DEBKAfile Exclusive: In advance of Rice’s Middle East visit, Washington warns Olmert that its dialogue with Damascus is about to resume
Our Washington and Middle East sources report the secret US message warns Israeli prime minister that the Bush administration has decided to go back to direct diplomacy with Syria during or before the international peace conference opening in Annapolis on Nov.26. The level of the resumed talks has not yet been determined; the US ambassador may be sent back to Damascus to lead his country’s delegation in face-to-face meetings with Syrian officials, repeating the pattern and level the US-Iranian ambassadorial talks in Baghdad (which, DEBKAfile notes, have so far produced nothing).
To calm Israel’s unease about a US-Syrian track running over its head, the American message assured prime minister Ehud Olmert that matters of concern to Israel, such as the future of Golan, will not be addressed, only such issues as Iran, Iraq and Lebanon. [..]
In the Bazaar otherwise known as lets make a deal marketplace of the middle east, you never get something for nothing. Everything is negotiable. Israel will be the American coin of payment for whatever they want to get from the Syrians. If our situation were not so serious it would play like an old French farce.
I thought the Syria track was already held in January, 2000 at Shepherdstown, West Virginia (Baverian Inn).
Is it diplomacy or the Motel Work Relief Act of 2007, as amended ?
Not discuss Golan? Would a Beijing-Taipei meeting not discuss the Taiwan Strait ? Would an EU meeting not discuss Strasbourg versus Brussels ? C’mon now !