United States invites Syria to Peace Party

The United States announced on Sunday that Syria is welcome to participate in the peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, but only if it agrees to focus on Palestinian-Israeli issues, not on the Golan Heights.  Israel, Palestine and the U.S. are planning to meet to re-open the “roadmap to peace”  between the two nations.

Syria and Israel have remained officially at war since Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967. Syria has said it will not participate in any peace talks unless the Golan Heights is on the agenda.

Nearly 2 months on, all parties are silent on Syrian air strike

Nearly eight weeks have passed, and all is remains quiet regarding a Sept. 6 Israeli air strike on a Syrian military facility.  Many players have a lot at stake, including Syria, Israel, the US and North Korea.  Washington Post Deputy Editor Jackson Diehl spells out the diplomatic quandry in his editorial today:

“Now Israeli and U.S. officials are quietly debating whether to go on the record and allow those shock waves to explode across the Middle East and beyond. At stake are not only Israel’s tense relations with Syria, which so far has chosen not to retaliate, but a host of other pressure points: Israeli-Palestinian negotiations; the integrity of the International Atomic Energy Agency; Western leverage over Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad; and — not least — the fragile U.S. nuclear bargain with North Korea, which is believed to have aided the secret construction.”

Read the entire editorial here-

Syria won’t hold anti-Palestinian Authority conference

In response to outside pressure, Syria has forbidden a summit of Palestinian factions that was scheduled to be held in Damascus at the same time as the Annapolis Peace Conference. The factions included members of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, which opposes the leadership of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Both groups are on the US Department of State’s list of terrorist organizations.

Abbas is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Condoleeza Rice in Annapolis. The three will be attempting to reinitiate the “Roadmap to Peace”, a plan co-created in 2003 by the US, Europe and the UN.

Israel to Turkey: Sorry, we might have invaded your airspace

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert apologized to Turkey on Sunday for possibly invading Turkish airspace. Mr. Olmert refrained from admitting that it was during a Sept. 6 air strike on a Syrian military site.

Israel has yet to officially admit it carried out the strike. Turkish authorities have complained that Israel dropped fuel tanks on the country during the operation.

“If Israeli planes indeed penetrated Turkish airspace, then it was without prior intent or any intent to infringe upon or undermine Turkish sovereignty, which we respect,” a statement from Olmert’s office cited him as telling the Cabinet. In a conversation with Turkey’s prime minister last week, Olmert “expressed Israel’s apologies to the Turkish government and the Turkish people for any harm that might have been caused,” the statement said.