LONDON/WASHINGTON, 22 February 2004 — The United Nations has submitted detailed proposals to Israel and Syria pressing them to revive their peace talks frozen since January 2000, the Financial Times reported yesterday, quoting Western diplomatic sources.
It gave no details of the proposals, described by the sources as “very precise”.
The daily said the UN had suggested that the negotiations be supervised by several parties, including the United States, Israel’s strongest ally, and France, which has solid relations with Damascus.
“If there’s a will you could easily go to the negotiating table,” a diplomat familiar with the UN move was quoted as saying. But diplomats also admit to hurdles along the way.
Last month, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad told his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak he was ready to negotiate with Israel without conditions if the Jewish state did the same.
Previous negotiations between then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and the late Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad, Bashar’s father, collapsed in acrimony in January 2000 over Damascus’ demand for the return of the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
The Financial Times said Syrian officials were not hopeful that the right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would agree to return all of the Golan.
But it said Damascus seemed eager to restart a peace process to fend off mounting US pressure.
Washington has threatened Damascus with diplomatic and economic sanctions, accusing it of sponsoring terrorism and developing weapons of mass destruction.
Damascus has denied the charges, and accuses Washington of double standards and not doing enough to rein in its close ally Israel, widely regarded as the only nuclear power in the Middle East.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Jean Obeid arrived in Cairo yesterday for talks on the situation in the Palestinian territories and in Iraq, state news agency MENA reported.
He is set to meet with Mubarak today to deliver a message from his Lebanese counterpart, Emile Lahoud, on developments in the Arab world, MENA said.
He will also have talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher on the Palestinian and Iraqi questions and efforts to bring stability to the region.
Powell Prods Sharon toTreat Palestinians Better
Saying the Arab world is watching, Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington on Friday prodded Sharon to permit Palestinians to live a better life.
In a speech at Princeton University, Powell also blamed Yasser Arafat for sabotaging US efforts to stop Palestinian terror attacks on Israelis.
“I put the blame squarely on Arafat,” Powell said after paying tribute on his 100th birthday to George F. Kennan, the US diplomat credited with devising the policy of containing the Soviet Union behind Europe’s Iron Curtain during the Cold War.
Powell said Kennan, who was not present, still sends him helpful letters of advice.
In the speech, Powell said the US would not tolerate the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
And he advised the students not to be distracted by the political debate over the war with Iraq. “America did the right thing,” he said.
