US ambassador in Damascus sitting under a portrait of Nasser

I received an account of the meeting between the US ambassador in Syria and Syrian semi-dissident, Hasan `Abdul-`Adhim.  The account was `Abdul-`Dhim's as relayed to his Nasserist ally in Lebanon, Kamal Shatila.   `Abdul-`Adhim is a Nasserist and it is doubtful that the US would have ever met with a Nasserist prior to these events.   And he is not a radical dissident: he maintains ties, by his own account, with the Syrian government and Syrian vice-president, Faruq Ash-Shar`, contacted him after wards.  He stressed that he met the ambassador under a portrait of Jamal `Abdun-Nasser.  (US diplomats are permitted to sit under portraits of Herzl, and other racists and war criminals from Israeli past, but not under portraits of Arab nationalists or progressives.)