The Obama administration is pressing Syria to resume long-stalled peace talks with Israel as part of its push for broad settlement between Arab countries and the Jewish state.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met on Monday in New York with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem to make the case for negotiations. The State Department said Clinton was the first secretary of state to meet Syria’s top diplomat in three years, although special Mideast envoy George Mitchell has made several visits to Syria in the past year.

