DAMASCUS, Syria — A pair of U.S. lawmakers visited the Syrian capital Sunday in an attempt to persuade the Arab state to make peace with Israel and to woo it from the Iranian sphere of orbit.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., visited Syria after a trip to neighboring Israel, which gave the lawmakers’ mediation effort its blessing. Israel and Syria have been in a state of war for decades despite occasional diplomatic forays.
Israel hopes to draw the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad out of its alliances with Iran, the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah and the militant Palestinian group Hamas.
Specter, ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he hoped U.S. intervention would revive a dormant dialogue between Syria and Israel.
“The time is right now, and prospects are very good,” Specter told reporters Sunday on his 16th visit to Syria since 1984. “The parties will continue talks through intermediaries, and it’s my hope and expectation at some point, if preliminary progress has been made, the U.S. government would be ready, too.”
Syrian officials voiced doubt that much would come out of the mediation effort as long as there is no movement on the issue of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East War.
Peace talks collapsed in 2000 over the extent of an Israeli pullout. In one poll this year, 10 percent of Israelis surveyed supported a full withdrawal.
