January 15, 2000
Syria’s state-run newspapers on Saturday dismissed Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s call for a meeting with Syria’s President Hafez
Assad to settle differences in peace negotiations, calling the proposal
far-fetched. Barak was quoted in an interview published in Israel on Friday as
saying some differences with Syria cannot be resolved without sitting down with
Assad and US President Clinton.
In the Syrian-Israeli negotiations that have been taking place in the US,
Barak has been negotiating with Syrian foreign minister Farouk al-Sharaa, with
Clinton sitting in occasionally.
In a front-page editorial, the government-run Al-Thawra accused Barak of
trying to avoid the next round of negotiations, which are scheduled to begin
Wednesday.
“Barak is trying, by submitting such impossible conditions over the level of
negotiations, to kill in advance the third round of talks,” said the commentary,
which was signed by the editor, Amid Kholi.
A Barak-Assad meeting is “far-fetched and would never contribute to pushing
the peace process forward,” the editorial added.
It did not mention the prospects for Barak and Assad to meet after a deal
has been reached.
Syria’s state-run media act as mouthpieces for the government.
Peace talks between Syria and Israel resumed in December after a nearly
four-year freeze. An agreement is expected to involve the return of
most, if not all, of the Golan Heights, a border plateau seized by Israel
during the 1967 Mideast war.
Al-Thawra also provided the first Syrian comment on the leak of a working
document circulated at the talks. It was published Thursday in the Israeli
newspaper Haaretz.
The document notes wide differences on new borders and security
arrangements. Before the leak, Syria had said the document could provide a basis
for negotiations.
“Why did Israel leak the American document and publish, through its media,
its full contents? Was it just to kill negotiations?” Kholi asked in a separate
editorial.
The document notes wide differences on new borders and security
arrangements. Before the leak, Syria had said the document could provide a basis
for negotiations.
Al-Thawra said the leak had increased “doubt and skepticism about Israel’s
real intentions and the extent of its respect for its undertakings.”
