Jimmy Carter: U.S. and Syria Ready to Restore Full Diplomatic Ties

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said yesterday that the United States and Syria are close to restoring full diplomatic ties.

Ha'aretz reports:

"Syrian President Bashar Assad is very eager to restore full ties with Washington," Carter said. "I wouldn't be surprised if it happens this year," Carter said in a telephone interview from Quito, Ecuador, at the start of a four-nation South American trip.

He plans to meet Assad in Syria in early June after attending elections in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Assad on Tuesday said that U.S. President Barack Obama would face a serious crisis in the Middle East if within a year he did not fix the mistakes made by his predecessor George W. Bush.

Speaking in Vienna with Austrian leaders and intellectuals near the end of his two-day visit, Assad called on the United States to quickly withdraw its troops from Iraq, which would resolve "50 per cent of the problem," Austrian press agency APA reported.

Earlier Tuesday, Austrian leaders urged Assad to use Syria's influence to stabilize the wider Middle East region.

Austrian President Heinz Fischer said that Syria should get Tehran to respond constructively to resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and proposals from the international community for resolving the nuclear standoff with Iran.

Assad said in the evening discussion that Syria could not play a role in the nuclear issue, though it would help to solve it.

Echoing Tehran's position, Assad called on the Security Council to refer the matter of Iran's nuclear intentions back to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has a more technical outlook.