Israel and Syria Gingerly Reopen Peace Talks

Negotiators for Syria, Israel and the United States convened today in rural tranquillity on the Eastern Shore of Maryland to try once again to forge a comprehensive peace settlement to end nearly 48 years of hostility between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

No breakthrough is expected at the initial round, which is set up to allow the negotiators to measure each others' intentions -- and sincerity -- and to probe for shifts in position.

These meetings are meetings without heavy agendas, without place cards, without name cards," said Glyn Davies, the deputy spokesman for the State Department. He said the negotiators "will meet as long as they see fit" over the next few days.

As a biting winter wind chilled the eastern fork of the Wye River, the negotiators began talking over lunch at the River House of the Wye Conference Center, 70 miles east of Washington, reopening a mutually suspicious dialogue that collapsed six months ago.

The deliberate informality -- choreo-graphed by the American hosts -- extended to a crackling wood fire and bowls of hard candy placed within reach of all 10 participants at a round mahagony table. The police units cordoning off the conference site also maintained a low profile.

The current session is to end on Friday, allowing the negotiators nearly a week to consult with their home governments before they return early next month for another three days.