December 17, 2007 (LPAC)--Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustafa told a packed audience at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. today, that it is Russia, not the U.S., that will play the major role in furthering the talks between Israel and Syria, to end the Israeli occupation of Syrian territory, i.e. the Golan Heights. The Ambassador was optimistic about the possibility of this track moving, but he was also extremely frank in condemning the current U.S. administration for its failure "until seven months ago," at a meeting at Sharm El Sheikh (Egypt) to pursue any of President Bashar al-Assad's initiatives to cooperate with the U.S., and to reopen talks to Israel.

Moustafa reviewed the history of Syrian-U.S. relations, especially since the Iraq war, which Syria opposed, and therefore got put on the top list of "rogue nations" because of this. In January, 2005, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage (under Powell) came to Syria, and communicated a list of demands for Syria to agree to, in order to normalize U.S. relations. All conditions were met, he said, but when the "new team" came into the State Dept., the relations with Syria were put into deep freeze. When Condi Rice reopened the talks at multi-lateral meetings in Spring 2007, the Syrian government kept demanding diplomatic talks at a high level, and refused to attend Annapolis until "three days before" the meeting, when the State Dept. informed the Syrian government that the agenda would include a session on the Israeli-Syria and Israeli-Lebanon tracks as Syria had demanded.

In response to a question from EIR about Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations, including the references in the Israeli newspapers from top Israeli officials like Shimon Peres, and many others, talking about the necessity to make peace with Syria, and whether there were any talks going on at present, the Ambassador thanked EIR for reminding him to mention this very important issue--that many top Israelis do openly call for negotiations with Syria. But, he insisted, Syria does not want only "back channels"--though there are several. "Secret talks" are not what Syria wants; President Assad has been clear: "We want peace." He said this means peace talks openly "in the sunshine". EIR's being the last question, set the tone for WWC Middle East Director Haleh Esfandiari to conclude the forum saying she hopes to have Moustafa return for a talk that includes the Israeli Ambassador when such talks begin.