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Last update - 19:22 16/12/2008
Livni: Syria peace must involve more than just eating hummus in Damascus
By Haaretz Service and Reuters
Tags: syria, israel news 

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Tuesday said peace with Syria would have to involve more than mere culinary tourism, speaking in response to reports of Syria's demands in indirect negotiations with Israel.

"What is important to us is not a peace of opening embassies and eating Humus in Damascus, but the halting of arms smuggling through Syria to Hezbollah, their strong ties to Iran and their endless support of terrorist organizations such as Hamas," said the foreign minister.

Livni, the chairwoman of the leading Kadima party and a prime ministerial hopeful, made the comments at a conference in the northern Galilee.
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She added: "I don't know of negotiations that end before they have begun."

Earlier Tuesday it emerged that sources familiar with the peace talks said this week that Syria has drafted a document defining potential boundaries for the Golan Heights and is waiting for an Israeli reply through Turkish mediators.

President Bashar al-Assad recently told Western officials that Damascus wants Israel to take a clear position on the territorial problem between the two countries before agreeing to push stalled peace talks forward.

The Syrian document sets the boundaries with reference to six geographical points, the sources told Reuters.

"The president was clear that Syria wants to know the Israeli view about what constitutes occupied Syrian territory before progress could be made," one of the sources said.

"According to Syrian thinking, Israeli agreement on the six [geographical] points could help seal a peace deal next year. But Israel may not be able to provide a response any time soon, when it is in such political turmoil," a second source said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Majali Wahhabe responded to the announcement by saying Syria must first cut off all contact with Iran before making any demands of Israel.

Indirect talks between Syria and Israel, which were suspended about three months ago after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to resign over a corruption scandal, center on the fate of the Golan Heights.

Israel captured the plateau in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed it more than a decade later - a move unanimously rejected by the United Nations Security Council.

The two countries held almost 10 years of direct talks under U.S. supervision that collapsed in 2000 over the scope of a proposed Israeli withdrawal from the Golan.

Bashar's late father, President Hafez al-Assad, refused to sign a deal that did not include the northeastern shore of the Lake Kinneret, a main water reservoir.

The late Assad regarded the northeastern shore as an integral part of the Golan and said that Syria was in control of it before the war broke out on June 4, 1967.

Israel captured the whole eastern shore along with the surrounding plateau in the war. The shoreline has been receding for decades. Under the Israeli proposal, Syria would have been only metres short of the northeastern shore.

Bashar, meanwhile, has stuck to his father's line on the Golan.

A Syrian official said that the paper sent to Turkey includes reference to geographical points on the present northeastern shore of the lake. "The document puts us on the water," the official said.

Syrian Vice President Farouq al-Shara said last month that "the Syrian definition of the June 4 line means the restoration of the northeastern shore of the lake to Syria" and described Israeli arguments about the shoreline receding as invalid.

Diplomats in the Syrian capital said that even if the two sides make progress on the territorial question a deal might not follow easily because Israel now wants Syria to reduce its alliance with Iran and cut support for the Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamist groups.

"The situation is more complicated than in 2000 with Syria's external ties coming into play. Syria also wants agreement on the six points without direct negotiations, which might be difficult," one of the diplomats said.

Syrian officials have said Israel has no right to set conditions regarding its foreign policy but acknowledged that the political map of the region would change if Damascus and Israel sign a deal.

Assad told his visitors that Syria had received a document from Israel through Turkey with queries about Syrian relations with neighbouring states after a possible peace, according to the sources. "The president said Syria has responded, but he did not say how," one said.

Olmert, who is still caretaker prime minister, has said he wants to renew the talks. Turkey also wants the talks to move to
direct mode from the four indirect rounds that have been held since April, the diplomats said.

A foreign official who has met Assad said the Syrian leader was not enthusiastic about holding a fifth round before the Israeli parliamentary elections in February, although European leaders have urged him to agree to one before then.

Related articles:
  • Report: Syria won't renew peace talks until Israel clarifies Golan plans
  • Defense establishment paper: Golan for Syria peace, plan for Iran strike
  • Bush to Olmert: Why are you giving Syria the Golan for nothing?
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      2.   #1 KHALED, not for much longer 12:36  |  VIPER 16/12/08
      3.   ISRAEL WON IT, ISRAEL KEEPS IT 13:00  |  Petra 16/12/08
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      6.   #3 militarism 13:09  |  chris 16/12/08
      7.   why was it in "control"? 13:11  |  David Teich 16/12/08
      8.   #3....U really don`t want to take that approach 13:12  |  jo 16/12/08
      9.   Syrian fantasy 13:15  |  Robert 16/12/08
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      11.   NO LAND EQUALS LIFE! 13:32  |  Danielj 16/12/08
      12.   To chris #3 13:35  |  Ofer 16/12/08
      13.   re 10, complete Lies, Golan always belonged to Syria 13:45  |  Sayid 16/12/08
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      16.   Move the border 14:09  |  Kim Hartveld 16/12/08
      17.   What a wonder gift, Israel should reciprocate... 14:19  |  disgusted american 16/12/08
      18.   International Law? 14:19  |  Josh 16/12/08
      19.   You`ve Got to Be, er, KIdding Me! 14:35  |  Yaakov K. 16/12/08
      20.   peaceful border 14:39  |  elimelech 16/12/08
      21.   The Law 14:39  |  Justin 16/12/08
      22.   re, 19. Go and read Moshe Dayans memoirs how israelis 14:47  |  Sayid 16/12/08
      23.   unstable shoreline 14:53  |  John 16/12/08
      24.   Israel must offer her own map based upon reality 14:56  |  Ron Caris 16/12/08
      25.   at peace with syria now,we do not need embassies exchange 14:58  |  trumpeldor 16/12/08
      26.   PG, Livni/Bibi aren`t wreckless enough to endorse any of it 15:08  |  Harvey 16/12/08
      27.   shoreline is NOT Syria 15:13  |  thinkaboutit 16/12/08
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      32.   Siran map 16:26  |  Gemma 16/12/08
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      36.   to Yaakov K Jerusalem 17:54  |  Dik 16/12/08
      37.   #12 Ofer and "might is right" 17:57  |  chris 16/12/08
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      47.   # 24 ron 20:21  |  Axel 16/12/08
      48.   Re: 41 20:33  |  Angel 16/12/08
      49.   Syria does NOT have a stable society 20:41  |  Angel 16/12/08
      50.   To: Anthony in Calgary 20:43  |  Angel 16/12/08
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      59.   Livni offers Red Herring instead of Hummus to Damascus 22:31  |  Ivar 16/12/08
      60.   Apples and Oranges 22:39  |  Baz Mann 16/12/08
      61.   Syrian hummus is traife. What does this broad care? 22:55  |  Sky 16/12/08
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      64.   Impressive chutzpah, Tzipi 01:56  |  Johnboy 17/12/08
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      76.   FOX # 69 YES! 16:37  |  American in NY 17/12/08
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