Word: syria
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...Since last May, Ankara has hosted several rounds of secret peace talks between Syria and Israel. It also played a role in helping secure the tenuous cease-fire that ended hostilities in Gaza earlier this year. Turkey has also been approached by Tehran to mediate in its standoff with Washington over Iran's nuclear program. A day after Secretary Clinton's Ankara visit, a high-profile Turkish delegation flew to Tehran, with whose regime Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's moderate Islamist-rooted government enjoys good relations...
...trafficking routes are both local and international, and most often connect to Syria, Jordan and the gulf (primarily the United Arab Emirates). The victims are trafficked either illegally on forged passports or "legally" through forced marriages. A married female, even one as young as 14, raises few suspicions if she's traveling with her "husband." The girls are then divorced upon arrival and put to work. (See Iraq's return to normality...
...nuclear weapons. In a letter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Obama asked for Moscow's help in dealing with Tehran, although the White House denied offering to curtail U.S. plans for a missile-defense shield in Eastern Europe as a quid pro quo. The Administration has also asked Syria and China to pressure Iran, but the diplomatic focus remains on Russia, which is helping Iran complete its first nuclear reactor in the southern port city of Bushehr, scheduled to go on line this summer. Iran claims its nuclear program is solely for peaceful electricity generation...
...have been linked to the Syrian intelligence services. "We don't engage in discussions for the sake of having conversations," Clinton said. "There has to be a purpose to them. There has to be some benefit accruing to the United States and our allies." Indirect talks between Israel and Syria, brokered by the Turks, ended with Israel's Gaza offensive...
...Israel balks at negotiating peace based on withdrawal from the Golan, there could very well be another war on its northern border. Unable to get what it needs by talking, Syria might be tempted to roll the dice and see what it can achieve by fighting. If so, it would be betting that just as the Jewish state wound up with egg on its face after wars in Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2009, Israel's political position would be further weakened by another war, even if the Syrian military is no match for Israel's in a head...