Wed Feb 17, 2010
DAMASCUS (AFP) - President Bashar al-Assad's security talks with Undersecretary of State William Burns on Wednesday a day after President Barack Obama has vowed to re-appoint an ambassador to Syria following an absence of five years.
He met architect of the pact, which helped in the return of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to the international arena with President Assad and participated in the talks, Daniel Benjamin, a senior U.S. official in the fight against terrorism.
Burns said after meeting Syrian president "does not have any illusions about the challenges."
"But my meeting with President al-Assad made me hopeful that we can make progress together for the benefit of our two countries."
Benjamin will remain counter-terrorism coordinator U.S. State Department in Syria on Thursday after the departure of Burns.
Burns said the intent is to "deepen the dialogue between us as we move forward."
In the era of Obama, the United States began to talk to the Syrian government to reverse the policy of isolation under former President George Bush.
The United States withdrew its ambassador from Damascus in 2005 after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in Beirut.
And Syria announced in that year it had suspended cooperation with the United States on Matcefh suspects in terrorism cases in the wake of U.S. criticism of Syria's role in Iraq.
But Syrian officials have met twice in the last year with a delegation of U.S. security in Damascus, although Syria is on a U.S. list of "state sponsors of terrorism" and has good relations with Iran.
The United States wants Syria to stop infiltration of militants into Iraq via the Syrian border, an issue which caused the deterioration of relations that Obama took power in the White House.
Washington wants Syria to rein in members of the Iraqi Baath Party who fled to Syria and be charged by the Iraqi government backed by the United States of encouraging violence in Iraq.
AFP
