US turns down Syrian request -- GOPUSA

US turns down Syrian request
By BARRY SCHWEID
Associated Press
July 24, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The State Department reversed course and turned down a Syrian delegation's request for a meeting with a top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East.

State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said Wednesday that Assistant Secretary of State David Welch would not meet the delegation. Earlier, the United States had said that Welch would schedule a meeting if requested.

Gallegos said, "We're unable to meet with them now." He said the United States considers the trip, organized by a non-governmental organization, Search for Common Ground, a private visit.

The delegation includes Ahmad Samir al-Taki, an adviser to Syrian Prime Minister Naji Otari. Al-Taki said the group would meet on Thursday with members of Congress.

Israel and Syria have been holding indirect talks on a possible peace accord through Turkish intermediaries.

Reporting on Syria's views at a news conference, al-Taki said that his country had made a "strategic" decision to pursue a land-for-peace treaty with Israel. But he said the talks would be futile if Israel did not agree to relinquish all of the Golan Heights, which it captured during the 1967 Mideast war.

"Our main condition is full land for peace," he said. "Syria would not enter into negotiations without that assurance."

Israel offered to turn over the Golan Heights to Syria in 2000 in negotiations in Washington sponsored by the Clinton administration. But the talks collapsed after Syria's demand for access to the Sea of Galilee was rejected by Israel, which relies on it for water.

Al-Taki, speaking at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, said there were ways of solving the Sea of Galilee issue.

"Peace is our strategy of choice," he said. "And we will do it as soon as possible."

The United States and and Syria have diplomatic ties but an uneasy relationship. There is no U.S. ambassador in Damascus and Syria is on the State Department's state sponsor of terrorism list.

Al-Taki said successful peacemaking requires the presence of "an external power" and the presence of the United States would be very important.