Syria is calling for talks with the United States to cover all areas of contention in the Middle East, a state newspaper said on Tuesday. “Syria wants to engage in a dialogue with the United States concerning all issues: Palestine, the Golan Heights, Iraq, Lebanon as well as anything else to do with Arab countries,” an editorial in the official Ath Thawra said. | “Syria insists on a serious and profound dialogue on all subjects without exception.” |
Washington accuses Damascus of backing militants in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. The Golan Heights were captured from Syria by Israel during the 1967 war and subsequently annexed. “If the United States was serious it would have asked to discuss all the region’s problems with a view to solving them, as all the questions are inter-linked,” the paper said. Earlier this month, Washington authorized US charged’ affaires in Damascus Michael Corbin to meet Syrian officials about a growing Iraqi refugee crisis despite the continuing freeze on high-level contacts with Damascus.
Officials made clear this did not represent a break with standing US policy not to have high-level diplomatic dealings with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al Assad. “By raising the matter of Iraqis in Syria, the United States wants only to discuss the results and not the cause,” which is the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Ath Thawra said.