Syria Today | US wants Syria’s help in brokering peace deal

US wants Syria’s help in brokering peace deal

The US wants Syria’s help in forging a deal between Israel and the Palestinians, US Middle East envoy George Mitchell said after meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on July 26.

Mitchell said restarting talks between Syria and Israel was a “near-term goal” for US President Barack Obama. “If we are to succeed, we will need Arabs and Israelis alike to work with us to bring about comprehensive peace,” Mitchell said. “We will welcome the full cooperation of the government of the Syrian Arab Republic in this historic endeavour… I told President Assad that President Obama is determined to facilitate a truly comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.”

Mitchell, who visited Damascus as part of a regional tour that also included Israel, described his discussion with Assad as “very candid and positive”, but did not say what the US expected from Syria, especially regarding the Palestinian group Hamas which is headquartered in Damascus. The US and Israel consider the group a terrorist organisation.

Meanwhile, Assad issued an informal invitation to Obama to visit Damascus for talks. “We would like to welcome him to Syria, definitely,” Assad told Sky News in an interview broadcast on July 3. “I am very clear about this.”

Assad added, however, that if he and Obama were to meet, it did not mean they had to agree on all issues. “Any summit between any two presidents is something positive,” he said. “That doesn’t mean you have to agree on everything. But when you discuss, this is how we can close the gap.”

Assad followed up his invitation by sending a telegram to Obama on the occasion of US Independence Day. According to the state-run news agency SANA, the telegram said: “The values that were adopted by President Obama during his election campaign and after he was elected president are values that the world needs today… It is very important to adopt the principle of dialogue in relations with countries based on respect and mutual interest.”

In a separate interview, Syria’s First Lady Asma al-Assad told Sky News that she envisioned welcoming Obama and his wife to the Syrian capital. “I can see myself hosting them in Damascus in the old town, meeting with people, getting a sense of how we live, who we are and what Syria’s about,” she said.

Ties between the US and Syria have been on the mend since Obama moved into the White House. In June, the US announced it would send a new ambassador to Syria. Washington recalled its ambassador to Damascus in 2005 following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Syria was widely blamed for the murder, an allegation it denies.

US officials have said Washington hopes to draw Syria closer to the West and further from its alliance with Iran and groups it labels as terrorist organisations such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Hamas.