Sure Kerry was shocked to discover that UNRWA works for Hamas. But this time he's really sure he's on the right track:

A prominent US senator said Wednesday that Syrian President Bashar Assad told him last month in Damascus that Syria is prepared to resume peace negotiations with Israel and embrace a 2000 Arab initiative offering peace in exchange for the Golan Heights. "Syria would like direct American participation in these peace talks," said Sen. John Kerry, a Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Reversing the Bush administration's dismissive stance on Syria, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Tuesday during a visit to Israel she would send two senior officials to Damascus this week. Endorsing President Barack Obama's decision to dispatch the US envoys to Damascus, Kerry said Assad was looking past Iran to improved relations with Arab countries and with the West.

The Syrian regime - expressing themselves through state-controlled media as they're wont to do - begs to differ:

A couple of days ago, Syrian state-run media published this press release: Iranian President , Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , has underlined the deep strong standing relations between Iran and Syria, and the necessity for boosting them to meet the national interest of both and for reinforcing their steadfastness in the face of the various challenges. During his meeting with Prime Minister , Mohammed Naji Otri today, Ahmadinejad expressed appreciation of Syria's stances under the leadership of President, Bashar al-Assad , and of Syria's pivotal and important role on all regional and international levels.

I can't wait to find out what "common ground" Obama's Secretary of State for Near East Affairs found between us and Assad. Do you think it will be about how Syria is covering up their nuclear program...

The United States said on Wednesday that U.N. inspectors had found growing evidence of covert nuclear activity in Syria, and European allies said a lack of Syrian transparency demanded utmost scrutiny. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is looking into U.S. intelligence reports that Syria had almost built a North Korean-designed, nuclear reactor meant to yield bomb-grade plutonium before Israel bombed it in 2007. Last month, the IAEA said inspectors had found enough traces of uranium in soil samples taken in a trip to the bombed site granted by Syria last June to constitute a "significant" find, and satellite pictures taken before the Israeli bombing revealed a building resembling a reactor.

... or about their much broader overall WMD program? Or maybe it will be about how Assad is making his "we will wipe out Israel" Doha speech part of Syria's school curriculum. It could even be about how Syria has flat out declared that they won't stop Hezbollah from rearming. No seriously - I'm curious.

In any case, we've now reached a point where France is more inclined to stand up to Syrian despots and dictators than we are. There's even a case to be made that the Saudis are more inclined to blast Syria than is the Obama State Department. Change!

References and previously after the jump...