The State Department informed Syria’s ambassador in Washington, Imad Mustafa, of this decision on Tuesday. He welcomed the initiative and said it would boost US involvement in West Asian affairs.
The Bush administration alienated Syria by alleging that Damascus was implicated in the assassination in February 2005 of former Lebanese Premier Rafiq Hariri. But the recent release by a Lebanese court of four senior intelligence officers charged with involvement undermined the case for a conspiracy between these men and their Syrian counterparts put forward by anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians, the US and France.
Published 24 June 2009, 17:01 IST