Syria Says It Wants Talks With the U.S.

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070312/D8NQSVEO0.html

Syria Says It Wants Talks With the U.S.
Email this Story

Mar 12, 6:09 PM (ET)

By ALBERT AJI

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Syria told a visiting U.S. State Department official Monday that it is willing to engage in "serious" dialogue with Washington on all Middle East issues, just days after both countries attended a conference in Baghdad on restoring security to Iraq.

Ellen Sauerbrey, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, is the most senior American official to visit Syria since the U.S. withdrew its ambassador following the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

U.S. officials rarely visit Syria, although Washington has said in recent months it wants to reach out to Damascus over the fate of the estimated 1.5 million Iraqi refugees that have sought sanctuary in Syria since the beginning of the Iraq war.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack stressed that Sauerbrey's trip was not a "bilateral mission," saying she was accompanying the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees on a humanitarian visit to discuss the refugee crisis.

FULL story at link.

[Greeby]

1. Shhh, don't say you want talks, Syria

Bush's reponse to any country that wants to talk is "We begin bombing in five minutes"

[katsy]

2. Better they wait...

for an "articulate" President.

I don't believe the Syrians will understand the grunts, stutters and who knows what they'll make of the knuckle dragging buffoons in there now.

[TheWatcher]

3. Don't Worry, After A Brief Stop In Iran, Our Bombers Will Be There Soon.

:sarcasm:

[Amused Musings]

4. You mean

Syria wants to be more than a depository for secret prisoners to be tortured?

Syria wants to move this relationship out of the purely physical phase.