Turkish President Abdullah Gul will on Wednesday travel to Syria for a meeting with President Bashar al-Assad. Jerusalem appears to prefer ignoring the planned visit rather than commenting, but officials do point out the last meeting between the two took place in December 2008, shortly following the decision to conduct mediated talks between Jerusalem and Damascus.

Turkey was acting as the intermediary between Israel and Syria during the Olmert administration, which conducted limited talks with Damascus.

Last week, Assistant US Mideast envoy Fred Hoff, an expert on Syrian affairs, visited both Israel and Syria.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)