Rice Hints at Openness to Work With Syria

SHANNON, Ireland - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday the United States' poor relationship with Syria is overstated and indicated an openness to working with Damascus to resolve the crisis in the Middle East.

En route to the region, Rice noted that the United States still has a diplomatic mission and State Department officials working in the Syrian capital. That presence, she said, is a "channel for dealing with Syria."

"The problem isn't that people haven't talked to the Syrians. It's that the Syrians haven't acted," she said. "I think this is simply just a kind of false hobby horse that somehow it's because we don't talk to the Syrians.

"It's not …