U.S. backs out of talks with Syrian delegation

"Representatives from the State Department will not meet with this group from Syria," said department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos. "Upon review of their program and changes in schedules, ultimately this did not work out."

He declined to be specific on why Washington, which had agreed to the meeting, backed out abruptly.

The decision came after a key member of the Syrian group, Riad Daoudi, the legal adviser to the foreign ministry, at the last minute cancelled his trip to Washington, where the delegation was scheduled to attend a private forum.

Daoudi, a Syrian lead negotiator with Israeli officials in Turkey, reportedly had to remain in Damascus for talks with a Turkish delegation.

Despite his absence, the State Department confirmed on Tuesday that the meeting would go ahead with others in the group -- including a consultant to Syrian prime minister Ahmad Samir al-Taki, who is also director of the Orient Center for International Studies in Damascus.

Asked to explain, Gallegos said, "My understanding at that time was that they had requested it, that we had looked at the meeting, and we were going to meet with them.

"Today, conditions have changed, and were not going to be meeting with them," he said. "Our understanding is this group did not come here to meet with US government representatives."

Syria is on a U.S. blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism. Washington also accuses it of allowing foreign fighters to cross into Iraq, allowing arms to flow into Lebanon, hosting Palestinian militant groups and violating human rights.

The State Department had said on Monday that its point man for Middle East affairs David Welch was prepared to meet with the Syrian team although they were here in a "private" capacity.

Still, the move to hold the talks came in the wake of a tactical shift in the Bush administrations Middle East dealings following the participation of the State Departments number three official, William Burns, in talks in Geneva last week over Iran’s nuclear program.

The Syrian groups visit was sponsored by Search for Common Ground, an international non-governmental organization headquartered in Washington and Brussels, which had sought the talks with the State Department.

When asked to comment on the abrupt cancellation of the talks, Imad Moustapha, Syria’s ambassador in Washington, said, "This is an
American choice.

"If they want to talk to Syrian NGOs or not -- this question should be addressed to the State Department and not to us," he told U.S.-based Alhurra television.

The United States had welcomed a decision by Lebanon and Syria to open diplomatic relations announced during a landmark visit by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to France.

But U.S.-Syria ties would remain limited unless Damascus changed its "destabilizing" behavior, the State Department had said.

Moustapha called it an "old fashioned way of dialogue," saying that Washington should take note of new developments in the Middle East.

Among the changes were Turkey's move to mediate indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria, Egypt’s brokering of a military truce between Israel and the Palestinian faction Hamas and a prisoner swap between militant group Hezbollah and Israel.