Turkey Re-enters the Fray
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan met with Bashar al-Assad earlier today in Aleppo. According to SANA (Syrian Arab News Agency) and Ha’aretz, Turkish mediation of Syrian-Israeli talks will resume. As mentioned just days ago on this blog, this was the format Syria preferred. Will the new round of indirect talks bear fruit or are they another set of smoke and mirrors?
The Obama administration has focused on resurrecting peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians since day one of taking office. However, George Mitchell’s team faces a series of non-starters with Israel (settlement construction in East Jerusalem) and the Palestinians (Fatah-HAMAS split). The Syrian and Israeli positions are better suited to reach a compromise. The U.S. should re-assess the feasibility of its efforts and push hard for an agreement between Syria and Israel.
