Feltman: "We found a lot of common ground with Syria"

Source

In al jazeera/english, here

"..However, the US delegation did not meet Bashar al-Assad, Syria's preisdent, during their visit..."

Posted by G, Z, & or B at 10:22 AM

Obama to visit Ankara as the US... would welcome Turkey's contribution to improved ties to Syria

In the AP, here

"...A Turkish government official said Clinton told Babacan that the United States was looking to see whether "a new chapter" in relations with Syria was possible. She said the United States would welcome Turkey's contribution to improved ties to Syria. The Turkish official who was present in the meeting spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists.

Babacan on Saturday reiterated Turkey's position on the need to engage Hamas. Similarly, Turkey urged the United States to engage Iran, the official said. Clinton did not respond but took notes, he said..."

Posted by G, Z, & or B at 10:50 AM

Mapping peace between Syria and Israel

I follow Syrian politics only tangentially while mining for news about Palestine. Still, I read this post at Syria Comment recently about Frederic C. Hof who comes out as a rather interesting figure.

Mr. Hof has just published a report about peace between Syria and Israel, a summary of which, as well as a link to the full report in pdf format, can be found here.