SOUTHERN SHUNEH, Jordan: Israel’s president urged Syria yesterday to open direct peace talks, saying any gesture by the Damascus government would help clear the air between the two arch-enemies.
Israeli President Shimon Peres said some had suggested Syrian President Bashar Assad and Netanyahu meet and start talking directly.
“The Syrians should be ready to talk. If President Assad wants peace, why is he shy?” he said after participating in an international economic meeting sponsored by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum. “We suggested many times direct talks,” Peres added. “He thinks direct talks are a prize to Israel. It’s not a prize. It’s normal.” Israel and Syria conducted indirect peace negotiations through Turkish mediators last year. But Syria suspended them over Israel’s Gaza war in December and January. Peres said the Syrians have been trying to get the United States involved as an intermediary in the indirect talks but he did not believe the contact through Turkey had resumed.
“Right now, I don’t think there’s anything happening,” he said, pointing to Israel’s preoccupation with elections that brought right-wing Likud leader Netanyahu to office in March.
In another development, a report said that the Israeli Parliament members were divided over the visit of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington and his stance on the two-state solution.
Whereas Labor “dissidents” called on Netanyahu not to “delude” himself and the Israeli people that there is a solution to the conflict with the Palestinians that does not include two states for two peoples, members of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party warned they would “rebel” against the prime minister should he change his stance and agree to enter negotiations on the establishment of a Palestinian state.
In a letter addressed to Netanyahu on the eve of his trip to Washington, three MPs urged Netanyahu to drop talk of “economic peace” and accept the Arab peace initiative.
“In the coming hours you must decide whether you have the courage to take advantage of the opportunity the American president and the leaders of the Arab world are presenting to Israel and forge forward toward a final status agreement for our region, or whether you are about to lead us, again, toward a dead end that will jeopardize the international support that Israel needs in order to deal with the challenges it faces,” the letter read.
The Labor MPs urged Netanyahu to refrain from presenting US President Barack Obama today with what they term “useless ideas,” stressing that no progress can be made without halting settlement construction and removing unauthorized West Bank settlement outposts. On the other hand, some members of Likud expressed fears that Netanyahu may succumb to US pressure and accept the two-state proposal.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the US yesterday ahead of his maiden meeting with President Barack Obama amid divisions over Middle East peacemaking and Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
— With input from agencies
