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Pact on talks for Palestinian state

DUBAI: Syria has reminded participants of the West Asia peace conference in Annapolis that lasting peace in the region would not be possible unless its dispute with Israel over Golan Heights was successfully addressed.

An editorial in the official Syrian daily Tishrin on Wednesday called for a comprehensive peace deal with Israel. “Peace, if its not comprehensive and on all tracks, is a deal that will collapse with the first gust of wind.”

Syria had reluctantly agreed to participate in the Annapolis conference after the U.S. assured it that the issue of the Golan Heights would be raised during deliberations. Analysts point out that Damascus has been concerned that excessive focus on the Palestine-Israel track would automatically marginalise other elements of Israeli occupation including Golan Heights. Talks between Israel and Syria on Golan had broken down in 2000. Israel had seized Golan Heights during the six day war in 1967.

At Annapolis, it was decided that Israel and the Palestinians would commence talks that would lead to the creation of an independent Palestinian state in 13 months.

Earlier, in his address to a closed session at the conference, Syrian deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Al-Mekkad said: “The establishment of normal ties with Israel ... must be the fruit of comprehensive peace and not precede it.” He added that “normalisation of ties would result after the total Israeli withdrawal from the 1967 Arab land.”

Keen to push the Arab peace plan that it has authored, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal said at the meeting talks with Syria should also commence.

“We have come to support the launching of serious and continuing talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis that will address all the core and final status issues,” he said. “These talks must be followed by the launching of the Syrian and Lebanese tracks at the earliest.” The plan that Riyadh has steered advocates normalisation of ties with Israel after it has vacated all territory that it occupied during the 1967 war.

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