Güncelleme Tarihi:
"Representatives from the State Department will not meet with this group from
He declined to be specific on why
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
Daoudi, a Syrian lead negotiator with Israeli officials in
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
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."
The State Department had said on Monday that its point man for
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
When asked to comment on the abrupt cancellation of the talks,
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
But U.S.-Syria ties would remain limited unless
Moustapha called it an "old fashioned way of dialogue," saying that
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.