PARIS -- President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to Damascus this month confirms the failure of his policy of isolating the regime of President Bashar Assad.

AMMAN -- Syria took international center stage Thursday as the isolated country stepped into the spotlight to host a major four-way summit that implicitly recognized the political weight of President Bashar Assad as a pivotal player in negotiations to establish peace and stability in the turbulent Middle East.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrives in Damascus Wednesday on a long-awaited visit as Paris tries to fill the diplomatic vacuum created by Washington's policy of exclusion.

AMMAN – French President Nicolas Sarkozy's upcoming two-day visit to Syria -- the first Western head of state to go there in five years -- is expected to help redefine the shifting pivotal role that Damascus has in the region, as the "rogue" state seeks to come out of isolation and into the international fold.

Analysts are concerned that recent Islamist trends in Ankara could threaten the long-standing amicable relations between Israel and Turkey. These fears were highlighted by legislation passed in Turkey on Feb. 9, which rescinded a law in the constitution banning the wearing of a traditional Islamic headscarf. However, in June Turkey's high court overturned this ruling, claiming it violated separation of religion and state.

It is quite understandable that Israel would be deeply disappointed by Turkey's decision to invite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for an official visit. In Israel's view, such a visit will only further legitimize a leader who is reviled for his denial of the Holocaust and for his repeated existential threats to the state of Israel. The question, however, should not be how much legitimacy Ahmadinejad may garner from this visit, but whether Turkish officials could potentially engender something positive out of this foray that could benefit not only Turkey but the entire region, including Israel.

AMMAN -- No progress was made on the Iranian nuclear standoff with the West during the controversial visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Turkey, the first NATO member state to receive him, but his mere presence in this U.S.-allied country carries important political significance.

Turkey's Constitutional Court on July 30 averted a potentially explosive political crisis when its judges rejected an attempt by the State Prosecutor to ban the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The ban would have prohibited 71 senior members of the AKP from taking part in politics for five years and would have effectively brought down the government. AKP leader and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Turkey's President Abdullah Gül were among the AKP leadership facing exclusion from political life. The ban, if enacted, also would have negated the will of 47 percent of Turkish voters who supported the party and would have dashed the country's hopes of entering the European Union.

AMMAN -- Turkey stepped back from the edge of a precipice that would have plunged the country into its worst political crisis in years, possibly decades, when the highest court Wednesday narrowly avoided outlawing the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), but instead gave the Islamist-rooted party a slap on the wrist and a chance to seek compromise with the powerful secular forces.

AMMAN -- Istanbul was the target of the deadliest terror attack in Turkey since 2003 when on Sunday night two bombs exploded just minutes and meters apart in a busy square killing at least 17 people and injuring more than 150 others, only hours before the country's highest court began to deliberate on whether to outlaw the ruling party.