RAMALLAH, West Bank, 29 April 2008 — An Israeli source said that Turkey is trying to find a compromise that would allow peace talks between Israel and Syria to begin, the daily Haaretz reported yesterday. The report said that recent proposals to begin negotiations between Syria and Israel stalled after Syrian President Bashar Assad demanded an assurance from Israel that it will withdraw from the Golan Heights as a prerequisite for peace talks to begin.
Haaretz said that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan plans to send an emissary to Israel to brief Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on his recent talks with Bashar in Damascus. Erdogan will apparently send his foreign policy adviser, who is also in charge of talks with Syria and has in the past met with Olmert’s adviser Yoram Turbowicz in Ankara.
Olmert decided to pursue talks with Syria, with Turkish mediation, after he realized that the United States would not object. If the mediation is successful, the talks between Syria and Israel could begin while President George Bush is still in the White House, the report added.
“The US has never vetoed talks between Israel and Syria, which is why there is nothing to stop talks from going ahead during this US administration — if the conditions are ripe,” Haaretz quoted a government source as saying.
The source added that Israel has not yet received an update on Erdogan’s talks in Damascus. “Talks are being conducted to chart out the issue,” the source said. “The goal of Turkey’s activity is to allow talks to start. That’s how we view it. So far, no real negotiations are taking place.”
Substantial disagreements exist between the two sides’ opening stance, the source said. Olmert has called for direct and discreet talks to begin immediately, without arbiters or preconditions. Bashar, however, has called for open talks, arbitrated by the US. In addition, he wants Israel to announce it would be willing to hand over the Golan Heights territory that it seized from Syria in the June 1967 War, in accordance with an alleged similar commitment agreed to by assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.
In Ankara, Turkey’s foreign minister said yesterday that a lot remains to be achieved before any peace agreement between Israel and Syria, but that his country will continue to act as a go-between to encourage them to restart direct negotiations.
Ali Babacan said an agreement between the longtime enemies would require “strong political determination” from both sides. “We are still at the very beginning of the process,” Babacan told reporters during a news conference with New Zealand’s foreign minister. His comments were in response to a question on Turkey’s mediation efforts.
