DAR AL HARB / ISLAM - U.S.A. / SYRIA: U.S. OF A. SENDING DIPLOMAT TO SYRIA, AFTER A 2 YEAR ABSENCE

New signs of US-Syria thaw as official sets visit

WASHINGTON - Washington pressed its new policy of diplomatic opening, saying Thursday it will send a high-ranking official to Syria for the first time in two years.

Assistant Secretary of State Ellen Sauerbrey will travel to Damascus ‘in coming weeks’ as part of a regional tour dealing with ‘humanitarian issues related to Iraqi refugees,’ said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

Playing down the diplomatic significance of the trip, McCormack said Sauerbrey would be ‘paired’ on the tour with a representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). ‘It’s not a bilateral mission,’ he said.

But he said Sauerbrey, who handles refugee and migration affairs at the State Department, would be authorized to meet with her Syrian counterparts to discuss the refugee issue.
She will also visit Jordan and possibly other countries in the region, he said.

Sauerbrey will be the highest-ranking US official to visit Syria since early 2005, when then-deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage traveled to Damascus.

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1) New signs of US-Syria thaw as official sets visit