Last update - 00:00 31/07/2007
Syria says willing to attend int'l Mideast peace conference
By Reuters
Syria is ready to take part in a U.S.-sponsored international Mideast peace conference to be held later this year, despite the country's stance that Washington is behind instability in the Middle East, Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said on Tuesday.
U.S. President George W. Bush called for an international peace conference during a major policy speech earlier this month, but gave scant details. It is not known whether the U.S. administration plans to invite Syria, whose ties with Washington plummeted in recent years.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discussed the proposed conference with Arab officials in Egypt on Tuesday and said the meeting should not be portrayed as "Made in America."
"Syria will support and participate in any international conference for peace. The objectives, participants and grounds for such an initiative must be made clear," Moallem said after meeting Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos in the Syrian capital.
"Bush has cast himself as a peace maker. He has to gain the trust of all parties and not start a dangerous arms race in the region," Moallem said.
Moallem was referring to recent U.S. arms sales offers to Arab Gulf States and a 25 percent hike in military aid to Israel.
Syria has intensified its calls for peace talks with Israel in efforts to regain the Golan Heights, which Israel captured during the 1967 Six-Day war. Israel says Syria's alliance with Iran, support for the Palestinian group Hamas and the Lebanese movement Hezbollah stands in the way of resuming the negotiations, which collapsed in 2000.
The United States, Israel's chief ally, imposed sanctions on Syria in 2004, mainly for Damascus' support for Hamas and Hezbollah.
On Monday, the Arab foreign ministers that make up the 22-member Arab League discussed possible responses to Bush's call for an international Mideast peace conference.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said Monday that members of the body welcomed the "positive elements" of Bush's initiative, especially those related to "founding an independent Palestine state, his call for ending the Israeli settlements and ending the Israeli occupation."
In a statement issued after the talks, the League said it "supports convening a meeting or a conference with the participation of all parties concerned with the peace process, in order to launch talks on all tracks."
"Peace cannot be completed without withdrawal from Syrian territory, so all the parties have to be there," Moussa told a press conference in Egypt after the talks.
During the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, the Gaza Strip from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria.
"Any international gathering has to be comprehensive, a serious one, and the agenda has to be considered carefully. It should include all those involved in the conflict and the time frame must be defined," Moussa said.
But, he conceded, "There are other points that Syria sees as dangerous, which our resolution avoided, not considering them as positive."
Foreign ministers from 16 Arab states met in Egypt on Monday to discuss Middle East peace efforts. Also on the agenda were recent efforts by League representatives to rally support for an Arab peace initiative, the group said in a draft statement earlier Monday.
The Syrian representative at the meeting, Youssef Ahmed, told reporters that the priority should be to achieve reconciliation between Palestinian factions.
"I expressed reservations about any form of welcome for what is called U.S. President George Bush's initiative because we in Syria believe that discussing the Palestinian issue in the meeting under the current state of Palestinian schism... would lead to killing off the Palestinian cause," he said.
Ahmed later stormed out of the talks. Delegates said that he left the meeting to protest the fact that Arabs were even agreeing to discuss Bush's proposal. "The suggested conference will liquidate the Palestinian cause," delegates quoted him as saying.
Observers said there was surprise that Syria was not represented at the meeting by its foreign minister - apparently concerned that the Arab ministers might back the American view after Bush ignored Syria in his initiative to hold a Middle East peace conference in the fall.