This, and the indirect negotiations with Israel that are now underway in Turkey – which Assad knows cannot produce major results, given Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s political weakness and Bush’s lame-duck status – have helped to open for Syria the gates of Europe, where he had also once been a pariah. Moreover, desperate to recover its relevance in Middle East politics, the US has now radically changed its attitude and agreed to a meeting between US Undersecretary of State for Near East Affairs David Welch and Riad Daoudi, Syria’s chief negotiator with Israel.