The World - News from Oct. 23, 1987

Richard W. Murphy, the State Department’s Middle East trouble-shooter, visited Damascus to confer with Syrian officials on efforts to revive the Mideast peace process, a department spokeswoman said. Phyllis Oakley described Murphy’s visit as an exception to a policy banning top-level U.S. visits to Syria imposed almost a year ago by the Reagan Administration. She said Murphy is in Syria to “continue the dialogue and consultations” conducted by Secretary of State George P. Shultz during the last week in visits to Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia.