Damascus, February 19: Daniel Benjamin, the US State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism, met with a group of Syrian officials on Thursday for “productive and detailed” talks, the US embassy said.
The two sides discussed “shared counterterrorism concerns and threats,” it said, adding that “we believe Syria can play a constructive role in mitigating these and other threats in cooperation with regional states and the United States.”
Benjamin, and a delegation of other senior officials, was in Syria as part of a visit by William Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs, that came as another sign Syria is emerging from international isolation as a major player in the Middle East.
Washington’s ties with Damascus had been strained by Syria’s three-decade alliance with Iran and US allegations of meddling in the affairs of its eastern neighbour, Iraq.
Syrian support for Lebanon’s Shiite militant group Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which rules Gaza have also proved a stumbling block.
But President Barack Obama has just appointed a new ambassador to Damascus, ending a five-year hiatus. Washington recalled its ambassador in 2005 following the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri. That killing was widely blamed on Syria, which has roundly denied any involvement.
Also, according to Seymour Hersh of New Yorker magazine, cooperation has been restored between the CIA and Syria’s intelligence services.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in 2008 that he would not renew security cooperation with the United States until diplomatic relations were restored.
—Agencies