to decide how Lebanon does this, how Lebanon's political leadership addresses it," Assistant Secretary of State David Welch said of the Arab-brokered deal to end street fighting and break 18 months of deadlock between the Hezbollah-led opposition and the U.S.-backed government in Beirut.

As to Israel and Syria, McCormack said the United States won't stand in the way of talks, but he promised little in the way of U.S. support.

"We have stated our position that if Israel sees fit to engage in direct or indirect negotiations then that is a position for them to take," McCormack said. "The goal of comprehensive peace in the Middle East is one that we share."

The Lebanon deal gives a political veto to Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah and its allies. Iran and Syria immediately praised the arrangement, placing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in unusual company when she issued her own tempered statement backing the outline of the deal.

Welch said the deal is not perfect, but the alternative is worse. The opposition may be a "blocking minority," he said, but the democratic government survives and the shooting has stopped.

The Bush administration played down the consolidation of power by Hezbollah, focusing instead on the militants' potential weakness from a backlash of Lebanese anger over street battles that Hezbollah and its allies provoked this month.

Pro-government politician Saad Hariri seemed to acknowledge his side had largely given in following the violence that killed more than 60 people.

"I know that the wounds are deep and my injury is deep, but we only have each other to build Lebanon," he said.

Israel and Syria are bitter enemies with a failed history of peace efforts. The nations have fought three wars, their forces have clashed in Lebanon, and more recently, Syria has given support to Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad both maintain headquarters in Damascus.

Syria wants a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War and later annexed. The last round of peace talks collapsed in 2000 over the last fraction of an Israeli withdrawal.

The longtime adversaries each have something to gain now. Israel wants to reduce Syrian support for anti-Israel militants in Gaza and Lebanon, while Syria is eager to improve ties with the U.S.

"We hope that this is a forum to address various concerns we all have with Syria, Syria's support of terrorism, repression of its own people," White House press secretary Dana Perino said.

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EDITOR'S NOTE _ Anne Gearan covers diplomacy and foreign affairs for The Associated Press.