MIDDLE EAST: Reaction to Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, reports that Israel and Syria held secret talks as a framework for a future deal stirs debate

An Israeli newspaper on Tuesday (January 16) reported that unofficial negotiations between Israel and Syria led to a document which they hoped could serve as a framework for a future peace accord. 'Secretive understandings between Israeli and Syrian representatives,' read the Haaretz headline, which stir debate in Israel whether or not any form of negotiations were held. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert brushed aside an unofficial peace plan drafted by Israelis and Syrians, saying the Israeli government had no part in the initiative and did not take it seriously. "Nobody in the government was involved in this," Olmert said after Israel's Haaretz daily reported that a former Israeli diplomat and a U.S.-based Syrian sketched a framework for peace in talks in Europe from 2004 to 2006. Haaretz said understandings that emerged from the discussions called for an Israeli pullout from the occupied Golan Heights to lines Israel held before it captured the Syrian territory in the 1967 Middle East war. "This was the private initiative of a man who spoke only for himself, and from what I have read, his partner in the dialogue was an oddball from the United States," Olmert said. "This isn't serious or honourable or worthy of any further comment," Olmert said. In Damascus, a Syrian Foreign Ministry official said: "No negotiations took place, the Haaretz report is completely false." Akiva Eldar, who wrote the Haaretz account, said a European go-between and the Syrian-American, whom he identified as Ibrahim Suleiman, travelled to Damascus eight times and discussed the proposal with Farouq al-Shara, currently a Syrian vice president. "The Israeli government did not tell them to stop their talks and I think they were not even capable of doing this since they are private people and it is important to stress that these were not formal negotiations. The important thing is that the Syrian officials because in Syria you don't have unofficial talks, everything is official, authorized by the president and they have clearance to Mr. Suleiman to agree to certain ideas, including the Israeli withdrawal to the 67' borders, to June 4, 67'," Akiva Eldar, who wrote the newspaper report, told Reuters Television. "The last meeting was held during the Lebanon war...and since then the Syrians wanted to upgrade the talks, the Israelis refused to do this," said Eldar. In Damascus a Syrian Foreign Ministry official said: "No negotiations took place, the Haaretz report is completely false." "Since you get so many denials it demonstrates the fact that Israel did not get the clearance from the Americans...for the Israelis it's a kind of reason or an excuse not to upgrade those talks to a full fledged formal negotiations," said Eldar. Syria has been pressing publicly for Israel to renew official peace talks, last held in 2000, on the future of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. "Now it's up to the Israeli side to decide whether we want to test the water and see whether the Syrians are serious or not because the time for the infornal negotiations or discussions is over," Eldar added. "My understanding is that probably these talks took place between Syrian and Israeli personalities with the knowledge of both parties and the purpose was to test the waters to see on the Israeli side to see how far Syria can go in terms of concessions and Syria in terms of trying to see how far Israel is willing to go in terms of wirthdrawal," said Muhammed Musleh, Professor of Political Science at Long Island University and a close observer during the "unofficial" Syrian-Israeli talks. Those negotiations broke down largely over Syria's demand for access to the Sea of Galilee, Israel's main reservoir situated at the base of the heights. Haaretz said the so-called "non-paper" that emerged from the two years of unofficial discussions proposed an Israeli pullout from the Golan to lines Israel held before the 1967 Middle East war in which it captured the strategic plateau. Under the proposed understandings, Israel would retain control over the waters of the Sea of Galilee, but both the Jewish state and Syria would have joint use of a buffer zone -- a park -- along its shores. "The Syrian position has been very consistent from 1991 -- a total and full fledged Israeli withdrawal to the lines of June 4, 1967 and I very much doubt that any government of Syria will accept less then that," said Musleh. According to the document, Israel would gradually evacuate Jewish settlements on the Golan Heights and the territory would be demilitarised, the newspaper said. Haaretz said Alon Liel, a former director-general of Israel's Foreign Ministry, took part in a series of meetings, from September 2004 to August 2006 with Ibrahim Suleiman, a U.S.-based Syrian, and a European mediator it did not name. Akiva Eldar said on Israeli Army Radio the European and Suleiman travelled to Damascus eight times and discussed the proposal with Farouq al-Shara, currently a Syrian vice president. "Walid al-Moualem, Syria's foreign minister, was present at several meetings, as well as another person -- a senior general in Syrian intelligence," Eldar said, without identifying him. In remarks quoted by Israel Radio, Liel said he "did not represent anyone" in official Israeli circles when he participated in the discussions. Eldar said the contacts were stopped in August last year -- in the wake of a war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas -- "because that was the stage when the Israeli government was supposed to enter into discussions on the basis of those understandings". "I think the best way to understand what is going on as far as this report is concerned is that we have in Israel a school of thought that believes that it is in Israel's best interest to engage Syria and to support their position, they might have encouraged the publication of this report," said Musleh. Israel and the United States have spurned calls by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to renew official negotiations, saying Damascus must first end its support for Hezbollah and the governing Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

ITN Source | January 16, 2007

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