Senior US state department official meets Syrian president as relations improve
By APWednesday, February 17, 2010
Senior US official in Syria as relations improve
DAMASCUS, Syria — The highest-ranking American official to visit Syria in five years held “candid” talks Wednesday with the Syrian president as Washington tries to mend ties with a country seen as key to peace in the region.
Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns released a statement saying his meeting with President Bashar Assad was open and productive.
“We talked candidly about the areas in which we disagree, but also identify the areas of common ground on which we can build,” Burns said in the statement.
The visit comes a day after President Barack Obama said he would nominate career diplomat Robert Ford to become the United States’ first ambassador to Damascus since 2005.
Washington withdrew its last ambassador following the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which many blamed on Syria. Syria has denied involvement.
Burns described Washington’s decision to nominate Ford as a “clear sign of America’s readiness to improve relations and to collaborate in the pursuit of a just, lasting and comprehensive peace between the Arabs and the Israelis.”
Syria remains a key to establishing peace with Israel, which still occupies the strategic Golan Heights, captured from Damascus in the 1967 war. The Syrians want a strong U.S. hand in Mideast peacemaking to regain that territory.
Turkey mediated several rounds of indirect talks between Syria and Israel in 2008 before they came to a halt following Israel’s Gaza offensive.
The tense relations between Syria and the U.S. started to improve after Obama took office last year. Obama made changing America’s image in the Middle East a priority of his first year.
Washington had criticized Syria and its strong ally Iran for supporting Islamic militant groups such as the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
