"The Americans want to distance Damascus from Tehran, plus,the Syrians are lacking in credibility to be used as mediators.

VOA: standard.2009.03.18

Or they'd get to Syria, "Look at all these god that the Syrians worship.

他们去了叙利亚会说“看看叙利亚人崇拜的神“

耶鲁公开课 - 新约课程节选

"And the relation with Israel within two years allowed Turkey to tell the Syrians you either kick him out or we will come in there to pick him up and it worked."

VOA: standard.2009.10.27

The Syrians straddle the fence between the order of conservative nations on the one hand and this alliance with Iran on the other and it would make perfect sense for Bashar al-Assad to pose as the mediator with the Iranians, which means: hey,if you folks think I'm bad, think of the Iranians,they're much worse, but I have credit in their bank and I can deal with the Iranians."

VOA: standard.2009.03.18