Washington-Damascus detente

In the NYTimes/ here

" ... Mr. Mekdad praised President Obama for his readiness to plunge into the Middle East thicket, and for what he said was a more balanced approach to the region than that of President George W. Bush, whom he accused of encouraging extremist elements with his unstinting support of Israel. “We think the tarnished image of the United States under President Bush is now getting better,” he said. “President Obama believes in dialogue for solving international problems, which we welcome.”..... 

The détente underscores the important role the administration believes that Syria — a neighbor of Iraq, a friend of Iran, and an antagonist of Israel — could play in the Middle East. The timing of Mr. Mekdad’s visit the same week as the Iran talks was noteworthy, analysts said, because it could keep both countries, which have close but complicated ties, off balance. “The Iranians are nervous that the Syrians are going to make a deal with the U.S., just as the Syrians are nervous that the Iranians are going to have their own deal,” said Martin S. Indyk, the director of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution and a longtime Middle East negotiator....

These days, Syria’s greatest tensions are with Iraq ..."