DAMASCUS, 17 August 2003 — The Palestinian Authority told Syria yesterday it wanted to cooperate with Damascus and Beirut on Arab-Israeli peace efforts, about a decade after the Palestinians went solo in their talks with the Jewish state. “I spoke about a desired troika — Palestine, Lebanon and Syria — those whose lands are under (Israeli) occupation and those who should coordinate and cooperate for the liberation of their land in the search for just and lasting peace,” said Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Nabil Shaath.
Shaath, speaking in Damascus after talks with Foreign Minister Farouq Al-Shara, said the troika would represent “solidarity” among the three Arab countries.
Syria has avoided involvement in Palestinian-Israeli peace talks since 1993 after signs the Palestinians were mulling a deal that did not conform with the peace that Syria envisaged.
Shaath said Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas planned to visit Damascus for talks with President Bashar Al-Assad — possibly in September, but the date was yet to be set.
Damascus has often criticised the US-backed “road map” plan for Middle East peace for marginalising the Syrian and Lebanese tracks and said it did not expect the plan to succeed in achieving an enduring peace.
Syria, which has officially been in a state of war with Israel since the 1973 Middle East war, is also the main powerbroker in Lebanon. Syrian-Israeli peace talks broke down in 2000 over the future of the Golan Heights, occupied by the Jewish state since the 1967 Middle East war.
Since the 34-month-old Palestinian uprising for independence flared in the same year, Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking has taken center-stage in the region. The Arab country has repeatedly said it wants to resume talks with Israel but insisted any new talks must refer to previous diplomacy, and especially the land-for-peace formula enshrined in the 1991 Middle East peace conference in Madrid.
Israel says it will only enter negotiations if there are no preconditions.
Israel withdrew its forces from south Lebanon in May 2000 after a 22-year occupation.
However Lebanon and Syria say Israel still occupies the disputed Shebaa Farms border area, which they say belongs to Lebanon but the United Nations says is Syrian.
Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes flew at low altitudes this week over the holiday residence of President Bashar Al-Assad as a message to Syria to rein in the Hezbollah group, Israeli television said.
Channel One said Assad was staying at the holiday residence in the northern Syrian city of Latakia when the planes flew overhead on Sunday. Israeli warplanes have not overflown Syria since Israel ended occupation of South Lebanon in 2000.
Syria has long been the dominating outside power in Lebanon and has had forces there since its civil war in the 1970s.
Syria made no comment on the Israeli report. Israeli planes also broke the sound barrier over Beirut earlier this week, shaking buildings and setting off car alarms in retaliation for Hezbollah shelling that killed an Israeli teenager on Sunday.
Israel’s northern border with Lebanon has calmed down since Hezbollah, which is sponsored by Syria and Iran and controls southern Lebanon, shelled Israel.
Lebanon and Hezbollah say Israeli intrusions into Lebanese skies are to blame for the flare-up on Israel’s northern border.
The Israeli fatality from Hezbollah shelling was the first since the Jewish state withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon after daily attacks by Hezbollah forces.
