Obama envoy arrives in Syria for talks with Assad

U.S. President Barack Obama's special envoy to the Middle East arrived in Damascus on Saturday for talks with President Bashar Assad on the prospects of reviving Syrian-Israeli peace talks.

George Mitchell's visit is the latest U.S. diplomatic outreach to a country deemed a state sponsor of terrorism.

Last month, during his first trip to Syria since he took up his post, Mitchell became the highest-level U.S. administration official to visit Damascus since 2005. He acknowledged Syria's clout, declaring Damascus has a key role to play in promoting peace in the region.

Mitchell did not speak to reporters after his arrival at Damascus airport Saturday.During his meeting Sunday with Assad, Mitchell is set to also discuss bilateral relations. Mitchell will later travel to Israel as part of U.S. efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

The Obama administration had a series of meetings with Syria and hopes the diplomatic outreach will encourage Damascus to play a positive role in both the Middle East peace process and also in Iraq.

Syria is seen as a major player in this process because of its support for the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, its backing for Hezbollah in Lebanon, and its intermittent peace talks with Israel.

Turkey has said it is prepared to resume mediating peace talks between Syria and Israel.

Syria also maintains close links with Iran, whose disputed nuclear program is a matter of international concern.

Mitchell's visit to Syria follows two separate trips in the past few months by senior U.S. officials Jeffrey Feltman, acting assistant secretary of state,and Daniel Shapiro, a Middle East expert at the White House, as part of talks about improving relations with a country shunned by former U.S. president George W. Bush.

Ahead of Mitchell's visit, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said his country is working to rebuild its diplomatic relationship with the United States. The U.S. withdrew its ambassador to Syria in 2005 to protest alleged Syrian actions in Lebanon. The Obama administration said last month it plans to send an ambassador to Syria, though no date has been set.

Moallem, speaking in London after talks with his British counterpart David Miliband Friday, said Syria is looking forward to Mitchell's visit as the first step of dialogue.

He said Syria would lobby Mitchell on the issue of the Golan Heights ? a strategic plateau conquered by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War and which Syria wants back.

During his June 13 visit that marked the strongest U.S. push yet to improve relations with Damascus, Mitchell said that Syria has a key role to play in forging peace in the region

The Obama administration has stepped up pressure on Arab countries to help resume Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and also pursue a peace deal with Israel themselves.

Despite the diplomatic overtures, the Obama administration renewed Bush-era economic sanctions against Syria in May as a way to keep pressure on the country to cooperate.

The Bush administration imposed the sanctions and withdrew its ambassador in 2005 following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut. Many Lebanese politicians have blamed Syria for the killing - a charge Damascus has denied.

Syria: We can help solve Iran nuclear dispute

On Friday, Moualem also said that Syria could play a role in finding a political solution to nuclear and other disputes between Iran and the West.

The key dispute is over Iran's nuclear program which the West suspects is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Tehran says it only wants civilian nuclear power.

"We support [a] political solution for issues standing between Iran and the West," Moualem told a news conference with Miliband.

"For that, we believe we can play a role but we cannot take decisions on behalf of Iran. They have to take their decisions according to their interest," Moualem said.

He gave no details of what role Syria, a close ally of Iran, could play.

Major powers have offered Iran trade and other incentives in return for halting uranium enrichment but Iran has not responded.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has shown signs of taking a tougher approach toward the West after he won a disputed election in June, which was followed by days of protests that killed at least 20 people.

Miliband said Syria was in a "unique position to influence Iranian policy choices."

"I think it's very, very important that we make clear to the Iranian authorities the significance ... of the policy choices that the new government makes, because there is a very clear offer on the table in respect of its nuclear, but also its wider regional perspectives," Miliband said.

Moualem repeated a longstanding Syrian proposal that the Middle East should be made a zone free of weapons of mass destruction, whether nuclear, chemical or biological.

He said he had asked Miliband to press the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution on a weapons-free zone in the Middle East, which he said would have to include Israel.

"We know that Israel is producing nuclear arms. This is how we can address the Iranian public opinion that there would be no double standard in approaching the nuclear program," he said.

Syria has been at odds with the International Atomic Energy Agency about a site destroyed by an Israeli raid that the United States said was an illegal nuclear reactor. Syria said the site was a non-nuclear military complex.

Moualem refused to answer a question from a reporter for Israel Radio who asked whether Syria would stop the flow of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah, a Shi'ite Muslim group that fought a war against Israel in 2006.

The foreign minister also told reporters in London that his country is working to rebuild its diplomatic relationship with the U.S.