16 January 2006
Israel and Syria have reached an understanding on a future peace deal between the two countries following a series of secret talks between officials, the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz" reported on Tuesday. According to the report, Israeli and Syrian officials met secretly in Europe several times between September 2004 and July 2006, reaching a framework for a deal that would include an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, which it captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel denied any involvement in the reported talks. David Baker, an official in prime minister Olmert's office, said "the Israeli government is unaware of any such meetings." Former foreign minister Silvan Shalom told Israel's Army Radio that he first learned of the talks by reading about them in "Haaretz". He said the last contact Israel had with a Syrian representative was in 2003.
"Haaretz" also reported that Israel was represented in the talks by Alon Liel, a former senior diplomat, and that former prime minister Ariel Sharon was briefed on the meetings. The Syrian representative in the talks was Ibrahim Suleiman, an American citizen, who had visited Jerusalem and delivered a message on Syrian interest in an agreement with Israel. The report said that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad had initiated the meetings and that Turkish mediators had become the first contacts between the two sides. The Turkish involvement ended in the summer of 2004, when reportedly an unknown European took over as the leading go-between.
According to the report, Israel has agreed to withdraw to the lines of the Sea of Galilee, but would retain control of its waters and those of the Jordan River. A park that will cover a significant portion of the Golan Heights will be set up for joint use by Israelis and Syrians. The border area will be demilitarized along a 1:4 ratio in Israel's favor. According to the terms, Syria will also agree to end its support for Hezbollah and Hamas, and will pledge to distance itself from Iran. Not all matters were agreed upon as the timetable for the withdrawal remained open, "Haaretz" writes. Syria demanded the Israeli pullout to be carried out over a five-year period, while Israel asked for the withdrawal to be spread out over 15 years.
Meanwhile, US secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has won promises from the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to meet with her next month for their first discussion of a final peace deal in more than six years. After meetings in Ramallah and Jerusalem, Rice said that Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas had agreed to meet for "informal, broad discussions" about the final moves toward a Palestinian state in hopes of injecting new energy into the Middle East peace process.