- Title: ISRAEL: Benjamin Netanyahu aide sceptical of Syria-Israel talks' prospects
- Date: 14th March 2009
- Summary: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (MARCH 12, 2009) (REUTERS) UZI ARAD, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRIME MINISTER DESIGNATE BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, SITTING IN OFFICE ARAD WRITING ON PAPERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) UZI ARAD, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRIME MINISTER DESIGNATE BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, SAYING: "No one in his right mind would do a deal with Syria, let alone do the concessions that Mr Olmert alluded to, if
- Embargoed: 29th March 2009 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVAF0LKRL569AFFQA4U49IQZUB6A
- Story Text: Senior adviser to Netanyahu says he will probably shelve the recently revived Israeli peace talks with Syria.
Benjamin Netanyahu will likely shelve the recently revived Israeli peace talks with Syria given its territorial demands and alliance with Iran, a senior adviser to the prime minister-designate said on Thursday (March 12).
Uzi Arad, who helped Netanyahu, during his first term as premier in 1996-1999, craft indirect contacts with Damascus, suggested Israel's new regional priorities may make negotiating with the Palestinians on a limited statehood deal more viable.
Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Turkish-mediated negotiations with Syria, unveiled last year, were greeted cooly by Netanyahu, whose right-wing Likud party was tasked with forming a new government after a February 10 election.
Arad cited Syria's insistence on the return of the Golan Heights, which the Israelis captured in a 1967 war. Olmert, a centrist, had hinted a withdrawal could be among "difficult concessions" his government would be willing to countenance.
Syria, meanwhile, rejected Olmert's demand it distance itself from Iran -- whose nuclear programme frightens Israel -- as well as from Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas.
"No one in his right mind would do a deal with Syria, let alone do the concessions that Mr Olmert alluded to, if it remained allied with Iran. It would just bring Iran closer to us, it would bring the (Iranian) Revolutionary guards closer to us, it would be insane," Arad told Reuters in an interview.
Widely considered Netanyahu's pick for national security adviser, Arad said new government policy had yet to be set. He saw no change to Likud's bedrock view that Israel, which annexed the Golan in a move not recognised abroad, should keep it.
"When it comes to the Likud prime ministers who engaged Syria, even directly: Shamir negotiated face to face with the Syrians, and then Netanyahu, negotiated indirectly with the Syrians, and then Sharon, who wouldn't have anything to do with the Syrians. All had different positions which required that Israel remains on the Golan for a number of reasons - strategic, population, early warning, protection of water sources - and was not willing to withdraw from the Golan in its entirety," Arad said.
Israeli media have speculated that Netanyahu, perhaps under U.S.
prodding for a diplomatic breakthrough following years of lacklustre talks with the Palestinians, might propose stop-gap deals like the Syrians leasing out the Golan to Israel, or regaining control of some of the plateau's Druze Arab villages.
Arad said such ideas could be included in a "creative" new strategy but Israel would still insist on Iran's "realignment".
With that prospect dim, he predicted that Netanyahu might focus on improving the Palestinian economy and security in the occupied West Bank.
"Maybe because he (Netanyahu) realises that there is no meeting ground between Israeli strategic and defence aspects of its position and what the Syrians are currently ready to bring to the table, whereas on the Palestinian track he does believe that in certain areas we can accomplish, very rapidly, much progress on the ground, in the West Bank when it comes to economics, when it comes to security and policing capabilities," Arad said.
Many Palestinians are scornful of this plan, seeing it as a degraded form of their hoped-for statehood talks. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None