BACKGROUND
al
On The Spot
Syria's surprise acceptance of the U.S. Middle
East peace plan dramatically upped the pressure
on Israel to compromise.
HELEN DAVIS
Foreign Correspondent
I
sraeli officials are
fighting a desperate rear
guard action in the face of
a challenge issued by Syrian
President Hafez al-Assad
this week to sit down and
talk peace at the conference
table.
At press time, Syria's
precise terms for the talks
remained unclear. Questions
ranging from the shape of
the conference table to who
will join the talks and what
they will discuss remain
unanswered.
But the fact that Mr. al-
Assad has accepted United
States proposals for talks
after years of advocating
war was enough to persuade
Secretary of State James
Baker to return to the Mid-
dle East for another round of
shuttle diplomacy.
Israeli officials do not
learn the full extent of
Syrian terms until Mr.
Baker arrives in Israel.
In London this week for
the G7 summit of leading
industrial nations, Ameri-
can officials were con-
spicuously upbeat about the
response from Damascus.
President George Bush
called it "a breakthrough,
from what we know about it.
We are analyzing the
details, but it is very
positive."
White House spokesman
Marlin Fitzwater said Presi-
dent al-Assad's response
represented "real movement
in the search for peace" and
went "well beyond any
previous position taken by
Syria."
In announcing resumption
of the Baker peace mission,
Mr. Fitzwater said the Bush
administration was now
"hopeful that progress can
be made and [feels] it could
be very useful for the secre-
tary to meet again with the
leaders of the region."
Syria's acceptance of the
U.S. proposals for a Middle
East peace conference is
bound to increase diplomatic
pressure on Israel, which
has already rejected the pro-
posal.
It will also further isolate
the Likud-led coalition of
Israeli Prime Minister Yit-
zhak Shamir at a time when
he is seeking a massive $10
billion package of loan guar-
antees to absorb hundreds of
thousands of newly arrived
Soviet immigrants.
Israel's dilemma is likely
to be exacerbated by Wash-
ington's need to gain further
Arab coalition support for
additional measures against
Iraq in the effort to fully
dismantle Baghdad's
nuclear weapons program.
In Israel, the Syrian re-
sponse triggered a flurry of
political activity, with divi-
sions emerging among the
most senior of Israel's
cabinet ministers.
Both Defense Minister
Moshe Arens and Foreign
Minister David Levy
welcomed Syria's willing-
ness to negotiate with Israel
The U.S. plan calls
on Israel to
withdraw from the
occupied
territories in return
for peace.
and appeared to be distanc-
ing themselves from the
unambiguously negative
position adopted by their
government. Mr. Ahrens, for
example, told reporters that
the Syrian response was a
"very encouraging sign."
But flexibility was absent
from the pronouncements of
Mr. Shamir, who so far has
remained adamantly oppos-
ed to a role for the United
Nations or to a peace con-
ference that provided more
than a ceremonial prelude to
direct, bilateral negotia-
tions.
He is also continuing to in-
sist on an Israeli veto over
Palestinian delegates.
Avi Pazner, a close Shamir
aide, declared that external
pressure, such as the G7
communique supporting the
U.S. initiative, would not
have any effect on
Jerusalem. "I think every-
body knows that at this
stage Israel is not a country
that can be pressured," he
said.
However, observers in
Jerusalem did not ascribe
serious political significance
to the apparent split among
the three ministers. As long
as Mr. Shamir remains
prime minister, they said,
there is little likelihood of a
peace settlement that in-
volves Israel relinquishing
any part of the West Bank or
Gaza, territories that are
looked upon as part of the
biblically promised Land of
Israel.
That constraint, however,
does not apply to the strate-
gically important (but re-
ligiously insignificant)
Golan Heights, which Israel
conquered from Syria in the
Six-Day War of 1967.
Perhaps reflecting this,
Dr. Yossi Olmert, a senior
Israeli government spokes-
man, sounded an optimistic
note when he said that,
given an acceptable pro-
cedural formula, "this ques-
tion (of the Golan Heights)
can be negotiated.
"Every issue between
Israel and Syria should be
negotiated without prior
conditions, and once we start
direct, face-to-face talks I am
sure we can find solutions to
every problem," he said.
Part of the confusion in
Jerusalem in the immediate
aftermath of the Syrian an-
nouncement centered on the
fact that Israeli officials
were still uncertain about
precisely what terms were
agreed to by President
al-Assad.
But Dr. Olmert said
"rumors" had reached Israel
that the Syrian leader was
now willing to meet Israel's
two basic procedural
demands.
Instead of a full-scale
international peace con-
ference, with the power to
intervene in the negotia-
tions, Syria is understood to
have accepted an opening
session sponsored by the
United States and the Soviet
Union leading to direct,
bilateral negotiations.
Rather than the talks be-
ing held under United
Nations auspices, Syria is
understood to have agreed to
joint U.S-Soviet sponsorship,
with a token, observer role
for the U.N. and the Euro-
pean Community.
"If indeed the Syrians are
interested in direct, face-to-
face negotiations with
Israel, it is a very welcome
development and we will be
ready to start such negotia-
tions as soon as we can,"
said Dr. Olmert.
"We have not changed our
position. We believe that the
talks must be direct and
face-to-face and, therefore,
there should not be any role
for the UN. But here again
we are under the impression
that the Syrians are no
longer insisting on a signifi-
cant role for the United
Nations," he said.
The U.S. plan is
understood, however, to be
anchored in Security Coun-
cil resolutions 242 and 338,
which call on Israel to
withdraw from territories
occupied in the Six-Day War
and acknowledge the right of
all states in the region "to
live in peace within secure
and recognized boundaries."
While the resolutions were
deliberately ambiguous over
territorial issues, and did
not specify that Israel must
withdraw from all lands, oc-
cupied in the Six-Day War,
Washington interprets them
as implying that Israel is en-
titled to negotiate minor
border modifications, but
must be prepared to sur-
render the overwhelming
body of the West Bank, the
Gaza Strip and the Golan
Heights.
Mr. Shamir argues that
Israel's return of the Sinai
Peninsula in the 1979
Israeli-Egyptian treaty
means it has already com-
plied with U.N. demands for
"withdrawal from terri-
tories."
The acceptance of Wash-
ington's peace plan by Pres-
ident Assad, the most hard-
line — and most astute — of
Arab leaders, has com-
prehensively outflanked
Israel's politicians.
Mr. Shamir was clearly
counting on Syrian intran-
sigence to match his own re-
jection of the plan and carry
him safely across the diplo-
matic obstacle course that
had been laid by Mr Baker.
Not only did President al-
Assad fail to oblige, but Mr.
Shamir's discomfort was
heightened by the echoes of
approval that came from
Egypt and the Palestine
Liberation Organization.
Mr. Baker will now visit
Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi
Arabia and Israel, where he
is expected to have a no-
holds-barred encounter with
Mr Shamir.
There is little doubt in
Israel about the severity of
the consequences if it rejects
the U.S. initiative in the face
of broad Arab support.