Al-Shara confers with US under secretary of state
Syria-USA, Politics, 4/20/2001

The Syrian Foreign minister Farouk al- Shara on Thursday in Damascus received the US under secretary of state for the Near East affairs Edward Walker.

Present at the meeting were the Syrian deputy foreign minister Walid al-Muaallim, the director of America department at the foreign ministry Hamzeh Hamzeh and the US ambassador in Damascus.

Talks dealt with the tense situation in the region in light of the policy of escalation and aggression pursued by the Israeli government and the grave consequences as a result of that.

Talks also dealt with the recent Israeli aggression against a Syrian position in Lebanon and its impact on threatening security and stability in the region.

Walker expressed his country's concern over the tense situation in the region resulted from the recent Israeli attack against one of the Syrian positions working in Lebanon and described it as a grave escalation. He called for keeping conditions in the region under control.

In statements to pressmen following his meeting with al-Shara, Walker described his talks with al-Shara as fruitful and vast. He added that these talks dealt with conditions in the region and the efforts exerted by the US to control the tense situation in the region in a way to resume the peace process.

Replying to a question, Walker said that due to prevailing conditions in the region the US has become more involved in the peace process, stressing that the US will continue working to this effect as there is no way but to establish peace in the region.

Earlier in the day al-Shara received member of the US Senate Arlen Specter and members of the accompanying delegation. The two sides discussed conditions in the region. Spekter described his talks with al-Shara as very good, noting that these talks dealt with several issues in the region and international conditions.

Specter added he has discussed with al-Shara issues pertaining to the ME peace process and what has been reached earlier to this end, noting that his visit to Damascus falls in the course of seeking to understand conditions in the region in a good way and that his talks with al-Shara to this effect was very useful.

Replying to a question on the aim behind the US criticism of Israel because of its aggression against the territories fall under the Palestinian Authority and whether this criticism indicates a change in the US administration's attitude, Specter said the US administration has to talk about this matter and to answer it. We in the Congress are separated from the US administration and we do not talk on their behalf.

Specter expressed his hope that sides concerned will be able to once again resume peace negotiations very soon.

Previous Stories:
  US opposes Syria's accession to the UN Security Council   (4/2/2001)
  American conditions to nominate Syria for the UN security council   (3/29/2001)
  Al-Assad's visit to Washington   (3/21/2001)

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