The Syrian Track

UN envoy to the Middle East Terje Roed Larsen reports that Assad is ready to resume the peace talks with Israel "without conditions".

I won't be expecting too much from the "without conditions" statement. It's similar to how Assad's father first demanded "full withdrawal" as a basis for agreement, only to change his tack when he saw the Israelis were willing to do business - pocketing any concessions and using them as a point of departure rather than a point of conclusion. The initial talks between Rabin and Hafez Al-Assad were based on "full withdrawal" from the Golan Heights. As Rabin moved closer towards Assad, Assad stepped further away. Assad later defined "full withdrawal" to mean full withdrawal to the 1967 lines. To Rabin "full withdrawal" meant withdrawal to the international border, and not the June 1967 lines.

What was the difference? The international border is the mandate border from 1923. It therefore reflected the original border between Israel and Syria. The 67 lines didn't exist on any map. They represented the positions of the two sides on the eve of the 67 war. The difference between the two lines resulted from the war of independence in 1948. By 1949 the Syrians had captured some Israeli territory to the west of the 1923 lines. As part of the armistice agreement Syria withdrew from these lines and returned to the international border, making these demilitarised zones. The actual difference between the two lines was a mere 66 square kilometers, but for the Israelis that area affected their ability to control the east bank of the lake Kineret - their major source of water. Syria wanted it both ways - they wanted Israel to withdraw from territory captured in 67, but were refusing to allow Israel to return to the territory that they controlled as per the international border.

The negotiations carried on without much success. Eventually Israel moved closer to the Syrian demands. Israel eventually agreed to withdraw on the basis of the 67 lines, as long as they could get a couple of hundred meters off the coast of Lake Kineret.

The negotiations eventually ended in early 2000 when Assad refused to even listen to an amazing proposal from Clinton of what Barak could accept. Barak was willing to withdraw on the basis on the 67 lines as long as he had some territory to the east of the Kineret shoreline. In detailing his offer, Barak drew a line on a map that was just to the east of the Jordan river, and south of it he drew a line off lake Kineret - " a few hundred meters off the shoreline." He was prepared to compensate moving the border (from 67) in the north slightly east by moving the border in the southern part of the lake slightly to the west. Assad would therefore still end up with more territory than the international border stipulated.

The following map is my representation of the line drawn by Barak.

As you can see, the line I drew in is to the west of the line in the south, and to the east of it in the north. This allowed for the sum total of territory that Syria would receive, to remain exactly as Assad demanded.

The proposal in 2000 was made in Geneva. Clinton started the presentation with what he thought would be an easy point, in order to gather momentum. He detailed that Israel had finally agreed to Assad's demand - full withdrawal to the June 1967 lines based on a "commonly agreed border."

Assad's reponse surprised even right wing Israelis. He immediately said "this is a problem." June 1967 was Assad's mantra, this is what he repeatedly sought, and yet now he was objecting. Was he objecting that the border would be "commonly agreed?" Dennis Ross points out that the language Clinton proposed was the exact language used as a demand by the top Syrian negotiator in earlier talks!

Thus the Syrian-Israeli talks came to an abrupt end. I fully support Sharon's stance on this issue - that Syria must first show that they are serious by cracking down on the terrorist training camps on Syrian soil, as well ending their role as a channel to funnel arms from Iran to Hizbulla. Until the Arab world accepts Israel's moral legitimacy negotiations will be futile - only then will Arab leaders be able to justify compromises.

For an account of the Syrian Israeli talks see this Daniel Pipes review.

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