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Last update - 18:34 16/01/2007
Israeli, Syrian representatives reach secret understandings
By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent

In a series of secret meetings in Europe between September 2004 and July 2006, Syrians and Israelis formulated understandings for a peace agreement between Israel and Syria.

The main points of the understandings are as follows:

  • An agreement of principles will be signed between the two countries, and following the fulfillment of all commitments, a peace agreement will be signed.
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  • As part of the agreement on principles, Israel will withdraw from the Golan Heights to the lines of 4 June, 1967. The timetable for the withdrawal remained open: Syria demanded the pullout be carried out over a five-year period, while Israel asked for the withdrawal to be spread out over 15 years.

  • At the buffer zone, along Lake Kinneret, a park will be set up for joint use by Israelis and Syrians. The park will cover a significant portion of the Golan Heights. Israelis will be free to access the park and their presence will not be dependent on Syrian approval.

  • Israel will retain control over the use of the waters of the Jordan River and Lake Kinneret.

  • The border area will be demilitarized along a 1:4 ratio (in terms of territory) in Israel's favor.

  • According to the terms, Syria will also agree to end its support for Hezbollah and Hamas and will distance itself from Iran.

  • Click for map of territorial arrangements

    The document is described as a "non-paper," a document of understandings that is not signed and lacks legal standing - its nature is political. It was prepared in August 2005 and has been updated during a number of meetings in Europe.

    The meetings were carried out with the knowledge of senior officials in the government of former prime minister Ariel Sharon. The last meeting took place during last summer's war in Lebanon.

    Government officials received updates on the meetings via the European mediator and also through Dr. Alon Liel, a former director general at the Foreign Ministry, who took part in all the meetings.

    The European mediator and the Syrian representative in the discussions held eight separate meetings with senior Syrian officials, including Vice President Farouk Shara, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, and a Syrian intelligence officer with the rank of "general."

    The contacts ended after the Syrians demanded an end to meetings on an unofficial level and called for a secret meeting at the level of deputy minister, on the Syrian side, with an Israeli official at the rank of a ministry's director general, including the participation of a senior American official. Israel did not agree to this Syrian request.

    The Syrian representative in the talks, Ibrahim (Abe) Suleiman, an American citizen, had visited Jerusalem and delivered a message to senior officials at the Foreign Ministry regarding the Syrian wish for an agreement with Israel. The Syrians also asked for help in improving their relations with the United States, and particularly in lifting the American embargo on Syria.

    For his part, the European mediator stressed that the Syrian leadership is concerned that the loss of petroleum revenues will lead to an economic crash in the country and could consequently undermine the stability of the Assad regime.

    According to Geoffrey Aronson, an American from the Washington-based Foundation for Middle East Peace, who was involved in the talks, an agreement under American auspices would call for Syria to ensure that Hezbollah would limit itself to being solely a political party.

    He also told Haaretz that Khaled Meshal, Hamas' political bureau chief, based in Damascus, would have to leave the Syrian capital.

    Syria would also exercise its influence for a solution to the conflict in Iraq, through an agreement between Shi'a leader Muqtada Sadr and the Sunni leadership, and in addition, it would contribute to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the refugee problem.

    Aronson said the idea of a park on the Golan Heights allows for the Syrian demand that Israel pull back to the June 4 border, on the one hand, while on the other hand, the park eliminates Israeli concerns that Syrians will have access to the water sources of Lake Kinneret.

    "This was a serious and honest effort to find creative solutions to practical problems that prevented an agreement from being reached during Barak's [tenure as prime minister] and to create an atmosphere of building confidence between the two sides," he said.

    It also emerged that one of the Syrian messages to Israel had to do with the ties between Damascus and Tehran. In the message, the Alawi regime - the Assad family being members of the Alawi minority - asserts that it considers itself to be an integral part of the Sunni world and that it objects to the Shi'a theocratic regime, and is particularly opposed to Iran's policy in Iraq. A senior Syrian official stressed that a peace agreement with Israel will enable Syria to distance itself from Iran.

    Liel refused to divulge details about the meetings but confirmed that they had taken place. He added that meetings on an unofficial level have been a fairly common phenomenon during the past decade.

    "We insisted on making the existence of meetings known to the relevant parties," Liel said. "Nonetheless, there was no official Israeli connection to the content of the talks and to the ideas that were raised during the meetings."

    Prior to these meetings, Liel was involved in an effort to further secret talks between Syria and Israel with the aid of Turkish mediation - following a request for assistance President Assad had made to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    That attempt failed following Israel's refusal to hold talks on an official level - and a Syrian refusal to restrict the talks to an "academic level," similar to the framework of the talks that had preceded the Oslo accords.

    There was no initial formal response from the Prime Minister's Office after the story broke early on Tuesday. But the Israel Radio quoted unnamed senior Israeli officials as stating that Israel is not holding contacts with Syria.

    More on the Israel-Syria contacts:
  • The full text of the draft document
  • BACKGROUND: From Turkey, via Europe, to Damascus
  • Timeline of talks
  • Click here for map
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      1.   Good Start 03:53  |  RW 16/01/07
      2.   DO IT! 04:08  |  Ian MacKenzie 16/01/07
      3.   Israel and Syria 04:12  |  Michael 16/01/07
      4.   Israel will pay the price,Israel must name the tune 04:14  |  Akram Zekaria 16/01/07
      5.   Tha park shall be named... 04:15  |  Eliezer 16/01/07
      6.   secret understandings reached 04:16  |  Dana 16/01/07
      7.   This is the only way to have peace in the region.... 04:16  |  Farooq 16/01/07
      8.   Speechless at this moment... 04:16  |  Dutch Dirk 16/01/07
      9.   This Spells Disaster 04:20  |  Andrew 16/01/07
      10.   Reliability of Haaretz Information 04:24  |  Michael 16/01/07
      11.   about time 04:24  |  igor 16/01/07
      12.   Land for Peace 04:26  |  David 16/01/07
      13.   Peace with Syria 04:27  |  Daniel Leopold 16/01/07
      14.   REMARKABLE 04:27  |  Brant 16/01/07
      15.   Pals learn from this!!!! 04:28  |  Joseph 16/01/07
      16.   Why is this Suddenly News today?? 04:29  |  h 16/01/07
      17.   Whose land? 04:30  |  David 16/01/07
      18.   It makes too much sense 04:32  |  Robert 16/01/07
      19.   a fabricated or fictional story ????? 04:35  |  Sam (UK) 16/01/07
      20.   The more you think about this 04:41  |  Robert 16/01/07
      21.   Syria-Israel 04:42  |  Sam 16/01/07
      22.   IDIOTS, THIS DEAL WILL NEVER WORK 04:48  |  20 X 20 16/01/07
      23.   JUST DO IT 04:48  |  MICHAEL 16/01/07
      24.   Eldar the dreamer 04:49  |  USA Jew 16/01/07
      25.   The usual sounds... 04:49  |  Dutch Dirk 16/01/07
      26.   A wet dream by Haaretz correspondents 04:51  |  Sal 16/01/07
      27.   Dutch Dirk, hold your horses 04:54  |  Jake 16/01/07
      28.   Rabin said if the PA shoots one bullet - back to Tunisia 04:56  |  Mike 16/01/07
      29.   Get it done with! 04:56  |  david 16/01/07
      30.   Beware the author: Akiva Eldar 04:56  |  Jake 16/01/07
      31.   Axis and Allies 04:58  |  Ronnie Wolman 16/01/07
      32.   do it 05:00  |  russ 16/01/07
      33.   Peace with Syria 05:02  |  Sam 16/01/07
      34.   The story isn`t on Haaretz.co.il 04:28  |  DTM 16/01/07
      35.   Hope this works 05:10  |  Dave o`Tool 16/01/07
      36.   Go for it !!!!!!!!!! 05:14  |  Ronen 16/01/07
      37.   Syria deal 05:16  |  Jack 16/01/07
      38.   #10, that`s what exclusive means 05:18  |  Yoni 16/01/07
      39.   This would be GREAT news if true 05:19  |  Moran 16/01/07
      40.   Hope it`s true, it would be nice 05:21  |  Dave from Chicago 16/01/07
      41.   Another Failed Livni Experiment 05:23  |  dave 16/01/07
      42.   Don`t miss another opportunity, PEACE for the region!!! 05:24  |  KimS 16/01/07
      43.   More insanity from a worthless government 05:24  |  Steve 16/01/07
      44.   Sounds great 05:30  |  TonyL 16/01/07
      45.   Idiots Traitors 05:35  |  Sam Weinstein 16/01/07
      46.   secrets 05:37  |  ben 16/01/07
      47.   The Golan keeps the peace taking it away will only cause war. 05:42  |  David G 16/01/07
      48.   While I want to be hopeful don`t be fooled into a sense that 05:43  |  Marwan مروان خوري 16/01/07
      49.   stop listening to insane sociopath Bush Admin 05:44  |  DrSteveB 16/01/07
      50.   RW: If Only the Palestinians Wanted to Make Peace... 05:46  |  massaraksh 16/01/07
      51.   DON`T DO IT, THIS MISTAKE WILL BE HARD TO CORRECT 05:55  |  Like it is 16/01/07
      52.   THIS IS JUST PROPAGANDA BY AKIVA ELDAR, NOT BY HAARETZ 06:01  |  Eric Yonuken 16/01/07
      53.   The is no "Secret understandings", DO NOT BEIVE THIS REPORT! 06:06  |  James Hulbert 16/01/07
      54.   DO TO THE LUCK OF GOOD NEWS, THEY POST MAKE BELIVE TRASH! 06:08  |  Factual 16/01/07
      55.   DutchDirk, once again, drop your arrogance, and above all... 06:09  |  Jake 16/01/07
      56.   #22 is absolutely correct 06:10  |  Dani 16/01/07
      57.   HAARETZ GIVE THEM YOUR OWN APPARTMENT FOR PEACE! 06:10  |  Dr. Baccus 16/01/07
      58.   100% Haaretz Propaganda, to sway your openon! 06:13  |  Soldier 16/01/07
      59.   Dirk, for your info, Golan Heights is not `stolen lands` 06:16  |  Jake 16/01/07
      60.   BOLONEY 100%, NO ONE IS REPORTING THIS 06:16  |  in your soul 16/01/07
      61.   Steve #43 06:17  |  TonyL 16/01/07
      62.   Akiva Eldar? Who is that? Jesus the "Messiah"? 06:22  |  Read and Lern 16/01/07
      63.   Same mistakes as Oslo? 06:23  |  Gili 16/01/07
      64.   Notice how the most excited about this plan are from Tel Aviv 06:24  |  Jake 16/01/07
      65.   Jake #30 06:25  |  TonyL 16/01/07
      66.   Same mistakes as Oslo? 06:26  |  Gili 16/01/07
      67.   this is great, but it failed 06:26  |  djm 16/01/07
      68.   OY WAY AKIVALE, WHAT ALSE WILL YOU TELL US? 06:27  |  like that? 16/01/07
      69.   SYRIA TALKS 06:29  |  CHRIS