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Syrian President Bashar Assad
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| By Israel Insider staff May 21, 2008 |
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The Prime Minister's Office officially announced Wednesday that Israel is conducting peace talks with Syria. According to the official acknowledgment, Jerusalem and Damascus are holding indirect negotiations with the Syrian government using Turkish mediators.
"The years that have passed since negotiations with Syria froze over have not boded well with the security situation on our northern border, which continues to be our greatest concern," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday evening in his first public comments regarding the resumption of peace talks with Syria.
Speaking at an event at the Kibbutz College of Education, Olmert said he had no illusions regarding the talks with Damascus. "The negotiations will not be easy or simple and the process will involve difficult concessions," he said, adding however that "in situations like this it is always better to talk than to shoot and I am happy both sides here have decided to talk."
Olmert will also have to do some fast talking, as he finally agreed to be interrogated under caution in the police fraud squad investigation into what is emerging as a case of alleged bribery involving the pocketing of funds for personal uses, according to the latest leaks from the investigation into apparent payoffs to Olmert and his cronies via cash-stuffed envelopes delivered by an American businessman dubbed by Olmert staffer Shula Zaken -- also under investigation -- as "The Laundry Man."
Olmert said this morning's announcement, issued simultaneously by Jerusalem, Damascus and Ankara, "is the culmination of a process that began more than a year ago, during which we sought to establish a track that would allow for peace talks with Syria. After many long months, such talks were announced this morning.
"The renewal of talks frozen for eight years is a stirring event, but it is a national duty that must be realized. This is the same conclusion reached by three of my predecessors: the late Yitzhak Rabin, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak ? who were all ready to make far-reaching concessions."
Government officials in Jerusalem confirmed on Wednesday indirect negotiations between Israel and Syria will commence within two weeks time under Turkish mediation. However, belying claims that everything was perfectly coordinated among the parties, the Israeli officials rejected claims made by Syrian Foreign Affairs Minister Walid al-Mouallem, according to which Israel has already conceded its willingness to cede the Golan Heights.
"The formal announcement that was issued today by Damascus, Ankara and Jerusalem, does not mention the Golan and this is not without reason. Both sides worked on this announcement for many long weeks, nothing about it is unintentional, including the omission of the Golan," they said.
Al-Mouallem said direct peace negotiations would be possible if Israel showed "seriousness" in the mediated talks held in Turkey. "We hope the Israeli side would be serious about them (indirect talks) so that both sides would be able to hold direct negotiations," he said.
One of the issues Turkey is trying to work out between Israel and Syria before direct negotiations can start is whether a Syrian announcement ending support for terrorism needs to precede an Israeli guarantee that it will withdraw from the Golan Heights in exchange for peace, Western diplomats said in late April. The question that remains open is which comes first. Israel apparently expect Syria to announce the end of support for Hamas and Hizbullah.
Israel is also hopeful that the Syrian government will agree to distance itself from Iran as part of any future peace agreement. Turkish officials said no date had yet been set for a visit here by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's foreign policy adviser Ahmet Davutoglu, who reportedly is involved in the indirect discussions with Syria.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office, meanwhile, denied reports Monday that a decision had been made that Olmert's chief of staff Yoram Turbowicz would head discussions with the Syrians until a meeting could be arranged between Olmert and Syrian President Bashar Assad, the Jerusalem Post reported.
In an interview with Newsweek and The Washington Post last week, the prime minister said Israel was examining the possibility of peace with Damascus, even as Jerusalem remained concerned about Syria's negative influence in the region.
"We are very unhappy with the continued intensive involvement of Syria in the affairs of Lebanon and the lack of a democratic process in electing a new president in Lebanon. We are also unhappy with the continued links between Iran, Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas," he said.
Olmert said Israel was aware of US interests in the region, including in Lebanon, and rejected reports that US President George W. Bush was blocking peace talks between Israel and Syria.
"I know what our expectations are. I know what the Americans' expectations are. I'm not going to do anything which [is in contradiction] to what my understanding of [what] the fundamental interests of the United States are in this part of the world."
Olmert denied that peace between Israel and Syria would be harmful to Lebanon.
"This is an attempt to achieve peace between Israel and Syria. And at the same time, to also make sure that the interests of free, democratic Lebanon are well protected. What the ingredients of peace [are] is something that will have to be discussed."
Israeli analysts and opposition politicians, however, pointed to the official announcement as evidence of the Prime Minister's desperation to start a diplomatic process of some kind that will distract public attention from his own legal woes and enlist support from Israel's liberal media to protect him "like an etrog" as was done for then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon when he initiated the Gaza disengagement plan as his own family's legal troubles mounted.
"The recipient of cash envelopes will not touch the Golan," Likud faction chairman MK Gideon Sa'ar said Wednesday, in response to the announcement. "The prime minister's announcement confirms that there is no end to this cynicism in playing with Israel's strategic assets for the sake of Olmert's personal survival," Sa'ar said.
Olmert "doesn't have a majority for making concessions on the Golan -- not in the Knesset and not among the public," he added. "Shas needs to leave the Olmert government immediately."
Likud MK Gilad Erdan charged that "Olmert has finally proven that he is willing to sell everything, including Israel's security, in order to cause us to forget the severe criminal offenses that he suspected of," adding that "If Shas, (Foreign Minister) Tzipi Livni and (Defense Minister) Ehud Barak do not quit his corrupt government forthwith then they are fully complicit in selling the Golan and relinquishing our defense,"
Likud MK Yisrael Katz, who is the head of the Golan Lobby in the Knesset, also lambasted the PMO's announcement. "The prime minister and the president of Syria must thoroughly understand that there is a clear Knesset majority against an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan," Katz said. "More than 61 MKs signed a petition against relinquishing the Golan and they won't allow the prime minister to continue the process."
Former foreign minister Silvan Shalom (Likud), who himself had contacts with Syria, said in response to the announcement that "this will not allow Olmert to be safeguarded from the investigations against him," and added: "Olmert is giving a prize to the Syrians for their extremism, at a time when they are hosting Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas and when the United States opposes talking to them. This is not the way to remove Syria from the axis of evil. The way to do that is stop their weapons smuggling from Iran."
"They say they want peace with Israel while they are trying to kill us," Shalom said.
Left-wingers, not surprisingly, praised the Prime Minister's Office for the announcement. MK Ran Cohen of the far left Meretz party said that he encourages the representatives of both sides "to continue bravely," and that this "will assist in stabilizing the region and in isolating Iran." Education Minister Yuli Tamir (Labor) also approved the move. "I'm pleased regarding the opening of negotiations with Syria, which can stabilize peace in our region," Tamir said. "We must break the Iranian-Syrian axis and arrive at a comprehensive peace agreement with the Syrians in exchange for a withdrawal from the Golan."
Construction and Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim, of Olmert's Kadima, said he was "on principle against withdrawing from the Golan Heights; however, one must hear how the negotiations are being conducted and on what topics they focus." Boim said he thought a peace agreement could be reached if Syria would cease all support for terror including Hizbullah, cease its strategic dependence on Iran and if the issue would be dealt with over a long period of time, with the preference of creating a blueprint for leasing the land.
Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit, who has declared his candidacy for the leadership of Kadima in case Olmert resigns following the investigation, said that he was ready to give Syria control over the Golan Heights "tomorrow," on the condition that Damascus would be ready to lease the land to Israel for 25 years, during which the Assad regime would prove its ability to live in peace with Israel. An unnamed Kadima minister said in a private conversation that he was going to visit the Golan Heights next week to emphasize that the territory must stay in Israel's hands forever.
Labor's Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who is himself eying the prime minister's position, issued a statement through his office saying "Barak welcomes any effort to remove Syria from the axis of evil," adding he was "a longtime supporter of talks with Syria."
A source close to Olmert denied that the talks with Syria had anything to do with distracting the public from his latest corruption case. The source said that two weeks before the latest investigation emerged, the Prime Minister had told him that the diplomatic process with Syria was advancing. "The people who know what is happening in the diplomatic process with Syria know that there really is no connection [with the investigation]," the source said. |
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