Washington Tests Syria”s Intentions
In the first such move since the 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri, a U.S. State Department official is to hold talks with a visiting non-official Syrian team in an apparent effort to test the Damascus intentions.
Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch is to meet members of the Syrian team later in the week, a U.S. official told the daily An Nahar.
The official said the team is visiting the United States at the invitation of a Non Governmental Organization interested in Arab-Israeli peace and the meeting with a state department official should not be interpreted as an indication to "a change" in Washington”s stand on Syria.
The Syrian team groups ex-MP Ahmed al-Taqi, an advisor to the Syrian premier who manages a Damascus-based think tank; Samir Seifan, a businessman who manages a business studies center; and Samir Mobayed, a political analyst and university professor who had graduated from the American University of Beirut.
The Syrian foreign ministry”s legal advisor, Riyad Daoudi, was supposed to head the team, but President Bashar Assad instructed him to stay in Damascus due to a visit by a Turkish delegation.
State Department acting spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said department officials would meet members of the Syrian team as "Syrian citizens and not officials. They came to the United States at the invitation of a Non Governmental Organization."
U.S. officials usually take part in "educational activities" sponsored by the government or NGOs and such activities could take place at offices of the state department, Gallegos explained.
The U.S. administration, Gallegos added, is searching for means to "decrease the isolation of the Syrian people while maintaining pressure on its government" to change its policy.
Sources said Welch, who is accompanying Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in her current visit to the United Arab Emirates, is to return to Washington on Wednesday and might meet the Syrian team on Friday, a U.S. official said.