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Israel, Syria Disclose Indirect Peace Talks
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Israel and Syria, then ruled by Hafez al-Assad, father of the current president, appeared close to a peace deal in 2000 in talks mediated by the Clinton administration. But the negotiations faltered over questions of Syrian access to the Galilee.
"The last few years, since the negotiations have been frozen, were not helpful to the security situation on our northern border," Olmert said at an education conference Wednesday in Tel Aviv. "That is still . . . our major source of concern."
He added, "I reached the conclusion that the chance overrides the risk, and with this hope I am going for a new path."
Eli Yishai, head of the Shas party, part of Olmert's governing coalition, called the talks a threat to Israel.
"The prime minister in the past said that so long as Syria holds to its positions, one should not negotiate with it. It is not clear to me what has changed now," he said.
Olmert has said he is willing to discuss handing back the Golan in return for Syria severing ties with Iran and guerrilla movements hostile to Israel, notably Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas, which is not involved in Olmert's peace negotiations.
In September, Israel bombed a suspected nuclear facility in Syria, but drew no apparent retaliation from Damascus.
Marwan Kabalan, a political science professor at Damascus University, suggested that Olmert was entering into talks largely for political reasons.
"Syrians are suspicious . . . that the Israelis may actually be trying to play the Syrian card versus the Palestinian card," he said. Israel could use successful talks with Syria to increase pressure on the Palestinians to reach a peace deal, Kabalan said.
Yaron Ezrahi, a political analyst at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said "Olmert might be a lame duck as a prime minister, but since he does not have to think about his political future, he can act freely to fulfill a historical necessity.''
Ultimately, Ezrahi said, Syria's return to good relations with Israel might further the larger U.S. and Israeli aims of isolating Iran.
Knickmeyer reported from Cairo.
