Are Syrian Peace offers genuine?

[Gamblor]

Syrian overture "not genuine"

Syrian President Bashar Assad's reported comments about wanting to renew peace talks with Israel are not genuine and are aimed at winning public relations points with the United States, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

"Syria is under US pressure today because of its position on Iraq, and because it allows terrorists to go through its territory on the way to Iraq," Sharon said. "So it is clear to me that the Syrians, in order to make life easier for themselves, find it convenient to say there are contacts, negotiations."

According to a report on Tuesday in the London-based Arab newspaper Al-Hayat, Assad made the declaration regarding a renewal of peace talks with Israel during discussions with a US delegation, which included former ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk. The Al-Hayat report came just a few days after the UN Security Council passed a resolution backed by the US and France calling on Syria to leave Lebanon.

Sharon said that the Syrians "have what to do" in order to show that their intentions are genuine rather than a public relations trick to reduce American pressure.

"The call for negotiations cannot be just a declaration; it has to be [accompanied by] action," he said.

Among the steps which Sharon called upon the Syrians to implement in order to prove their intentions are the dismantling of terrorist organization headquarters in Damascus, stopping these organizations from training on Syrian soil, and removing Iran's Revolutionary Guard from the Bekaa in Lebanon, an area under direct Syrian control.

"Syria is a factor which influences the terror against Israel," Sharon said. "The headquarters for terrorist organizations – Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front [for the Liberation of Palestine], and a number of others – operate in Damascus. The orders are given from there [for attacks in Israel], and reports are sent back there."

In addition, Sharon said that Syria – together with Iran – supplies arms to Hizbullah, and is preventing the Lebanese army from deploying along Israel's northern border. "Hizbullah, on Syria's orders, is deployed along the border, causing incidents and constant tension along the border," Sharon said.

"The announcement that they want peace does not create the background for peace negotiations," Sharon said.

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday Israel won't hold peace talks with Syria as long as it continues to "sponsor" terrorism.

He said a country "up to its neck in terrorism" cannot simultaneously be proposing talks. Shalom also said there is ongoing pressure on Syria to pull its forces out of Lebanon, stop support for Hizbullah, and close its border with Iraq.

Shalom told the committee that the EU and Syria are in advanced negotiations on an association agreement. However, Israel is pressuring the EU to condition such an arrangement on Syria eliminating terror groups from its territory.

Is the Israeli government, as a democratically elected voice of the people, being intransigent?

[nicky g]

"Is the Israeli government, as a democratically elected voice of the people, being intransigent? "

Yes.

[Gamblor]

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt

(Paris, Sorbonne, 1910)