Posted by
Reeson on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 10:51:45 AM
I just can't see Israel giving up the Golan Heights. That piece of terrain is critical to the region. The strategic value to Israel cannot be overstated. To give it up would be to surrender to Syria the high ground in an area that would leave the Israeli heartland vulnerable to a future attack. Excerpts from
Ask.com:
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli and Syrian representatives held nearly two years of secret negotiations, coming up with a framework for a peace deal, before war erupted in Lebanon last summer, an Israeli newspaper reported Tuesday.
The report in the daily Haaretz said the two sides reached a series of understandings that included a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights - captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war - and an end to Syrian support for anti-Israel militant groups.
The report did not identify its sources, and David Baker, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the government was "unaware of any such meetings." A Syrian Foreign Ministry official dismissed the report as "absolutely baseless."
Haaretz reported that Israel was represented in the talks by Alon Liel, a retired senior diplomat, and that former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was briefed on the meetings. Sharon's successor, Olmert, also was informed, it said.
The Syrian representative in the talks was reportedly Ibrahim Suleiman, an American citizen who had visited Jerusalem and delivered a message on Syrian interest in an agreement with Israel.
The report said Syrian President Bashar Assad initiated the meetings, and that Turkish mediators made the first contacts between the two sides. The Turkish involvement ended in the summer of 2004, when an unidentified European took over as the leading go-between. Geoffrey Aronson, an American from the Washington-based Foundation for Middle East Peace, was also brought into the talks, it said.
Official peace talks between Israel and Syria broke down in 2000 amid disagreements over an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan, a strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel.
The countries have reportedly held back-channel talks in recent years, both through private initiatives or with tacit knowledge of officials. Itamar Rabinovich, Israel's former chief negotiator with Syria, played down the significance of Tuesday's report.