House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s whirlwind shadow diplomacy tour of the Middle East is already showing results: Syria: Accept Arab initiative or we’ll resort to violence.

Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal threatened on Monday evening to return the Golan Heights to Syrian hands “by way of resistance If Israel [rejected] the Arab peace initiative.”

Bilal did not elaborate but some analysts raised the possibilities of either a full scale conventional war or a terror campaign in the Golan as one of the means to undertake a mukawama (resistance in Arabic).

After saying that “Syria wishes to revive the peace process with Israel with the help of US and Russian mediators,” Bilal immediately added a threat, saying that “If Israel [rejected] the Arab peace initiative, the only way to get the Golan Heights back would be the way of resistance.” Bilal was speaking at a press conference in Damascus, referring to the Arab peace initiative of 2002.

UPDATE at 4/16/07 1:29:02 pm:

No problem! Bill Clinton says peace between Israel and Syria could be a reality in about, oh, 35 minutes.

A peace agreement between Israel and Syria could be reached within 35 minutes, former U.S. president Bill Clinton told the Lebanon-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper in an interview published Sunday.