Middle East Inside Line: Talks with Iran To Start in Turkey; No Progress in Israel-Palestine Discussions

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Direct Talks with Iran on 1 October: The Jerusalem Post reports, from a senior European Union official that "talks on Iran's nuclear program will likely be held in Turkey". Referring to the meeting, scheduled for 1 October, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said: "The Americans will be present in a formalized manner. This is new."

Europe is ready and waiting for a positive outcome from direct talks between Iranians and the Washington-led international community. Simultaneously, it seems that the US has given consent to Ankara's willingness to be the "bridge" in these negotiations.

No Progress in Israel-Palestine Talks: U.S. Mideast special envoy George Mitchell met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday. Haaretz reports that the talks were fruitless and no agreement came out at the end of talks.

After rounds of meetings, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat blamed Israel for stalling the resumption of peace talks and insisted that all settlement building must stop. Mitchell also could not get "sufficient" concessions from Netanyahu, as the Israeli Prime Minister rejected concessions on "the natural growth" of the West Bank settlements, on the planned construction of 3,000 new apartments in the West Bank, and on his claim of Israeli ownership of East Jerusalem.

Mitchell said the U.S. is committed to the resumption of peace talks and that he hoped to bring this phase of the effort to a positive conclusion in the coming weeks. The envoy is hoping he can bring Netanyahu and Abbas together with President Barack Obama at the openning of the UN General Assembly session next week. Aides of Abbas reportedly said that he might agree to an informal meeting with Netanyahu in New York.

Inside Line Special: Iraq, Syria, and Turkey's Move into the Middle East

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Iraq and Syria are in the midst of the most serious tension between the two countries since the 2003 Iraq War. The Iraqi Government has blamed two devastating truck bombs that killed 95 people and wounded 600 in Baghdad on August 19 on insurgents who crossed the Syrian border. Yesterday Iraq deployed thousands of reinforcements along the border, and the Government asserted that it had provided Damascus with evidence linking Iraqis in Syria to the bombings.

Two countries' conflict are another's opportunity, however. For Turkey, mediation between Baghdad and Damascus is a chance to implement its "strategy in depth" in the Middle East. On Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad.

After offering his condolences to Iraqi people and a denunciation of the bombings as a threat to the stability of Iraq, Davutoglu asked the Iraqi Government to take a become milder line towards Syria, following al-Maliki’s initial harsh statement that Iraq "asked Syria to return to us those targeting the Iraqi people but Syria sent us only common criminals.” Davutoglu told al-Maliki that there was no short-term solution for the crisis and offered to take information and documents to Damascus, establishing co-operation between Syria, Iraq and Turkey.

The documents referred to briefly today in The Washington Post are the outcome of Davutoglu's intervention. But this, for Ankara, is only the beginning. Just as it used another crisis, the Gaza War of December-January, to further its ties with Syria and its Middle Eastern presence, so it will now extend that influence by being the "good broker" to two of its most important neighbours.