Damascus on Wednesday welcomed William Burns, the US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, the highest ranking American official to visit Syria since January 2005. Burns visited Syria following years of strained, and sometimes tense, relations. His visit also came a day after President Barack Obama said he would nominate a career diplomat, Robert Ford, to become Washington's first ambassador to Damascus since 2005.
The two moves reflect Obama's change of policy towards Syria, which was vilified for years by his predecessor, George W Bush, for its alleged role in Iraq's ongoing violence and Lebanon's past four turbulent years.
Obama though seems to understand the importance of Syria to the politics in the region. According to long-running Arab conventional wisdom, no Arab-Israeli war can be waged without Egypt and there can be no peace without Syria.
Damascus, a key player in the Arab-Israeli conflict, also has two unstable neighbours, Iraq and Lebanon. Reaching an understanding with Syria can provide clues to the stabilisation of both countries.
Thus it is a good move by Washington to engage Syria instead of absurdly trying to isolate it. Syrian involvement in Lebanon, for example, in the run-up to last year's elections, helped the smaller neighbour to hold fair and peaceful elections and form a government of national unity.
Syria has also been instrumental in encouraging Hamas to reconcile, under the auspices of the Egyptian government, with its rival Palestinian movement Fatah.
The US change of policy towards Syria should help in the ongoing efforts to revive the peace process, although conditions don't seem favourable because of the Israeli expansion of colonies in the Occupied West Bank.
The Syrians have always been open to peace negotiations. Now it is up to the Americans to act and push their Israeli allies to commit to the conditions of peace.
