American attempt to support relations with Syria

US Senator Arlen Specter is likely to visit the Syrian capital on January 3, followed by two other congressional and Arab American delegations will visit Syria on January 7.

High-level diplomatic sources told ArabicNews.com that Martin Indyk's (the assistant foreign minister) discussions in Damascus will focus on developing bilateral relations with Syria, saying that the coming months will witness the consequences of this policy which started at the initiative of Indyk and Christopher Ross, the American ambassador in Damascus.

The US is trying to restart the stalled Israeli-Syrian negotiations for the first time since February 1996 by sending Martin Indyk and Dennis Ross, the American peace process coordinator back to the Middle East

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The US differs with Syria over terrorism. The Syrian foreign minister asked the US to remove Syria's name from the list of countries which support terrorism ( a yearly published list by the US State Department), as this prevents improving economic trade between the two nations. They also disagree on supporting the Lebanese Hizbullah group, which is waging a war of attrition against Israeli occupation forces in south Lebanon.