But one month later, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem of Syria in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt, in the first high-level diplomatic contact between Washington and Damascus in two years. Both sides described the 30-minute meeting as cordial, and Rice asked Moallem for Syria’s help to contain the flow of foreign fighters traveling through Damascus to Iraq.

Just a few months later, on September 6, Israeli jets bombed a site in Syria. About three weeks later, the US announced it would invite Syria to the Annapolis conference.

When Syrian officials dallied about whether to show up, demanding that the Golan Heights issue be put on the agenda, Arab officials asked Rice to modify the agenda to something the Syrians could accept. In the end, the US agreed to put the Israel-Syria issue on the conference agenda. And Damascus sent its deputy foreign minister, Faisal al-Mekdad, to the conference. He told a closed session that Israel should pull out of the Golan Heights.

Sean D. McCormack, the State Department spokesman, sounded downright benign in describing Syria’s role at the conference. “It was positive that they decided to come to Annapolis, and taken as a whole, their comments were constructive,” he said.

Bush officials said Syria had gotten better about actively trying to stop the flow of foreign fighters through Damascus to Iraq.

Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, said the ball was in Syria’s court. “I think for Syria, there is a fundamental choice,” Hadley said at a forum at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

... contd.