Syria on Sunday announced that it would attend the U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference starting in Annapolis, Maryland, this week. The deputy foreign minister Fayssal al-Mekdad will be making the trip to the three days of meetings in Maryland and Washington, SANA news agency reported.
Damascus decided to participate after receiving a copy of the agenda stating there would be a session on the Syrian-Israeli peace track, sources told Reuters.
Israel has already welcomed Syria's announcement. "Israel sees in a positive way the high-ranking participation of Syria in a conference which is clearly about the Israeli-Palestinian track, but could open additional avenues to peace in the Middle East," said Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
