Ankara and Damascus were once allies, but over the past two years, they've been at each others' throats.
In recent years the governments in Baghdad and Damascus have talked of a new pipeline to Banias, on the Syrian coast.
Relations between Moscow and Damascus have been getting closer recently - this visit is Mr Assad's third to Russia in three years.
On the Palestinian side they include Hamas's refusal to recognise Israel explicitly, tension between Hamas's domestic and Damascus-based leaders, and its waning authority over other armed groups.
This was not confirmed in Washington, but on September 17th the Syrian newspaper Tishrin claimed that Mrs Albright had agreed to shuttle between Jerusalem and Damascus, to get that long-dormant negotiation going again.
Owing to the volatile security situation, it has not been possible to assess the extent of the damage to the ancient city of Aleppo and several other World Heritage sites including the Crac des Chevaliers, Palmyra, the Ancient Villages in Northern Syria and Damascus.
And there is a somewhat moist-eyed account of a peace symposium convened by the conductor Daniel Barenboim that called for more European mediation a call in which one cannot help but hear a subconscious lament by the eminent and worldly participants that Jerusalem and Damascus were not more like Vienna and Paris in the first place.
The world is full of reconcilables and deal-makers, bazaaris one and all in Damascus and Tehran and Palestine.
Olmert and Peretz hope to somehow convince Hamas and Fatah and their bosses in Damascus and Teheran that they are better off coughing up Shalit.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Olmert's response to Palestinian violence
It asked member states to withdraw their ambassadors, and urged Damascus to end violence against protesters.
Robert Ford, the former U.S. envoy to Syria, said the Obama administration was concerned and trying to verify the reports out of Aleppo province and the Damascus suburbs.
The United Nations announced Monday that Valerie Amos, its under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, will visit Damascus and Beirut, Lebanon, starting Tuesday.
Analysts long have said that there could be a turning point in Syria if the unrest that has raged in major provincial cities such as Homs, Hama, Daraa, and Deir Ezzor were to spread to the larger cities of Damascus and Aleppo.
The regulation seems designed to address growing Syrian resentments and to demonstrate that Damascus controls the border and those who cross it.
After a rollercoaster of twists and turns, the road flattens out to reveal small towns like Damascus and Galax, the latter home to a weekly bluegrass night.
"When the merchants of Hamidiya -- the main souq (marketplace) -- go on strike, you know you have lost the conscience and heart of Damascus, " wrote Joshua Landis, a Syria expert and director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.
This has led to accusations from Ankara that Syria and its ally Iran are providing support to the PKK, charges denied by both Damascus and Tehran.
And today, only, I've received another letter from the people escape from Baghdad to Damascus and they are penniless.
He said that we have a consulate in Damascus and that Syria knows the U.S. position.
Violence has spread in recent weeks to Syria's two biggest cities, Damascus and Aleppo.
The U.S. Embassies in Damascus and Amman continued to turn down almost all visa applications from Iraqis.
Flying between Riyadh, Damascus and Ankara, he is trying to coax Turkey into lowering its belligerent tone.
Syria's government acknowledged that military installations were hit at three different locations between Damascus and the Lebanese border.
In statements apparently aimed at Damascus and Moscow, Ms. Rice said the world faced three possible outcomes in Syria.
Those who survived were taken to Baghdad and flown to Damascus last week.
Arabs took to the streets throughout the Middle East, storming the American embassy in Damascus and demonstrating in Rabat.
State TV said military forces conducted operations around Damascus and in the provinces of Hassaka, Daraa, and Idlib and Aleppo.
In September, his first month on the job, Brahimi met Assad in Damascus and visited Syrian refugee camps in Turkey and Jordan.
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