RAMALLAH: US President Barack Obama’s administration is examining a proposed Israeli-Syrian peace plan that is based on demilitarizing the Golan Heights and transforming it, along with a strip of the Jordan Valley, into a nature preserve, or “peace park,” that would be open to visitors during the day, the daily Haaretz reported yesterday.
The report said that the decision to send an American ambassador to Damascus after a four-year absence, along with the recent visit to the Syrian capital by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, were meant to prepare the ground for a resumption of Israeli-Syrian talks under American auspices.
A senior diplomatic source told Haaretz yesterday that Washington has concluded that including Syria in the peace process is key to the effort to bring about an internal Palestinian reconciliation, without which the chances of progress on the Israeli-Palestinian track are small.
Peace talks between Israel and Syria collapsed in 2000 after Damascus declined an Israeli offer to withdraw from the territory, saying the Israeli offer did not encompass the full territory it occupied in the June 1967 War. Israel wanted to withdraw to the international border, keeping a small strip around Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) to ensure its control of vital water supplies, but Syria wanted to advance to the lake.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert renewed indirect talks with Syria last year via Turkish mediation. But the talks have been frozen due to political turmoil in Israel. The Americans believe the crisis in Iran has created an opportunity for the United States to draw Syria closer and resume Israel-Syria negotiations, the source added.
