Syria spurns Israeli peace 'manoeuvre'

By JUSTIN HUGGLER in Jerusalem


Israel yesterday invited Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to come to Jerusalem to begin new peace negotiations - but Syria refused the offer.

Assad has repeatedly called for new peace talks with Israel in recent weeks, but Syria dismissed yesterday's invitation to Jerusalem as a "media manoeuvre".

The Syrian Expatriates Minister Buthaina Shaaban said: "We need a serious response. A serious response is to say yes, we are interested in peace, we want to negotiate".

For Assad to set foot in Jerusalem while its Arab eastern half, including the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, is under Israeli occupation and there is no peace deal with the Palestinians would be to overturn half a century of Syrian rhetoric - a move he was unlikely to make for no more than a vague promise of talks.

But for Israelis, the parallel was to the former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who accepted an invitation to Jerusalem in 1977 - a visit which paved the way to 1979's historic peace deal with Egypt.

For decades, Israelis have talked of being able to drive to Damascus for lunch, as they now flock to Egypt's Sinai coast. It seems lunch in Damascus will have to wait.

Nonetheless, there are signs that Assad is serious about wanting new negotiations on peace with Israel in exchange for the return of the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967. The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who met the Syrian President recently, summoned the Israeli ambassador to tell him Assad was in earnest.

And the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, told a recent Cabinet meeting that he believed Assad was willing to forgo the coast of the Sea of Galilee, on which his late father Hafez al-Assad refused to compromise over at the last talks, which broke down four years ago.

But Sharon has also said that there will be no progress on peace talks until Syria clamps down on the activities of Palestinian militants on its territory, and reins in the Lebanese Hizbollah militia on Israel's northern border.

Assad is believed to want talks with Israel because he is coming under pressure from the United States, which recently voted in tough sanctions against Syria. Having opposed the US in the Iraq war, and with American troops now on his doorstep, Assad now badly needs some credit in Washington.

Interestingly, yesterday's invitation for Assad to visit Jerusalem came not from Sharon but from Israeli President Moshe Katsav, whose role is largely ceremonial.

The invitation may even have been a ploy agreed with Sharon to test how far Assad would go, by offering him an invitation he was unlikely to accept.

Many Israelis have begun to cool towards the idea of peace with Syria. When Israel was still mired in Lebanon, peace with Syria offered a way out - the northern front is no longer so pressing.

Syria has always insisted that it will agree to peace only if Israel agrees to return all of the Golan Heights - and many Israelis have begun to question whether it is a price they are willing to pay.

The Golan contains Israel's best vineyards and only ski resort.

Moreover, many Israelis now feel that any peace with Syria would be a frosty one at best.

But peace with Syria would still offer Israel peace on all its borders for the first time - Lebanon would be likely to follow its main power broker's lead in agreeing peace.

With Iran, Syria is one of the last threats to Israel in the region now that the Iraqi regime has been displaced.

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