Syria will send its deputy foreign minister to the U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md. because the issue of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights has been added to the agenda, the state-run news agency said Sunday. The agency, SANA, said Syria will be represented at the conference by Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad. The decision was made "after the Syria track was added to the conference agenda," the agency said.Syria had said it will attend only if the conference discusses the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed. A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel saw the announcement as a positive development. "The meetings are clearly about the Israeli-Palestinian process, but could be the beginning of new avenues to peace in the Middle East," spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.
Broad Arab attendance at the Annapolis summit was a key goal for the U.S., which is hoping that could help bring about an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
Syria did not explain why it will not be sending its foreign minister, like other Arab participants, but the decision appears to indicate that it is not entirely confident the conference will address its concerns over the Golan Heights.