Syria launches national dialogue to help chart its future

Syria launched a national dialogue aimed at charting its future, the latest in a series of optimistic developments that also point to the challenges facing the country.

The one-day meeting was hamstrung by the absence of the main Kurdish militia, which was not invited, and of other groups which said the talks came with too little notice.

Still, positive signs abound: The European Union suspended some energy and transport sanctions in order to support Syria’s democratic development, while a small but growing number of Syrian Jews are returning, The Wall Street Journal noted, a sign of their confidence in authorities’ protection of minorities. “Welcome back,” one neighbor told a returning rabbi. “This is your home.”