- Title: ISRAEL: Israel and Syria have launched indirect peace talks
- Date: 22nd May 2008
- Summary: (BN13) TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (MAY 21, 2008) (REUTERS) ISRAELI PRESIDENT ARRIVING TO EVENT (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI PRESIDENT SHIMON PERES SAYING "Those are preliminary contacts, and I think every contact that leads in the direction of peace should be welcomed. Yet the value of it is still too early to judge, it's a beginning, we have to see how it's going to be developed
- Embargoed: 6th June 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel, Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA4CD5A6OX1N4CTI8ISO0IKM5CZ
- Story Text: Israel's Olmert talks about newly revealed peace talks with Syria, on the eve of lifting a gagging order on details of his police investigation.
Israel and Syria said on Wednesday (May 21) they had begun indirect peace talks mediated by Turkey, the first confirmation of negotiations between the long-time enemies in eight years.
In coordinated statements, Israel and Syria said they had begun an open dialogue with the aim of a comprehensive peace. Turkey said delegations of both countries, officially at war since Israel's creation 60 years ago, were already in Istanbul.
The United States said it did "not object" but repeated its criticism of Syria's "support of terrorism" -- a reminder for many analysts that U.S. hostility to Damascus, and to its Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah allies, makes a Syria-Israel deal unlikely before President George W. Bush steps down in January.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who revealed the talks two days before he faces a police interrogation over graft allegations, said the process would be long, complex and could end in "difficult concessions" for Israel -- an apparent reference to his willingness to hand back the Golan Heights.
"Renewing negotiations with syria after eight years being frozen is certainly exciting. But more than this, it's a national obligation that we must extract," Olmert told a crowd at an education conference in Tel Aviv. "The negotiations won't be easy...and could ultimately involve difficult concessions. Nevertheless... I came to the conclusion that the chance overrides the risk," Olmert said. He did not spell out what concessions he was thinking of. Just eight months ago, Israeli jets bombed what U.S. officials have called a North Korean-designed nuclear facility in Syria.
An Israeli statement, echoed by one from Syria, said the two sides would now "conduct dialogue in a serious and continuous manner with the aim of reaching a comprehensive peace".
Israeli President Shimon Peres was encouraged by the new information.
"Those are preliminary contacts, and I think every contact that leads in the direction of peace should be welcomed. Yet the value of it is still too early to judge," Peres told reporters in Tel Aviv.
Israelis, however, were not impressed by the timing of the announcement and wondered aloud if it was not timed to divert attention from Olmert's troubles with the police. They will interview him for a second time on Friday over suspicions he took bribes from an American businessman. He denies it.
A snap Israeli television poll found 70 percent of people opposed giving back the Golan, and a majority also believing Olmert was using the talks to distract from domestic problems.
"During all those investigations suddenly... we have breaking news with the peace negotiations with the Syrians... And everybody in Israel is asking himself if he (PM Olmert) is spinning, if he is manipulating the situation. According to my knowledge, he (Olmert) is quite a genius if he manipulate Erdogan and Assad to declare at the same time, Jerusalem, Ankara and Damascus are declaring at the same time that there are talks between Israel and Syria with Ankara as a mediator so I would say that the talks were there all the time, but the willing to publish the talks might be connected with the investigation," local political reporter from IBA Channel Ayala Hason told Reuters. The declaration came on the eve of the removal of a gagging order regarding the investigation. Israeli media revealed that Olmert's secretary Shula Zaken has kept precise records of the money transfers between the main witness Moshe Talansky and the current Prime Minister.
Israel took the plateau between Damascus and the Sea of Galilee in 1967. It held on to it in another war in 1973. The last peace talks broke down in 2000 over control of the shore of the lake, from which Israel draws much of its water.
For the United Nations, which maintains peacekeepers in the Golan, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised Assad and Olmert as well as the Turkish government for its efforts as go-between for delegations from the two sides who met this week in Istanbul.
Among Olmert's vast army of domestic critics, supporters of the 18,000 Jewish settlers in the Golan threatened to bolt his fragile coalition if he tries to give up the territory.
"It's nonsense. This is the best peace what we got here now, everything is quiet, everything is silent. This is the best peace," said one Jewish settler. "As a person living in the Golan Heights, I think that forty one years of occupation is enough, and I think that this is the time that we have peace between the two countries," a Druze resident of the Golan Heights told Reuters.
Israeli officials pledged that a peace process with Syria would not come at the expense of statehood talks with the Palestinians that Washington hopes can achieve a deal this year. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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