Britain-Syria intelligence links resumed: Times

A step believed to be beneficial for London Britain-Syria intelligence links resumed: Times Miliband asked al-Muallem during a New York meeting to re-establish intelligence links (File) DUBAI (AlArabiya.net) Britain re-established high-level intelligence links with the Syrian authorities as British Foreign Secretary David Miliband made his landmark visit to Damascus,

London's Times newspaper reported on Wednesday citing senior Syrian officials. The newspaper said the move was a key objective of Miliband’s trip to Syria.The step could be hugely beneficial for Britain, as Syria has one of the best intelligence-gathering systems in the Middle East, particularly in tracking the movements of Islamist extremists in Iraq and around the region. Miliband's visit, the first by a British foreign secretary in seven years, was touted as an opportunity to test Syria's willingness to engage with the West, lifting it out of its current isolation.

The Times cited a Syrian official as saying that Miliband asked his Syrian counterpart, Walid al-Muallem, during a meeting in New York earlier this year "whether he could re-establish intelligence links at a senior level," following lower level contacts. Washington has long insisted on isolating Syria but with a change of administration - and attitude - looming, Britain and France are leading efforts to lure Damascus out of the solitude it found itself in since it was implicated in the murder of the former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafiq Hariri, three years ago.

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