Top White House Envoy Visits Syria
U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell arrives in Damascus on Friday for talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to see if the time is right to jump-start Syria-Israel peace talks.
His visit comes a week after President Obama pledged in his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo to pursue a broad-based, comprehensive peace agreement in the Middle East.
Mitchell will be the highest-ranking administration official to visit Syria since 2005, in the most concrete sign yet of rapprochement between Washington and Damascus — a radical departure from the Bush administration.
He said after talks Thursday in Israel with opposition leader Tzipi Livni that the regional agreement the Obama administration is trying to push forward is not only about peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but also about establishing peace between Israel, Syria and Lebanon — three neighbors which have struggled to get along for decades.
Turkey brokered four rounds of indirect talks between the two foes last year, the first such contacts since previous peace negotiations were broken off in 2000 over the fate of the Israeli-occupied land in the Golan Heights, along Syria's border.
But Syria froze the contacts at the turn of the year, when Israel launched a devastating offensive against the Gaza Strip, controlled since June 2007 by the Islamic militant movement Hamas. Hamas' exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, lives in Damascus.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter — fresh from a visit to Lebanon to observe last Sunday's election — said Thursday after talks with President al-Assad that he believes there is a genuine interest in Washington in normalizing relations with Syria.
"I have no doubt that President Barack Obama wants full relations with Syria, based on cooperation," Carter, in the region as a private observer, not an official envoy of the Obama administration, told reporters after meeting al-Assad.
"This means lifting the sanctions in the future, and also means appointing an American ambassador in Damascus," Carter added. "I think that the U.S. will answer in a proper way any positive steps taken by Syria."
Carter also reiterated his past, highly controversial view that any lasting peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians would have to involve Hamas — which the U.S. and Israel consider a terrorist group.
Speaking before his meeting with Mashaal in Damascus, Carter said he hoped Hamas would show a willingness to seek, "peaceful relations with Israel in the future and accept the peace requirements."
Jeffrey Feltman, the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and National Security Council Senior Director Daniel Shapiro visited Damascus last month for a second visit during Mr. Obama's presidency. They said they'd had a "constructive" dialogue with Syrian leaders.
The U.S.-Syrian relationship has been strained in recent years over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Iraq and the ongoing political struggle between pro- and anti-Syrian factions exerting influence in Lebanon. The United States has not had an ambassador in Damascus since 2005.
Mitchell's trip to Syria will be followed by other U.S. missions — including a delegation of U.S. military commanders who will discuss joint efforts to combat the Iraqi insurgency. The visits were arranged in a telephone call last week between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem.
Observers say Syria, which has good relations with a broad range of actors in the region, could contribute greatly to any international push to build a stable peace in the region. The Obama administration also hopes to weaken Syria's strategic alliance with Iran by engaging the regime in Damascus.
Ahead of Mitchell's trip to Lebanon and Syria, he flew to Amman for talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II, a key player in efforts to steer the Middle East peace process back on track.
Mr. Obama is believed to be focusing on a peace plan backed by 57 nations — the so-called "Arab" initiative — that would see almost the entire Muslim world officially recognize Israel in return for security guarantees and the Jewish state agreeing to pull back to its pre-1967 borders.
Mitchell, accompanied by Frederick Hoff, his adviser on Syria, will be in the Syrian capital for two days after a brief stopover in Beirut. Mr. Obama's Mideast envoy started his meetings Friday morning in that country with Lebanese officials, following Lebanon's June 7 elections in which a pro-West coalition won a somewhat surprising victory.