Last update - 00:00 19/06/2007
Syria denies secret talks, calls for new negotiations with Israel
By The Associated Press
Syria's ambassador to the United Nations on Monday dismissed rumors of secret Syrian-Israeli talks, and reiterated Damascus' call for Israel to resume peace negotiations that stalled seven years ago.
Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari stressed that Syria has always dealt publicly with the Arab-Israeli conflict and peace talks on the Syrian-Israeli track.
Peace talks broke down in 2000 with Syria demanding that Israel withdraw from the entire Golan Heights, which it captured in the 1967 Six-Day War, and Israel refusing to make such a pledge until the issues of security and normalization of relations were settled.
Syrian President Bashar Assad recently urged Israel to return to the negotiating table, but has not publicly addressed Israel's demand that Damascus scale back its ties with Iran, its main ally in the region, and stop backing Lebanese and Palestinian groups sworn to destroy Israel.
Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz confirmed earlier this month that the government had put out secret peace feelers to Syria, but he said there was so far no response from Damascus.
His comments followed an Israeli newspaper report that Israel had told Syrian leaders it could give up the Golan Heights as part of a peace deal in which Syria would distance itself from Iran's virulently anti-Israel regime.
"I would like to dismiss all these rumors giving the impression that there were any Syrian-Israeli secret talks. I would like to say that Syria has always dealt publicly with the issue of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and with the issue of the Syrian-Israeli track, within the framework of the peace process," Ja'afari told reporters.
"The Syrian position has always been clear with this regard: We call on the Israelis to resume the negotiations of peace that were stalled in the year 2000 after the visit of [former prime minister Ariel] Sharon to the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem," he said.
Asked about Syria's expectations for talks in Washington on Tuesday between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and United States President George W. Bush, Ja'afari said: "We would like to see the Arab peace initiative backed and supported by the American administration and joined by the Israeli side."
The Arab initiative, proposed by Saudi Arabia in 2002 and relaunched this year, offers peace with Israel in exchange for a full withdrawal from lands captured in 1967. Israel has said the plan is a good basis for negotiations, but opposes a full withdrawal as well as the plan's call for the return of millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to Israel.
Ja'afari said Syria is looking by all means to achieve a comprehensive and just peace for the Arab-Israeli conflict.
"Such peace requires the full backing and supporting by the American administration and the belief of the Israeli government in the possibility of peace in the area," he said.
"So far, we don't have an Israeli partner for the peace process," Ja'afari said. "The Israelis dismissed themselves from the common, internationally accepted approach which is the Arab initiative for peace."
Ja'afari said enhanced U.S. involvement would be welcome because the United States is an important sponsor of the whole peace process.
"I think it's time right now to reassess and rethink the American policy in the Middle East for a very simple reason: These American policies in the Middle East have all failed, either in Iraq or in Palestine or in Lebanon or in Gaza," he said.
In the past, Israeli and U.S. officials have said privately that Washington was unwilling for Israel to deal with Syria, because of its ties to militants in Iraq and its meddling in Lebanon. But Bush is under pressure from allies, lawmakers and advisers who think Washington should improve relations with Syria in an effort to isolate Iran.
Syria backed Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon during their war with Israel last summer, while the political leadership of the Palestinian militant group Hamas is headquartered in Damascus.
Ja'afari said one aim of Israel's 34-day war against Hezbollah last summer was getting UN peacekeepers along the Syria-Lebanon border.
"Nothing could be more contrary to reality," said Israel's deputy ambassador Daniel Carmon. "The war was the result of a blunt provocation by the Hezbollah terrorist organization, backed by Iran and Syria who ... support in words and deeds the vision of terrorism as a means to destabilize Lebanon."