Global Arab Network | Mitchell: Syria is a key player in achieving peace

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Mitchell: Syria is a key player in achieving peace

George Mitchell, US Peace envoy to Mid-East, has said that Syria has a key role in achieving a comprehensive peace in the region, after talks with Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, in Damascus.

"I have held substantive discussions with President Assad on the range of serious issues in our bilateral relationship,” Mitchell told the press.

"We seek to build on this effort to establish a relationship based on mutual respect and mutual interest," he added.

Mitchell is the most senior US diplomat to visit Syria since Barack Obama was elected as US president.

A senior Syrian official described Saturday's talks as "very positive" and said the two also discussed the situation in neighboring Iraq, where the U.S. has often criticized Syria for allowing militants to enter across its border. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of not being authorized to talk to the media, AP news agency reported.

According to Reuters, a U.S. embassy official said the meeting included talks between a "military-led" U.S. team and a Syrian delegation. The official declined to give further details.

The US envoy arrived late on Friday from the Lebanese capital, Beirut, where he pledged that Lebanon, which has conflictive ties with Syria, would "play a key role ... to build lasting comprehensive peace and stability in the Mideast".

Syria had expressed its readiness earlier this week to resume contact with Israel through Turkish intermediaries, on reigniting peace talks largely based on the fate of the disputed territory of the Golan Heights.

Last year, Turkey brokered four rounds of indirect talks, but Syria suspended them in December when Israel launched its war on Gaza.

The new Israeli government of Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, has ruled out meeting Syria's demand for the return of the Golan plateau, which Israel seized in its six-day war in 1967.

Direct talks between Syria and Israel under U.S. auspices failed in 2000 over the issue of the extent of an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights.

Despite the diplomatic overtures, the Obama administration renewed Bush-era economic sanctions against Syria last month as a way to keep pressure on the country to cooperate.

Syrian-US relations deteriorated after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The US imposed economic sanctions on Syria in 2004 and withdrew its ambassador in 2005 over charges that it was a sponsor of ‘terrorism’. The sanctions have been extended several times since.

On several occasions, Syria denied the accusations, saying that US has no evidence of all these matters.

Syria assured the international community that the accusations were used by the old US administration as an excuse to continue its agenda in the region.

Global Arab Network

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