Obama administration 'sending envoys to Damascus'

Damascus: According to the Wall Street Journal, the Obama administration is dispatching two high level envoys to Damascus for a second round of talks with President Bashar Al Assad.

They will be Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman and National Security Council official Daniel Shapiro, having made the trip earlier this year, sent by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Coinciding with the visit was a statement by former President Jimmy Carter saying that Syria and the US are closer than ever to restoring diplomatic ties - by sending an ambassador to Damascus, to fill a post that has been vacant since 2005. Carter added: "I wouldn't be surprised if it happens this year."

While relations between Washington and Damascus seemed to improve, there was stalemate and confusion on the Syrian-Israeli peace track.

Talks had been suspended by the Syrians after the Israeli invasion of Gaza last December, and came to a grinding halt when the right-wing Israeli government came to power, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman recently alarmed the Syrians by saying that he cannot see Syria as a real peace partner, noting that if talks were to begin, they would "with no preconditions."

By uttering these words, Lieberman is actually killing what the Syrians call, "the spirit of Madrid" which adopts the land-for-peace formula, based on UN Resolutions and restoration of the Golan Heights, in full, to Syria. Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Employment, was quick at sending a contradictory message to Syrians, telling the Israeli daily Haaretz, that "serious negotiations" were about to commence with the Syrians. He added: "Netanyahu is going to surprise us all&it is not the same Bibi! He is much more open, patient, and relaxed!"

Immediately, Defence Minister Ehud Barak gave another assuring statement, saying: "Negotiations with Syria should always be part of the Israel government's agenda."

The Syrians insist that any peace talks would need serious commitment on behalf of the new Israeli Prime Minister, something that apparently, Netanyahu is unwilling to offer. Barak and Ben Eliezer's words mean little, since the Syrians remember only too well that in late 2007, similar assurances were made, by Barak himself, shortly before Israeli sent war planes to strike into Syrian territory. Al Assad ended speculation by speaking to Austrian daily, Die Presse, saying that he doesn't see peace talks in the foreseeable future because the Netanyahu government is "extreme, far-right" and that "does not support peace."

Speaking from Europe, where he recently wrapped up a state visit to Vienna and Bratislava, Al Assad said: "What counts in the end is that there is occupied territory that must be returned to Syria, and then we can talk about peace. Governments [in Israel] come and go; whereas peace is a fixed goal that one must work towards consistently, even when there is no partner."

Syria's willingness to talk peace has not changed, stressed Ambassador to Washington Imad Mustafa, who added that his country was always interested in talks, aimed at restoring the Golan Heights, "despite the Israeli position"