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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Britain urges Syria to move on Middle East peace |
| 2008-11-19 |
| Oh, yeah. That should work well. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, during a visit to Damascus, urged Syria and Israel on Tuesday to forge ahead with peace talks and said the Syrian-backed Palestinian group Hamas was hurting efforts to end Middle East conflict. Miliband, whose talks in Damascus are the first by a British foreign secretary since 2000, said he supported Damascus's efforts to strike a peace deal with Israel, which could see Lebanon and other Arab states that have not signed follow. Syria and Israel have held four rounds of indirect talks, meditated by Turkey, but they were suspended about two months ago after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resigned over a corruption scandal. "We welcome the four rounds of talks that have taken place ...and we hope that they will be taken forward with new force," Miliband said after meeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Miliband said he had discussed with Assad efforts to forge peace in the Middle East and expressed to him Britain's satisfaction over Syria's establishment of ties with Lebanon and Iraq. Syria and Lebanon formally established diplomatic ties in October for the first time since they both became independent 60 years ago. The move turned a page in relations between Lebanon and Syria, which dominated its tiny neighbor for nearly three decades until it pulled its troops from Lebanon in April 2005. For his part Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said that Syria wanted "to take advantage of the good ties that the West has with Israel in order to achieve a global peace" in the Middle East. |
| Posted by:Fred |