Jordan FM: Regional talks with Syria step toward solution

By OMAR AKOUR
Associated Press

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordan’s top diplomat says regional talks with Syria are a step in the right direction to end a decade of the war-torn country’s political isolation. His remarks came as envoys from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt met with Syria’s top diplomat in Jordan on Monday. Damascus is slowly returning to the Arab fold after being ostracized over President Bashar Assad’s deadly crackdown on a 2011 uprising that turned into a yearslong civil war. Jordan’s foreign minister hosted the talks and first met with his Syrian counterpart in what his ministry described as part of the “Jordanian initiative to reach a political solution to the Syrian crisis.”