Syria seems to be responding to the increased pressure in a clever way: move closer to Iraq while keeping up the rhetoric against America and Israel. This is quite a good idea because the US is most likely to be able to exert direct pressure against Syria through Iraq — namely, attacking Syria with Iraq for helping run the Iraqi insurgency. By cutting down on this cause (with the arrest of the 30 Ba’athists) and showing that they are ‘supportive’ of Iraq, maybe Syria can postpone the inevitable.