KUWAIT CITY/DAMASCUS, 19 September 2003 — Israel’s foreign minister has said his government was prepared to resume peace negotiations with Syria on the condition that Damascus closes down the offices of radical Palestinian movements.
Israel is prepared to start “immediately” discussions with Syria on the condition that its authorities “close the offices of Palestinian extremist groups, like Hamas and (Islamic) Jihad,” Silvan Shalom told Kuwait’s Al-Rai Al-Aam newspaper in an interview published yesterday.
But he said Damascus “continues to shelter these movements and I don’t know how it can engage in serious negotiations with us as long as it continues to shelter them.”
Concerning Lebanon, the minister questioned “why Hezbollah has increased the number of rockets in its possession after the withdrawal” by Israel from southern Lebanon in 2000.
Meanwhile, Damascus announced yesterday a new Cabinet to oversee economic reforms with key posts unchanged as the Arab state faced increasing pressure from the United States to cooperate with its “war on terror”.
In the 30-member Cabinet, more than half the portfolios went to Syria’s ruling Socialist Arab Baath Party and key ministers retained their jobs, according to an official list.
Some ministries went to an alliance of leftist parties as well as independents. President Bashar Assad accepted the resignation of the Cabinet of Mohammed Mustafa Miro last week and appointed Parliament Speaker Naji Al-Otari to head a new government that Bashar said would have reform as its key task.
In another development, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said yesterday the Israeli-Arab peace process is “totally paralyzed” because of US support for the hard-line government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
“The Middle East peace process is totally paralyzed under Israel’s extreme-right government and it will not advance as long as this government benefits from the support of the right-wing in the United States,” he said.
Moussa was speaking to a press conference in Cairo before his departure for New York where he will attend a meeting of Arab foreign ministers on Monday about Israeli threats to expel Arafat.
In response to a question from journalists, Moussa said the US veto amounted to “big disappointment” for the Arabs.
