US-Syrian dialogue to remove Syria from terrorism list

The London-based al-Hayat daily on Sunday quoted western diplomatic sources as saying Damascus and Washington have recently initiated a dialogue pertaining to lifting Syria's name from a US list of terrorism-sponsoring states.

In its Sunday issue the paper said that appointing US ambassador in Damascus Christopher Ross as chairman of terrorism fighting department at the US State Department following the end of his term of office in Damascus in February will help in this respect, especially because Syrian officials trust ambassador Ross, who has been working in Damascus since 1993.