Djirjian visited Damascus secretly

News reports in Damascus quoted western diplomatic sources as saying that chairman of the Baker Institute for Studies, Edward Djirjian, who was the former US ambassador in each of Syria and Israel visited Damascus during the two recent days and met with its senior officials, expecting to include President Bashar al-Assad.

The sources loomed that Djirjian carried "new thought concerning the Syrian-Israeli peace agreement and improving American- Syrian relations." However, Syrian sources refused to comment on the matter. Moreover, the American embassy in Damascus said that visit was not official because of the private nature of Djirjian work.

However, Djirjian had run unofficial dialogue between Syria and the US on two phases in Huston and Damascus, while the third round of such talks which was due in Syria in 2004 was not convened.