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Last update - 17:57 08/07/2008 Syria says will send envoy to France in sign of renewed ties By Barak Ravid ,Haaretz Correspondent, and The Associated Press Tags: Bashar Assad, France  Syria's top diplomat in London says Damascus will soon send a new ambassador to Paris and end a freeze on diplomatic ties. Sami Khiyami says a new representative will likely be sent to France in the very near future. Syria has not had an ambassador in Paris since 2006. Ties between Paris and Damascus soured over the death of Lebanon's Rafik Hariri in 2005. Syria has always denied any involvement in Hariri's death. Advertisement Khiyami said Tuesday that France had realized that relations with Syria are vital to bringing peace to the Mideast. But he has declined to say if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will announce the appointment of a new Paris ambassador during talks in France this weekend. Khiyami said he believed France now realizes that relations with Syria are vital to bringing peace to the Mideast. "We notice that France has recognized after all, and since Mr. Chirac departed, the real valve of security and stability in the Middle East is Syria," Khiyami told The Associated Press in an interview. "This position is becoming contagious in Europe, and this is something we consider positive. We hope that this contagion will catch the United Kingdom very soon," he said. Assad is due to hold talks with French President Nicholas Sarkozy on Saturday before a Mediterranean summit that will bring scores of regional leaders to the French capital. Khiyami said Syria had been reluctant to appoint a new ambassador because of what Syria perceived as Chirac's frostiness. "Nowadays, I think it is a matter to be addressed in the very near future," Khiyami said, speaking at the Syrian Embassy in London. "Naturally, there is a French ambassador in Damascus and there should be a Syrian ambassador in Paris," he said. Last month, France pledged to Israel that it will slow down its rapprochement with Syria until Syria shows its willingness to distance itself from the extremist axis, particularly Iran. That is the message Sarkozy was to bring Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at their meeting last month in Jerusalem, according to diplomatic sources in Israel and France. Preparatory talks for Sarkozy's visit were held in Paris between Olmert's advisors Yoram Turbowicz and Shalom Turgeman and Sarkozy's advisers Jean-David Levitte and Claude Gueant. Two days previously, the teams had met with senior Syrian officials - the French in Damascus and the Israelis in Istanbul through Turkish mediators. Turbowicz and Turgeman have reportedly asked France to tread carefully in its contacts with Damascus, because Syria has still done nothing to gain international legitimization. Olmert's advisors also said that France is a very important element in Syria's disengagement from the "axis of evil," and therefore "cards must be kept aside to be played in the coming moves." Sarkozy's advisors told the Israelis that they understood the concerns, and went to Damascus mainly because of Syria's assistance in the presidential election in Lebanon that had ended the political crisis there. The French reportedly conceded that they "may have been hasty," and added that they intended to "put on the brakes a little" with regard to Syria. Sarkozy's advisors also said that the Syrians told them in Damascus that talks with Israel were "serious," and the Syrians "want to move ahead." France and Syria have been moving closer in recent weeks after several months of rift due to the situation in Lebanon. One sign of the rapproachement was a phone call between Sarkozy and Assad, and Sarkozy's invitation to Assad to the summit of Mediterranean countries in Paris on July 13. The conciliation with Syria has been criticized in France, among others by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner who said he was uncomfortable with Assad's invitation to Paris. Related articles: Syria tells UN: Israel is burying nuclear waste in Golan Heights Shimon Peres / The French-Israeli fairytale The French connection Sarkozy to Knesset: A nuclear Iran is intolerable Bookmark to del.icio.us   Prisoner exchange Israel signs swap deal, begins exhuming bodies of Hezbollah guerillas. Provocative questions Gaydamak tells TAU student to 'shut up and go to hell' over Angola question.

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